Audio Podcast Project with Audacity

          Audacity is a tool for audio recording and editing. Although it is a free program, its features are quite versatile and powerful. I have been using Audacity for approximately two years to create audio podcasts for my Textiles classes, ever since Amy Thornton, an Instructional Technologist, introduced me to the software. Although I already had experience with Audacity, I still learned a lot from Dr. Yuen’s lecture and online materials.

 

For this IT 644 assignment, our task was to use Audacity to create an instructional, promotional, commercial, or business audio clip. Additionally, we were required to mix at least three separate audio clips, and to create a final file between 2 and 5 minutes in length with the following attributes: 32 bit, stereo, and 44.100 Hz sample rate. Before taking IT 644, I barely know the meaning or differences between these attributes. Also, even though I read the class textbook, I find I still can’t remember everything about it. My guess is that full knowledge and understanding of the technical details of audio files requires time, experience, and perhaps more technical attention or interest than I can muster.

Usually, I utilize Audacity on a PC computer. However, for class assignment, I decided to use a Mac computer instead. As usual, I spent a lot of time deliberating about what I should choose as my topic. Finally, I chose to create an audio podcast teaching about good Chai Tea recipes that I found online. After reading my notes from class and watching the online class media, I wrote a script for a audio blog entry about the Chai Tea recipes. Once I had finished the hard part (my script) I was able to set up the parameters for the new audio recording and actually record with only one or two “takes”.

Quality Set up

Fie Format Set Up

Audio Input and Output Set Up

Ok. I’ll be honest. It really took five “takes” before I was satisfied with the quality (of my speaking). I recorded my script in two separate audio clips and imported another clip to serve as background music. Then I watched the class tutorial video resources explaining how to edit and combine the clips. Below I have included the YouTube tutorials that I found most useful for teaching mixing and editing audio files with Audacity.

Next I discovered that the hardest part of creating a high-quality audio podcast is editing the audio files. Essentially, it took me about half-an-hour to edit my audio podcast.  In past years of classes I had recorded the entire narration in one audio file and then simply re-recorded the whole thing if I wasn’t satisfied with the quality. This time, after combining my two narration clips, I added background music. It took me about ten or fifteen minutes to calibrate the volume of the music so it was a subtle and supporting background rather than a distracting and over-bearing sound competing for attention. When I was satisfied with the relative volumes of the music and the narration I saved my project as WAV file and then converted it into an MP3 file.

              After completing the work for this assignment I learned that it is not difficult to make audio podcasts using Audacity. However, to make a quality audio podcast requires some time and effort. However, I believe this is true for everything in life. Recently, before taking this class, I had moved away from using Audacity for audio podcasts and started to use Garage Band (which is not free) instead. One thing I like (now) about Garage Band is that it can automatically decrease the volume of background music and bring out the main track (the narrator’s voice).

After submitting my Chai Tea audio podcast I realized I could make better instructional audio podcasts for my own classes. I also need to reconsider my approach to the assignments I do for IT 644. I think the technologies we are learning about are very useful, not only for me, but also for my students. I decided I would try, from now on, to accomplish multiple things at once (kill two birds with one stone) by creating media I can use as resources in the classes I teach in the future, for each of my remaining IT 644 projects.