Cast Your Pod With Audacity

If you enjoy listening to homegrown, downloadable Internet radio programs (aka podcasts), you may have thought, "Hey, I can do that!" Judging by the low quality of many podcasts, lots of other folks have had the same idea, and have proceeded to dash off poorly thought-out, dismally produced efforts that are unlikely to attract many listeners. That's too bad, because creating a professional-sounding podcast isn't difficult or expensive. Here's what you need:

Make an outline: First, have a good idea of what you intend to produce. Are you thinking of putting together a single podcast or a series of presentations? Whatever your intentions are, make an outline of everything you want to cover, and then select the sounds or talking points suitable for a good 5- to 10-minute show. That may be all you need as a script--some people can just start talking based on an outline. But if you lack the natural gift of gab, you may have to work out a more formal script.

Find a quiet recording area: To create a podcast that doesn't sound as if it were recorded inside an empty dumpster, you need a quiet room--which means, in part, a quiet PC--as well as a reasonbly good microphone. Desktop computers with loud fans will sabotage your efforts to sound professional. Laptops tend to work better, but some of them have annoying fans that kick in from time to time. To reduce the intrusion, close as many applications and system-tray utilities as you can, thereby minimizing the load on the CPU. I was able to silence my laptop's intermittent fan by switching the CPU into low-power mode via the PC Setup program (aka the BIOS; look for the appropriate key to press to access this program when you start your PC but before Windows loads).

Get an external microphone: Never record anything using your computer's built-in microphone. Not only will it sound tinny compared to an external mic, but it will pick up all of the hard-disk and fan noises your PC makes. Many USB headset mics record well, as do most standard dynamic mics designed to plug into a PC's audio-in jack. Condenser mics provide the best sound, but they may require a preamp to provide sufficient power. If you decide to work with handheld mic, use a stand to avoid mic-handling sounds.

Audacity's tracks window makes it easy to delete pauses and gaffs, and to add new audio clips to your recording. Choose the right audio-recording software: It's not just my personal favorite--lots of people rave about the free, open-source Audacity multitrack recording program. Audacity gives you lots of audio-editing tools, but it's also simple to use: Just plug in a mic and press the Record button . When you're done talking, click the stop button . Your recorded track will appear in Audacity's tracks window. Press the Play button to review your progress. Don't worry if you make a mistake--it's easy to delete unwanted dead air or flubs. Choose the Selection tool, select the portion of the recording you want to delete, and press Delete. Each time you press Record (and Stop) again, Audacity places the resulting recorded fragment in a new track below the previous one. You can copy and paste the new snippets into your original track in place of the flubs you deleted, and then delete the new tracks when you're done with them.

Make an intro and outro: Once you're done editing your spoken track, consider adding a soundtrack at the beginning and end of your broadcast. To import an audio file into its own track, choose Project, Import Audio. Use the Time Shift tool to slide your spoken audio track to the right, allowing your music track to play for a few seconds by itself. Choose the Envelope tool and click once on the top of your soundtrack at the location where you want the volume to begin dropping. Click slightly to the right and drag your cursor toward the track's center point and to the right to create the amount and duration of the fade. Once you get the hang of this powerful tool, you'll be able to control the volume of any track at any point in time--you'll want to use it to bring the music up again at the end of your spoken track, and then again to fade out at the end. When you're satisfied with the way your podcast sounds, choose File, Export as MP3, and you're ready to post the podcast online.