ENC 1102 @ BBC - Research & Content Creation

Audacity is "an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems."

It is free and open-source.

You can download Audacity at https://www.audacityteam.org/

Audacity tutorial for podcasters

Here are some simple edits you might want to make to your recorded audio in Audacity to quickly improve the audio quality.

1. Remove background noise.
   When you record, leave between 5 and 30 seconds of silence in the track. This will pick up the background noise of your recording location, also known as "room tone." It is easy to remove the background noise of the entire track in Audacity once you have a "silent segment." First, highlight the silent segment. Make sure you do not accidentally include any speech. Click on the "Effect" menu, then choose "Noise Reduction." Click on the "Get Noise Profile" button. You will automatically be taken back to the main screen. Next, select the entire track. Once more, click on the "Effect" menu, then choose "Noise Reduction," but this time click "Ok." (You do not have to change the default settings.)
   
2. Even out the volume.
   There will be moments in your recording that are much higher than the rest of the audio, such as laughter or exclamations. These moments can be jarring for your listeners. Fortunately, it is easy to fix these sound peaks in Audacity. First, select the entire voice track. Click on the "Effect" menu, then choose "Limiter." You can leave the default settings, but if you want to modify the peak reduction, change the "Limit to (dB)" option. The greater the negative number, the more you flatten the peaks and even out the volume. Be careful not to overdo it, though! Leave some volume variation in the track so it sounds natural. When you have chosen your level, click "Ok."
   
3. Change your voice volume.
   Sometimes your voice will be too low or too high in the original audio. Although it is better to set the right volume while recording, you can modify the volume of your voice in Audacity easily. First, select the entire voice track. Click on the "Effect" menu, then choose "Amplify." Audacity will make a suggestion in the "Amplification (dB)" box. You can leave this default setting or change it manually. Positive numbers will increase the volume; negative numbers will decrease the volume. We suggest not checking the "allow clipping" box, so your audio sounds cleaner. When you have chosen your amplification level, click "Ok."
   

Note that these processes may take a little while, depending on the length of the track. A window will pop up telling you the estimated elapsed time and remaining time. If you have additional tracks, you can repeat these steps for each one after the first process is complete.

Audacity is a powerful tool with many features, but making just these three quick edits will help improve your audio quality immediately.