A Beginner’s Guide to Podcast Editing

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Have you ever tuned into a podcast episode where the audio quality was just off and you instantly left?

I know I have!

That is why podcast editing is so important. You want your audience to have an enjoyable experience while listening.

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t leave your content “raw” as I do often hear that people want it to stay real so you can still do that. But at the same time, you do want to create professional-sounding audio that is easy to listen to.

So, today I am covering the basics of editing — the tools you’ll need, basic editing tips, and how to finalize your audio to take it live.

Essential Tools and Software

It can seem hard to know exactly where to start with podcast editing, but it doesn’t have to be!

First, make sure you have a computer and headphones. It doesn’t matter what kind of computer or headphones you have, you can use ones that you already own. But you will want these to be able to do the editing part.

Second, pick a program. Depending on your needs and your budget there are a few good options:

Audacity —

This is a free, open-source podcast editing program that you can record and edit in. This is what we usually use to edit our client’s work.

Things we love:

• It’s free and runs across multiple platforms: Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
• It’s easy to use and learn
• You can edit all that you need to in the program
• Can utilize ‘hot keys’

Additional resources for learning -

• https://support.audacityteam.org/
• https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/DS/Resources/IntroToAudacityhttps://www.macaulaylibrary.org/resources/audio-editing-tutorials/editing-in-audacity/

Descript —

Does offer a free plan but you will get more including more hours if you move up to a paid version (starting at $12/month).

Things we love:

• Can edit both audio and video
• Can edit by text
• Automatic filler word removal
• Offers transcription and can easily grab clips for social media

Additional resources for learning -

• https://help.descript.com/hc/en-us/articles/10601764003341-Podcast-editing-tutorial
• https://castos.com/descript-features-we-love/

Garageband —

This is also a free editing program but for Mac users only. You can also record and edit within the program as well.

Things we love:

• It’s free
• Easy to use and learn
• Can be used on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad
• Can record 2 tracks at once
• You can again, edit all the things you need in this program

Additional resources for learning -

• https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/DS/Resources/IntroToGarageBand
• https://www.captivate.fm/podcast-tools-software/how-edit-record-podcast-garageband

Adobe Audition —

This is a paid program starting at $23/month but it’s very robust and you can do some serious deep-dive editing on it. Plus, you can get Adobe Premiere for video editing. We also use this program for our clients at Golden Goose Creative both for audio and video especially if there is audio that needs deeper editing.

Things we love:

1. Can get really nitty gritty when it comes to removing unwanted sounds using Spectral Analysis
2. Great editing tools
3. Free sound effects
4. Offers a match loudness feature
5. Multiple track recordings including separate microphones

Additional resources for learning -

• https://creativecloud.adobe.com/cc/learn/audition/web/music-editor?locale=en
• https://riverside.fm/blog/adobe-audition-for-podcasts

All of these programs are great for editing but depending on your budget and needs look for the one that best suits you.

I also would recommend picking one and becoming an expert on that one versus jumping around. That can cause you confusion and make editing take longer since you would know a bunch of software but not one super well.

Basic Editing Tips

Let’s dive into the actual editing!

There is a lot that you can edit if you really want to fine-tune your podcast, however, most people like cleaning it up and not overdoing it. So today I am going to cover just the basics.

Here are some things you can do while editing your podcast.

(Note I will be using Audacity as an example of how you do each of these tasks to keep it simple, but you can do all of these in any program you use, it will just vary depending on the program.)

Balancing multiple audio tracks

• You will want to confirm that your audio is in sync so that when you are editing, the “speakers” stay lined up versus staying separate as it will mess up your entire audio.
• In Audacity you do this by going up to the top menu bar and selecting “tracks”. Then select “keep tracks synchronized”. Once they are synced will see the small clock next to “select” on the left sidebar on the audio as well as the clocks all over the audio (as shown below).

Removing background noise

• This is a great way to remove bad background noise such as buzzing or a background fan. You’ll take a snapshot of the unwanted noise and then apply it to the section that you want it removed from. If you have two or more tracks, you would do this to each audio track separately.
• You can also do this step if you have any other unwanted sounds like a dog bark or an airplane in the background of a small section.
• To apply this effect in Audacity you’ll highlight the section on the audio. Head to the menu bar, and select “effects” and “noise reduction”. Then you’ll select “get noise profile” on the pop-up. Once you’ve captured the sound you want to remove, highlight the area you want to remove it from (can be the whole audio if necessary) then go back up to “effects” → “noise reduction” and select “ok”, applying this effect. Example below -

Adjusting audio levels

• If your audio is either too quiet or too loud this is a great way to adjust to make it -16 LUFs and -1dB at the max peak. If you have multiple speakers, you would do these to each of them. Plus, sometimes one speaker is really loud and one is really quiet.
• For audio that is too quiet, what I would do is highlight the whole audio file then go up to effects and select “loudness normalize”. Then it’ll show a “perceived loudness” which is set at -16 LUFs and you’ll hit “apply”. Example photos of what it would look like

• For audio that is too loud, instead of doing “loudness normalize” we will be using just the “normalize” effect. You may have to play around with this setting a bit more to get it within the -1dB that we are aiming for. For example, the audio below, was slightly too loud so I just applied the “normalize peak amplitude to” at “-1.0 dB” but again, you may have to do more than that to get to where you want your audio to be. To do this, you’ll go up to effects and select “normalize”, then add in your peak amplitude (again, this one is set at -1.0 dB” and hit apply.

Cutting

• Sometimes there is just some audio that needs to be removed. If you are working with one audio track, you can just highlight the area you would like to remove and hit “delete” on your keyboard. Like this -

• If you have multiple tracks, the process is the same, however, you again want to confirm you have “synchronized tracks” as discussed above and that you aren’t cutting anything in the track below because once you cut it will apply to both audios as shown below.

Trimming

• This is similar to cutting but instead of getting rid of a certain section that you highlighted, trimming will remove everything from the audio EXCEPT what you highlighted. This can be great if you want to keep just a specific clip. So, you’ll highlight the clip you want to keep, head up to “edit” on the top menu, and select “remove special” and “trim audio”, then you’ll have the trimmed audio left. Note: if you have multiple audio tracks, you’ll want to highlight the section in both.

Silencing audio

• This is a great option if you want to remove something from the audio but don’t want to cut it out. For example, you have two tracks and someone said something that you don’t want to keep but you would like to keep the other speakers section. There are a couple of ways to do this, one is to go up to the “generate” tab and select “silence” then click “generate” on the time stamp selected. Or you can set up a “hot key” to just instantly remove it when pushed — I use “L” for that. Either way works but hot keys will save you time!

Splitting audio clips

• Sometimes there may be a section that you don’t want to include at all or want to split to add sound or an ad.
• In Audacity you can just right clip on the section and put “split clip” then you can move the clip(s) around as you see fit.

Adding music/sound effects

• If you need to split the clip to do this so you can put it between two clips, the steps for that are above. Otherwise, if you’ve finished editing your audio and you’d like to add in some music/sound effects, I will just “import” the new audio into the file and move it to where I need it to go. Note: if you have “synchronized tracks” on you will need to turn it off to move the track around but don’t forget to turn it back on!

Final Touches and Exporting

You’ve officially learned the basics of editing and how to apply it to your episodes, now it’s time to apply the final touches and get it ready to upload to your hosting platform.

Some final touches may include adding intros, outros, and ads. So once you’ve got your final episode audio ready, I recommend creating a “working template” that you can use over and over again so you don’t always have to add all these pieces together. They will be ready for the episode audio every time (unless you want to change out your intros/outros/ads).

Here is a zoomed-out example of one of my working templates that includes an intro, outro, music, content, and a baked-in ad. If you do dynamic ads, then you would add that in once you’ve uploaded the final into your hosting platform (if they offer it like Captivate.fm for example).

Once you’ve officially compiled all the pieces of your audio together, it’s time to export the final edited episode into your desired format for uploading.

We like to export the file out into a .WAV file so that we can upload it into Auphonic (which I will discuss in a second). But if you plan on just uploading it directly into your hosting platform, I would download it into a .MP3. You would do this by going up to “file” and dropping down to “export audio” and you can select either .WAV or .MP3 from there, then hit “Export.”

Now, as I mentioned above, before we are officially officially done, we, at GGC, like to run the audio file into Auphonic.com to make sure all background sounds are out, the audio levels are the same, and get a transcript.

Then we go ahead and upload it to the hosting platform for distribution.

One thing to note to ensure that you have a smooth workflow is to make sure that you have your files organized properly so you don’t get confused about what file is what.

Here are my tips:

• Create a folder for each episode (example: Episode 1 — Title/Guest) and then all the files will go in there for that episode.
• Label each edited file with a specific name (for example: We do a first-round edit and second-round edit — so I label my files “Episode # — Title FRE” and “Episode # — Title SRE”) that way I know what file is what.
• Same with the working template. If you create a working template that you can use over and over again, label it “Show name — working template”.
• Then finally, keep the final exported audio structure the same for all. For example: Episode 1: Title/Guest — FINAL

Navigating the sound waves!

Remember that you don’t have to over-edit or not keep it raw, but you do want to create professional-quality audio to not turn listeners away and keep listeners focused on the content.

If you are looking for additional resources to learn even more about podcast editing I recommend:

• Podcast Editors Club Facebook group
• The Complete Guide to Podcast Editing
• Audacity Tutorial from Buzzsprout
• Podcast Editing from Pod Sound School YouTube

But one of the best ways to start building your editing knowledge is to just do it. Begin practicing and refining your skills. You got this! Figure out what platform you like, experiment with it, and begin practicing — you will get better as you do it.

Let me know what additional questions you have on editing in the comments. Or if you are ready to pass the editing baton off, send us a message at Golden Goose Creative, and let’s chat about how we can help you.

Aleea