Windows Help & Advice - UK (2020-04)

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Create your

own podcast

“Fancybeinga podcaster?All

youneedis a nicemicrophone,

yourPCandaninterestingidea”

podcast is like a radio

programme, but you

download it or stream it

ratherthan listening to it on an FM

radio.If you’ve got a good idea for

oneit’snever been easier to make

andpublish your own. All you need

is a PC, an app such as the free

Audacity (www.audacityteam.org)

and somewhere to upload your

finished podcast to.

Here, we’ll show you how to record,

import and edit speech and music in

Audacity. The app looks a bit scary

but it’s really very easy to use.

Although it’s possible to record

a podcast using a PC’s internal

microphone, we advise against it. The

quality just isn’t good enough, and

decent-quality USB microphones

are good and cheap. We’d also

recommend a pop shield, which sits

in front of your microphone and

stops plosives (‘p’ and ‘b’ sounds)

frombeingtooloud.

1 Get audacious

You can use any audio app to record a podcast, but we’d

recommend looking for one that supports multi-track projects.

That means you can have more than one track of audio, so for

example you might have a track for your own voice, one for an

interviewee, another for little musical jingles and yet another for

songs. The Audacity app is multi-track, and it’s completely free.

2 Select your source

We strongly advise using a USB microphone: if you stick

with your PC’s built-in microphone the sound quality isn’t going

to be very good. It’s like the difference between hearing someone

down a crackly phone line and hearing them in person. Windows

should automatically recognise your mic: select it from the mic

drop-down at the bottom of Audacity’s toolbars.

Step-by-step Make your own podcast easily

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TRANSPORT

CONTROLS

Just like in a

hardware recorder,

you can play, record,

pause, skip forward

or skip backwards.

INPUT SOURCE

Click here to select a

different input, for

example by telling

your PC that you

want to use an

external USB mic.

TRACK

An Audacity project

can have multiple

colour-coded tracks

• one track for
  speech, one for
  music and so on.

TRACK CONTROLS

Mute turns the track

off, Solo turns

everything but the

track off, and the

sliders enable you to

adjust gain and pan.

A

Anyonecandoit

Straightforward

Trickyinparts

Windows 10

Windows8.1

Windows^7

At a glance

Skill level...

Suitable for...

24 |^ |^ April 2020