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TABLE OF CONTENTS (CLICK ON LINK TO JUMP TO THAT ARTICLE)
TABLE OF CONTENTS (CLICK ON LINK TO JUMP TO THAT ARTICLE)
Setting up your Garageband for Podcasts
Recording audio for your podcast in Garageband
Editing the audio in your podcast in Garageband
Importing audio clips into your podcast in Garageband
Mixing audio levels in your podcast in Garageband
Exporting your finished podcast from Garageband
Finding free, royalty-free, Creative-Commons licensed intro music
Additional videos with lots of podcasting in Garageband tips!
SETTING UP YOUR GARAGEBAND FOR PODCASTS
SETTING UP YOUR GARAGEBAND FOR PODCASTS
Open up Garageband. You will first see the "Choose a Project" page.
2. Select "Project Templates" and, then from the Templates selection, choose "Voice". Click "Choose".
3. On the left side of your Project screen, you will see the options for choosing the best "pre-sets" for your Voice project.
For a podcast, under the Voice category, select "Narration Vocal", as this is the pre-set configuration that Garageband has optimized for podcasts
4. Once you've selected Narrational Vocal settings, you can remove any additional tracks that Garageband opens by default.
Right-click on any track to open up the sub-menu and select "Delete Track".
Repeat that process until the only track that remains is your main Narration Vocal track.
5. Down below the track, you will find the Recording Settings section.
The only thing that you need to check is that the "Input" settings are correct.
If you are using the Macbook's own internal microphone, the setting should be "Built-in Microphone".
If you have your own microphone that you have plugged in, that can be chosen.
6. The final recording setting that we need to make is to make sure that the "recording levels" are appropriate.
The little colored meter in our Narration Vocal tab, tells us how loud our voices are registering.
Green is good.
Yellow is loud, but still okay.
Red is too loud -- it will result in distortion to the audio.
We want to have it as high as green can go before it becomes too yellow.
Using a normal talking voice, we want to adjust the "Record Level" slider, until our normal voice registers a high green level.
You can also test this, by clicking the red Record button, testing your levels and listening to the results.
7. Some final cleanup steps.
Over to the right of the display, make sure the "beats" and "metronome" toggles are turned off. You don't want to hear them in the background.
8. To make the display much more useful for monitoring the time of your podcast, click the dropdown in the display window and select the "Time" display setting.
9. The last step, now that we have everything configured, is to get rid of the extra windows, so that we don't accidentally change a setting. And to make everything look simple.
In the top left of the window, click the "Smart Controls" and "Library" icons to make sure they are off.
10. Now we have a configured and clean view of our podcast recording track, that will give us good sound quality.
Recording audio for your podcast in Garageband
Recording audio for your podcast in Garageband
The Playhead - this special line is very important. It tells you where your audio is currently at. It is the most important tool you use when splitting your audio in pieces. You can drag it by clicking on the arrowhead at it's top and dragging it.
2. You start your podcast recording by clicking on the red "Record" button.
3. While in recording mode, your controls allow you to stop the recording by using Stop (the square).
4. This is what a recorded portion looks like. Listen to it by moving the playhead and click the Play arrow button.
Editing the audio in your podcast in Garageband
Editing the audio in your podcast in Garageband
1. Editing a recorded portion (Splitting audio)
Move the playhead to the place you would like to "split" the audio clip.
Go to the "Edit Menu" and select "Split Regions at Playhead" (OR click COMMAND + T on your keyboard)
2. Once you have split your audio clip, you can drag the portions to anywhere you want them to be. Also, you can right-click on one piece and select "Delete".
Importing audio clips into your podcast in Garageband
Importing audio clips into your podcast in Garageband
You can drag an audio clip from a Finder window or from your Desktop directly into Garageband. Just click on the audio file and drag it into the Garageband project window.
2. The audio clip will appear in it's own track section. If it is an audio clip not created in Garageband, it will also be in another color. Now you can edit (split) it an move it to any location on the track.
Mixing audio levels in your podcast in Garageband
Mixing audio levels in your podcast in Garageband
Enable "Automation" tool: from the "Mix" menu, click on "Show Automation".
2. Once you have enabled Automation, a new icon will show up that let's you toggle Automation mode on and off. You can also just press the "A" key on your keyboard to toggle it on and off.
The purpose of the Automation tool is to let you control the volume of your audio, by letting you fade in and fade out tracks in precise ways. When the tool is on, you can click and drag the "line" (usually yellow or orange) to raise or lower the volume of the whole audio clip.
Exporting your finished podcast from Garageband
Exporting your finished podcast from Garageband
From the "Share" menu, select "Export Song to Disk" to save it to your Macbook's hard drive.
2. Final steps to save your podcast recording
Give your podcast recording a name in the Save As box.
Choose where to save your podcast recording in the Where box.
Be certain to choose MP3 format, if it is not the default.
In the Quality box, select Medium Quality (128 kBit/s) for the best mix of quality and size.
Click the "Export" button.
Once your podcast recording file is saved to your Macbook, make sure to upload it to your Google Drive for sharing.
Finding free, royalty-free, Creative-Commons licensed intro music
Finding free, royalty-free, Creative-Commons licensed intro music
Additional videos with lots of podcasting in Garageband tips!
Additional videos with lots of podcasting in Garageband tips!
Audio Tracks: Adding theme music, sound effects and other audio tracks
Audio Tracks: Adding theme music, sound effects and other audio tracks
This video covers the whole process of creating a podcast with Garageband, but search for the sections where they teach
about adding additional audio to your podcast.
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