Podcasting Instructions
Software – Audacity and LAME encoder Download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . Click on the file and install Audacity. If you want Audacity on your Mac you can download it also from the Internet. The LAME encoder is also available at the same site. You do not need the encoder for a Mac. I find it easiest to keep the LAME encoder folder on the desktop. After downloading Audacity you will need to install it. Click on the file on your desktop and it will install. You are now ready to record. Open up Audacity. It looks like a recording machine. To record click on the red circle, to stop click on the yellow square. To play back click on the green arrow. If you need to adjust the record volume slide the marker on the microphone If you need to adjust the playback volume you can slide the marker on the speaker. You may need to adjust your computer speaker volume. In the upper left hand side there are six small boxes with different icons. The “I” icon should be highlighted with most of what you are doing in a podcast. Two other icons will help with editing. Next to the „I” is an icon that looks like two triangles pointing at each other. When you click on this after recording audio, you can raise or lower the volume on the recorded track. An example of this would be if you imported music and wanted it to play both as an intro and background during the podcast, and then again at the end. This tool allows you to adjust the sound by clicking on an area after selecting the tool and moving the volume of the audio smaller or larger. A second editing tool is the one in the lower row with two arrows pointing out. When you click on this after recording it allows you to slide the actual recording into a location where you want it to play. If you record voice first and then add music, you may need to relocate the voice recording after the music, or in the middle of the music. This tool makes this possible. To delete a recording, click on the little “x” in the left hand side of the recorded track. Each time you stop a recording and start again another track will be created. If you want to continue on the same track use pause, the blue double lines. To edit or delete a long pause, or stumble, in speaking, highlight the area of the track by holding down on the left mouse button to highlight then click on delete.
Converting to MP3 When finished you must convert to an MP3 file to use as a podcast. Click on File and choose Export as MP3. On a PC when it asks to “Save As” find the Lame folder on your desktop. When you have done this once, it will usually go there automatically. Name the file, and click save. A window will come up. Fill out the title and genre (you have to look down the list for Speech) click okay. The podcast is now saved in the LAME folder as an MP3. It usually looks like a Windows Media or Real Player file. On a Mac it's easiest to save in iTunes. If it saves as an AAC file in iTunes you will have to set iTunes to convert it to an MP3. In the “iTunes” drop down there is Preferences item. Once you open this look for Advanced. After opening Advanced choose Importing. Under “Import Using”, choose MP3 encoder and click OK. You are now all set. You can now listen to your podcasts on the computer, attach them to emails, put them in a blog community, or download to your MP3 player, even upload them to iTunes under Education for free. Not all recordings need to be converted to podcasts. This can be a great tool for running records and fluency.