Technical Podcast Instructions

Link to presentation with screenshots

Step-by-Step Podcast Instructions

Technology: USB Microphone Headset, Computer, Audacity (recording & editing), Soundcloud (hosting & metadata)

Set-up  

  • Finalize podcast plan and have a consensus about your podcast: image, title, and the Creative Commons license you want to use.
  • Plug USB Microphone Headset into your computer workstation and make sure it is recognized as a device.
  • Open Audacity from main start menu. Check to make sure that the program recognizes your USB Microphone Headset.

Recording & Editing

  • To record, hit the red radio-button on the upper left menu in Audacity. You can pause, stop, or playback the recording at any point.
  •  To record over something, you can either rewind using the radio button or by zooming in and manually selecting  a point on the recorded track by clicking with your mouse.
  • To include multiple people in your audio recording, you can either pause the recording and pass along your headset and then continue, or you can record different voices as separate tracks.
  • To record a new track, click on ‘Tracks’ on the upper menu and select “Add New” and then “Audio Track.” New tracks can be selected, copied and pasted into a single continuous track using keyboard shortcuts or the ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ buttons under ‘Edit’ on the upper menu.
  • This same process can be used to ‘cut’ parts of a track that you want to discard.
  • You can selectively re-record a section of your podcast by creating a new track and
    ‘pasting’ it into your main audio track.
  • To save your project as an audacity file, click on “Save Project As” under the ‘File’ tab on the upper menu.
  • You can edit your audacity file in class or outside of class on workstations in the Media Lab on the main level of the library. 
  • You can experiment with the audio effects under ‘Effect’ on the main menu but should save an un-doctored version of your recording before adding effects to ensure that you don’t ruin your recording.
  • To export your podcast once you’ve completed recording and editing, click on “Export” under the ‘File’ tab on the upper menu and select the ‘.wav’ file type.
  • Save your audacity file and your .wav file.

Upload to SoundCloud

  • Log in
  • Select ‘Upload’ on the upper right menu, then ‘Choose file to upload.’ Browse for and select your .wav file.
  • In the ‘basic info’ tab, fill in your title, choose 2-3 tags (keywords), and upload the image that you selected.
  • Save your podcast as a ‘public’ audio file.
  • In the ‘metadata’ tab, include a date and select ‘Creative Commons’ under ‘license’, specify the kind of license you want to apply by selecting and deselecting the radio buttons.
  • Save your podcast.
  • Copy the code to ‘embed’ your podcast.
  • Paste the code into an OpenLab Post. Be sure to include all of your group members names in the post.