Pro Tip: Recording Platform for Your Podcast

[Dr Nursers]

A question I often get asked is what application I use to record my podcast. Over the past decade I've used a few. This is an area where there's definitely not one right answer. So instead I thought I'd give examples of what I've used or seen others use:

 

1. Audacity: available for both PC and Mac, easy to use. I've not tried to edit a podcast with Audacity but have used it to record my vocal and submitted it.

 

2. Garageband: I've recorded and mixed 140+ episodes of a podcast on Garageband and it works great. It's partly designed to support podcasting and is easy to use.

 

3. Logic; it's overkill but for The Keyboard Chronicles I use Logic. I just like the option of slightly more finessed EQ etc although I don't do a lot of tweaking in that regard

 

4. Standalone podcast apps: I'd be keen to hear what people think of podcast-specific apps. WAY back when I used Ubercaster but it's no longer available. This article gives a run-down on three such apps.. I actually don't think apps like this are needed as a general rule, unless you want really easy integration with a podcast host or you are after automated normalisation etc. YMMV

 

Jump in with any questions / thoughts / recommendations!

[Doerfler]

I use Audacity all day every day at work. Can't beat it for the price.

[Dr Nursers]

I use Audacity all day every day at work. Can't beat it for the price.

 

Indeed

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I'm a Logic guy, but again, it's because we have it at work (that's come in handy for me for some, shall we say, non-work-related purposes).

 

Audacity is one of the great resources of the audio world. I'm glad that open source software like that can still thrive, even if the communal vision of the net's early days hasn't quite panned out the way many predicted.

[Joe Muscara]

I have a gripe with Audacity. Years ago, when I used it, it messed with my audio settings on my Mac. After using it, iTunes would be silent. I don't remember if the bit rate or sample rate was changed, but I'd have to launch GarageBand to reset things. I never found a setting within Audacity to make it stop, so I stopped using it and switched to Amadeus Pro from Hairersoft for that kind of editing. It's not free, but works really well.

 

I think it's bad form for an app to change things like that without asking.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I think it's bad form for an app to change things like that without asking.

Something tells me that on a new Mac running Mojave or Catalina, the OS would alert you at least twice before an app was able to change those kinds of system settings!