Podcasting: The Basics

Transcription

1 Podcasting: The Basics Windows Podcasting: The Basics v Pages

2 About IT Training & Education The University Information Technology Services (UITS) IT Training & Education program at Indiana University offers instructor-led computing workshops and self-study training resources to the Indiana University community and beyond. We deliver training to more than 30,000 participants annually across all Indiana University campuses. Our staff is comprised of enthusiastic professionals who enjoy developing and teaching computing workshops. We appreciate your feedback and use it to improve our workshops and expand our offerings. We have received several international awards for our materials and they are being used at universities across the country. Please keep your questions, comments and suggestions coming! In Bloomington, contact us at or call us at (812) In Indianapolis, contact us at or call us at (317) For the most up-to-date information about workshops and schedules, visit us at: Copyright The Trustees of Indiana University These materials are for personal use only and may not be copied or distributed. If you would like to use our materials for self-study or to teach others, please contact us at: IT Training & Education, 2711 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN , phone: (812) All rights reserved. The names of software products referred to in these materials are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies or trademark holders.

3 Welcome and Introduction What You Should Already Know What You Will Learn What You Will Need to Use These Materials Getting Started Today s Project Understanding Podcasting Accessing the Exercise Files Launching Windows Explorer Typing a Pathname in the Address Field Copying the Exercise Files to the Hard Drive Planning a Podcast Recording an Audio Podcast System Requirements to Record an Audio Podcast... 8 Checking Computer Sound Settings Opening Audacity Understanding the Audacity Interface Checking Settings in Audacity Using Audacity to Complete a Sound Check Recording Audio in Audacity Saving the Recording Distinguishing Original and Output Files Saving the Original Recording Editing a Recording Listening to the Recording Adding Music To the Recording A Word About Music and Copyright Issues Importing Music Adjusting Volume of Tracks in Audacity Adjusting Timing of Tracks in Audacity Creating the Second Transition Exporting a Recording as an.mp Adding an ID3 tag Closing Audacity Creating a Video Podcast Types of Video Podcasts Creating a Movie in Windows Movie Maker Understanding the Windows Movie Maker Interface 39 Creating a New Movie Saving Your File Importing External Assets A Word About Video Footage and Copyright Issues 44 Contents Handling Video File Formats Importing a Video File into Windows Movie Maker 44 Creating a Descriptive Slide Incorporating a Graphic into a Movie Maker Project 46 Creating a Screencast Preparing the Demonstration Preparing Windows for a Screencast Testing What Will Display in the Screencast Recording the Screencast Including our Screencast in our Podcast Challenge Exercise 1 - Import the Screencast Challenge Exercise 2 - Add a Title to the Screencast 54 Adding Subtitles to a Clip In Windows Movie Maker. 55 Adjusting Timing and Length of Clips Making Changes to the Timeline Adding an Audio Soundtrack to a Movie Exporting the Movie Converting.wmv to.mp4 file format Publishing a Podcast Using Oncourse Entering the Site Adding the Podcasts to an Oncourse Site Editing the Tool List on the Site Toolbar Understanding the Podcasts Tool Challenge Exercise 3 - Publish a Video Podcast Understanding How Participants Can Access Podcasts 68 Managing Access to Podcasts Understanding Where Podcasts Are Stored Subscribing to a Podcast via itunes Understanding the Podcasts Library in itunes Finding Podcasts Understanding Podcasting at Indiana University Understanding itunes U Deciding Which Podcasting Tool to Use Understanding the Podcast Portal Additional Information About Podcasting at Indiana University Closing itunes Exiting Oncourse Wrapping Up Contributions to These Materials

4

5 Welcome and Introduction Welcome to Podcasting: The Basics. What You Should Already Know You should have already attended Windows: Basic Computing Skills or have the equivalent skills. Specifically, you should be able to: use the mouse work with windows and menus save, copy, and organize your documents What You Will Learn The goal of this workshop is to introduce the concept of podcasting. In this workshop, participants will: understand what podcasting is and learn common podcasting terminology learn the computer requirements for being able to create a podcast record and edit an audio podcast using Audacity use Windows Movie Maker to compose and edit a video podcast use CamStudio to record a screencast publish a podcast using the Podcasts tool, available in Oncourse CL sites subscribe to a podcast using itunes submit a podcast to the itunes directory understand podcasting at IU, including the podcast portal and itunes at IU What You Will Need to Use These Materials To complete this workshop successfully, you will be provided with: the use of a practice site in Oncourse the use of Audacity, a free open-source software for recording and editing audio files the use of CamStudio, a free open-source software for recording activity on a computer screen and capturing audio the use of Windows Movie Maker, software free to legally licensed users of the XP or Vista operating systems, for editing digital video footage the use of itunes, Apple s free music player the use of Adobe Media Encoder, or another media conversion application a microphone suitable for connecting to a computer the exercise files in the Podcasting folder: Dan the Automator - Relaxation Spa Treatment.mp3, WordOfTheDay.wav, Assignment Slide.png, intelligent_risk_taking_256kb.avi Podcasting: The Basicsv

6 Getting Started These materials presume you will begin work from the desktop, and have any required exercise files located in an epclass folder there. Getting the Exercise Files Finding Help Most of our workshops use exercise files, listed at the bottom of page 1 of the materials. In our computer-equipped classrooms, these files are located in the epclass folder, which should already be on the computer desktop. If you are using our materials in a different location, you may obtain the exercise files and detailed installation instructions from our Web site at: Once you are logged on and have the needed files in an epclass folder on your desktop, you are ready to proceed with the rest of the workshop. If you have computer-related questions not answered in these materials, you may look for the answers in the UITS Knowledge Base, located at: Want to Learn More? IT Training & Education offers many training options for extending your skills beyond this workshop: Self-study training: You may access computer-based training from leading commercial vendors, obtain the materials for other STEPS workshops, or access IT Training s own tutorials on a range of topics at: IT Training Tips weblog: Our blog has short tutorials and training posts on a broad range of topics and technologies. It s written by training and support providers from across the entire IU system; you may read and comment on these at: 2 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

7 Today s Project Today we re all assuming the role of an instructor teaching a section of Writing 121. We ve heard a lot about a new technology called podcasting and are interested in investigating how it can be used to augment the in-classroom experience of our students. We ll learn what podcasting is, and what it isn t. Next, we ll get our computers ready to record a podcast; then, we ll see how to use free software to create and edit both audio and video podcasts. We ll explore how to publish our finalized podcast episode and then use Apple s itunes software to subscribe and listen to other podcasts. Lastly, we ll examine how Indiana University is supporting podcasting. Understanding Podcasting Known by several names (e.g., netcasting, coursecasting, lecturecasting, vodcasting, videocasting, or screencasting), podcasting is the distribution of a series of audio or video files over the Internet for on-demand listening or viewing on mobile devices and computers. Podcast content can take many different forms (audio, video, and/or slideshow presentations), and can be accessed on any computer with software that plays audio, video, or graphic file formats. In other words, it is not necessary to own an ipod or other portable digital audio player. Let s listen to an example of a podcast on the National Geographic web site. 1. Open a web browser. 2. Open the following location: You see a list of individual podcast episodes. 3. To view the info for a particular show, 4. To listen to the latest episode, any show icon the Download this MP3/MP4 button under download latest episode The podcast begins to play. It is clear that a podcast can be nothing more than a radio-like audio recording. Podcasting: The Basicsv

8 5. To close the browser, What distinguishes a podcast from multimedia files available over the Internet is the idea of subscription. People interested in a particular podcast s topic can use a special kind of media player called a podcatcher to subscribe to that podcast, and then download new episodes of the podcast automatically. One of the better known podcatchers is Apple s itunes. In plain English, think of podcasting as the online equivalent to subscribing to a magazine of interest in order to have it delivered to your door. Unlike a magazine subscription, however, you can subscribe to many podcasts for free. The technology behind allowing listeners to subscribe to podcasts is known as syndication technology, or, more specifically, an RSS feed (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication) or just a feed. A feed is really just a data file that contains information about the podcast and the podcast s episodes, formatted in a special way so that podcatchers can understand the data. When you see a web site offer a podcast feed, what they mean is that they have a series of audio or video content available that you can subscribe to using a podcatcher. The podcatcher will download the new content automatically as it is added to the web site. Before continuing, let s briefly review common terminology related to podcasts and podcasting: Podcasting - A way of publishing a series of multimedia files via the Internet, allowing users to receive new multimedia files automatically. RSS Feed, Atom Feed, or just plain Feed - The technology that allows people to be able to subscribe to a podcast. What is a feed? It s a simple human-readable text file containing the data needed to describe and access the podcast, structured according to the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or Atom protocols. Oncourse utilizes the RSS feed format. Podcatcher/Aggregator - Software that allows a user to register feed(s) and collects the content from all feeds in one place. A podcatcher or aggregator can check a list of feeds on behalf of a user and automatically download any new or updated content. itunes is one example of a podcatcher, but there are others. A good place to find software alternatives to itunes is the web site PodcatcherMatrix: ipod - A portable media player made by Apple. You do not need to have an ipod in order to listen to or view podcasts; many other media players or most computers can be used. 4 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

9 Accessing the Exercise Files The exercise files we will use today are located in a folder named Podcasting, which is on a network server. Before we begin, we will use Windows Explorer to access the location of these files and place them on our local computer. Launching Windows Explorer Let s open Windows Explorer with a keyboard shortcut. 1. To open Windows Explorer, press: ñe Windows Explorer opens the My Computer window: Between the toolbar and the Folder List is an Address field, which contains the text, My Computer. We can use this Address field as a a quick method to find the files we need. Typing a Pathname in the Address Field In Windows, we can gain access to files or folders on any networked computer to which we have privileges by entering the pathname of the files into the Address field. A pathname is the unique address of a given file or folder. It generally includes the computer s name, the folder s directory name, and the file's name. Let s type the pathname of our exercise files now. 1. To position the cursor in the Address field, in the Address field 2. To enter the pathname of the exercise files, in the Address field of the My Computer window, type: \\iu-uits-storage\groups\iuep\class NOTE: Only the workshop demonstration accounts have privileges to access this folder. If you are logged in as another type of user, this method will not work. Instead, skip this section, Accessing the Exercise Files, and follow the directions for getting the class exercises on page 2 of these materials. Podcasting: The Basicsv

10 The Class window is displayed. The Podcasting folder is in the folder area. Now that we see the Podcasting folder, we need to move it into the correct folder on our local hard drive. Copying the Exercise Files to the Hard Drive We ll copy the Podcasting folder from the open window to the epclass folder on the desktop. Once the files are on our hard drive, we can work with them. To copy the folder from the window into the epclass folder on the desktop, we need to see them both. 1. To view both the Podcasting folder in the Class window and the epclass folder on the desktop, the Class window s Title bar until the epclass folder is visible on the desktop 2. To copy the Podcasting folder to the epclass folder, in the window, Podcasting folder on top of NOTE: When the folder turns dark, and the cursor displays a plus sign, the mouse may be released. The Podcasting folder is now in the epclass folder. We are ready to start working with the files. 6 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

11 Planning a Podcast Before exploring the technical details of creating podcasts, here are some things to think about when planning what to record: Tailor the podcast mode (video, audio, or screen capture) to the subject matter. One podcast episode that captures local bird sounds is perfectly suited to an audio-only podcast, while another episode that covers how to log bird sightings in a spreadsheet program might be best as a screencast. Having said this, keep in mind that a video podcast make take more time to produce than an audio podcast. Keep in mind how your audience will want to listen or watch a podcast. An audio tour of a historic building in the area would best be listened to on a portable media device; since many.mp3 players don t necessarily have screens or support all video formats, it may be best to offer a podcast of this nature in primarily audio format. Think outside the box! Many instructors first use of podcasting is to record lectures so that students can review and listen again at their leisure. This may be especially helpful for students for whom English is not a first language. While this is certainly an appropriate use of the technology, there are many other creative uses for podcasting. For example, a Fine Arts faculty member may record an audio tour of an exhibition at a local gallery. Another option is to record an interview with a guest speaker as supplemental class material. Or, create a PowerPoint presentation and podcast it as a way to expand an explanation of particularly difficult material that students seem to be struggling to grasp. Be aware that listening to an audio-only podcast is a much different experience than a live interaction, and it can be difficult for listeners to pay attention for long periods of time. To address this reality, one recommendation is to keep podcasts short, between 15 and 20 minutes in length, and tightly focused on a particular topic. Be aware that a video podcast with little on-screen action also poses the same challenges to your audience. As you become more comfortable recording and publishing podcasts, you may want to think about improving the audience experience by incorporating music, new voices, or interesting visual and sound effects into your podcast. When listening to the radio or watching videos on YouTube, pay attention to what strategies and features work for you as an audience member, and which ones don t. Recording an Audio Podcast There are many podcasts available from well-known professional news and radio organizations; however, one of the reasons podcasting has gained so much steam in recent years is because the technology required to create a podcast is inexpensive and available to anyone with a computer. Podcasting: The Basicsv

12 System Requirements to Record an Audio Podcast It is possible to record podcasts using some mp3 players (including newer ipods), but for the purpose of the discussion in the workshop today, we will describe how to record using a desktop or laptop computer. You'll need the following things installed on your computer in order to record a podcast: Audacity, a free audio editor and recorder available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can download Audacity from: The latest version of the LAME mp3 encoder, which will allow you to export recordings from Audacity in the.mp3 file format: A microphone connected to the microphone-in connection on your computer A set of headphones connected to the headphone jack of your computer Checking Computer Sound Settings Before attempting to record a podcast, we'll make sure that our computer's sound settings are correct. 1. To begin accessing your computer s Control Panel, in the lower left corner of the screen, 2. To search for the Sound control panel, in the search bar at the bottom of the Start menu, type: Sound NOTE: On Windows XP, to access the Control Panel, to Settings menu item, Control Panel The Control Panel window opens. 3. To open the Sound control panel, NOTE: To access the sound settings in Windows XP, Sounds and Audio Devices. If the Control Panel is set to Category View, Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices, then Sounds and Audio Devices at the bottom left of the screen. 8 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

13 4. To access the speaker properties, in the Playback tab, Speakers, Properties Click here..... then here 5. To open the Levels tab, in the Speakers Properties dialog box, the Levels tab 6. To verify that the speaker settings are appropriate, in the Speakers Properties dialog box, verify that the volume is turned up for all speakers NOTE: Depending on your computer s setup, the options here may differ. Podcasting: The Basicsv

14 7. To dismiss the Speakers Properties dialog box, Next, we ll verify that our system settings are good for recording. 8. To access the recording section, in the Sound dialog box, Recording tab 9. To access the recording section properties, in the Sound dialog box, Microphone, Properties Click here......then here 10. To check the settings, in the Microphone Properties dialog box, Levels tab The sound recording volume window opens. 11. Verify that the recording volume in the microphone section of the dialog box is at the highest level possible. 10 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

15 12. To close the Sound recording volume settings window, 13. To accept the adjustments to our system settings, in the Sound dialog box, Opening Audacity Our audio settings are suitable for recording an audio podcast. Let s open Audacity and begin the process of recording our first podcast. 1. Open Audacity using the Start menu or another shortcut. Audacity opens and we see the default interface. Audacity is a free, open source audio editor available on many computer platforms. It is possible to use Audacity to both record and edit music, speech, or other sounds. Unlike many other audio editing applications, Audacity has a relatively simple interface. Let s maximize the size of the interface to make it easier to work in. 2. To maximize the Audacity interface, in the upper right corner, the maximize button Podcasting: The Basicsv

16 A Understanding the Audacity Interface The following diagram and table summarize the Audacity interface: B C D E F G Feature Function A Editing Tools For selecting and modifying ranges of audio and changing the magnification of the tracks. B Audio Control Buttons Skip to beginning, Play, Record, Pause, Stop, and Skip to end. C Meter Toolbar Monitor volume of input and output. D Mixer Toolbar Set volume levels for your output (on the left side) and input (on the right side). E Edit Toolbar Some duplication of Editing Tools; also offers tools for trimming audio, adding silence, undo, and redo. F Timeline Indicates length of track(s) in seconds by default. G Audio Track On stereo tracks, the top half of the track is for the left speaker and the bottom half is for the right speaker; the taller the waveform, the higher the volume. Audacity allows you to record, edit, and mix multiple tracks (for example, one track could contain your voice, another track could contain music). Audacity has tools to cut and paste sections of each track and slide them back and forth on the timeline to control when a particular audio piece appears in the project. These topics are outside the scope of today s workshop, but they are useful for creating more professional-sounding podcasts. 12 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

17 Checking Settings in Audacity Before attempting to record, we ll check some basic settings in Audacity to make sure we ll get good sound levels when we record and set our preferences for the.mp3 encoder we downloaded previously. 1. To access the settings, Edit, Preferences... The Audacity Preferences dialog box opens. 2. If necessary, to set the previously downloaded LAME.mp3 encoder as our default.mp3 encoder, the File Formats tab, In order to export our podcast in the.mp3 format, we'll have to indicate to Audacity where the LAME.mp3 encoder file is. NOTE: If you see a file listed to the right of MP3 Library Version, Audacity already knows where the.mp3 export plug-in is located and these steps are unnecessary. 3. To continue adding the file, 4. To locate the lame_enc.dll file, Yes Computer, STC Windows (C:), Program Files, Audacity, Plugins, lame_enc.dll NOTE: If you downloaded lame_enc.dll separately, it probably did not get placed in the location noted above. Podcasting: The Basicsv

18 5. To finish adding the LAME.mp3 encoder, Open Now that we ve selected the appropriate file with which to export our recording as an.mp3, we can also set the quality of the exported.mp3. One important thing to realize is that the higher the quality of the.mp3, the larger the file size, and the more time it will take for your listeners to download. It is recommended that you save your files with the minimum quality necessary based on the content of the podcast. Here are some general recommendations for bit rate settings based on the content of your podcast: Content Lectures and other talk-only recordings Suggested Bit Rate (in kbps) Talk and music combinations Good quality music 64 and above 128 and above Because our recording today will be mostly talk, we will set the bit rate to To set the bit rate of the exported.mp3, in the MP3 Export Setup section, the Bit Rate dropdown, To access input/output settings in Audacity, the Audio I/O tab 8. In the Recording section, verify that the microphone connected to the microphone-in connection on your computer is shown as the default device. 9. In the Recording section, verify that the Channels dropdown is set to 1 (Mono). 10. To access the quality settings in Audacity, the Quality tab 14 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

19 11. Verify that the Default Sample Rate is set to 44,100 Hz. NOTE: The sample rate refers to how much data Audacity will collect from the audio input on a per second basis. A sample rate of 44,100 Hz is standard for audio recordings, and ensures that your recording will both sound good and be able to be played in all media players. 12. To finish adjusting the settings in Audacity, We re almost ready to record our podcast. Using Audacity to Complete a Sound Check Next, we'll do a brief sound check to ensure that the incoming sound levels from the microphone are adequate. 1. To turn on monitoring, in the meter section of the Audacity interface, the microphone icon NOTE: The microphone icon will not change. Podcasting: The Basicsv

20 2. To commence the sound check, say Testing a few times Watch the red bar in the meter section; it should extend almost all the way to the right. If red barely appears in the input level meter area increase the recording volume in the Mixer Toolbar If red often covers the entire gray bar in the input level meter area decrease the recording volume in the Mixer Toolbar NOTE: Sometimes the adjustments to the recording volume in Audacity are insufficient to result in an acceptable volume when recording. If this is the case, return to the operating system sound settings and adjust the recording volume there as well. We are now ready to record. Recording Audio in Audacity We have completed the preliminary work to ready our system for a quality recording. Let s continue and actually record. 16 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

21 1. To begin recording, in Audacity, the record button and say Hello, and welcome to the first episode of the Writing 121 podcast. My name is and I m your instructor this term. When you click the record button, Audacity automatically creates a new stereo audio track. As the podcast is recorded, you will see the recorded sound display in this track, which reflects the sound being received by the computer via the microphone in a waveform display. 2. To stop recording, in Audacity, the stop button Audacity stops recording our voice. Let s listen to our recording. 3. To listen to the recording, the play button Saving the Recording The recording plays. Notice that as the recording plays back, there s a small line and green triangle that move across the timeline as the recording plays. This is the playback head and indicates the point in the recording the playback has reached. Before doing anything else, let s save our recording. Now that we ve got our recording, let s save it. Podcasting: The Basicsv

22 Distinguishing Original and Output Files Audacity projects are saved in a particular file format, with a file extension of.aup. This is a format that s been optimized for Audacity to open and save even large audio projects quickly. When you save a file in Audacity, it breaks up each audio file into smaller pieces and creates a master file that knows how to reassemble the smaller pieces in your audio file. Practically speaking, this means that if you have a project you save as Podcast 1, Audacity will create a project file called Podcast 1.aup, and then create a sub-folder called Podcast 1_data that holds all the individual audio pieces. In order to publish our recording as a podcast, we ll export it in a particular file format that many computer audio players and portable media players know how to handle: mp3. The process of exporting a recording as an.mp3 compresses the file and intentionally removes some of the data to reduce file size. Because this process is destructive and irreversible, it s a good idea to save an original, high-quality version of this file as an Audacity project (in the.aup file format), in case we d like to re-purpose some or all of our recording at some point in the future. We ll then export a lower quality version as an.mp3 for publication. Saving the Original Recording Let s first save the project file. 1. To begin saving the original project file, File, Save Project An Audacity warning dialog box appears. It informs us that when we save our recording as an Audacity project, we ll have to use Audacity to listen to our recording. 2. To continue the save process, You see the Save As dialog box. We need to specify where to save the file and what to call it. Setting the Location and Filename When the dialog box opens, it lists a default location for saving the file. On a PC, this location is displayed in the field near the top-left corner of the dialog box. 18 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

23 We want to move to the epclass folder, which is where we will save our file. 1. To move to the desktop, The current location is now set to the desktop. All of our exercise files are contained in the epclass folder, located on the desktop. 2. To open the epclass folder, The epclass folder contents are now visible. We want to save this document in the Podcasting subfolder of the epclass folder. 3. To open the correct subfolder, the Podcasting folder Now that we have specified the Save in location, we need to specify the filename. Let s make sure that the filename is highlighted first. 4. If the filename is not highlighted, across the default filename Podcasting: The Basicsv

24 5. To give the project file a name, in the File name: text field, type: Podcast WR121-1 We assume we will record multiple episodes for this class. To make it easy for us to organize our files, we will name this file for the course number as well as episode number. This file will contain all the data present in our original recorded file. By saving the original project file, we ensure that we always have a good original copy of our recording in case we need to save it in another format or in case we lose our.mp3 file. Remember that the exported.mp3 file is what you can add to a site using the Oncourse Podcasts tool. 6. To finish saving our project, Editing a Recording The project file has been saved. Save Chances are that your recording, brief though it is, is not perfect. Perhaps you cleared your throat before speaking, or you d like to remove some silence at the end. Audacity is not just a sound recorder, it is also a sound editor. While Audacity does not have all the editing features and tools of high-end software, it does provide tools for us to make basic edits. It is also possible to add audio to a recording in the form of additional tracks. Let s assume that a colleague of ours has also started podcasting and has sent us a brief audio file in which an interesting word is pronounced and defined. We d like to include this Word of the Day in our podcast. This audio file may need some editing. Let s import the Word of the Day audio file to our podcast recording and investigate how to make minor modifications to it. 1. To import the file, in the File menu, Project, Import Audio You see the Open dialog box. We need to specify the name and location of the file to open. 20 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

25 Setting the Location for Opening Your File When the dialog box opens, it lists a default location from where the file will be opened. All of our exercise files are contained in the epclass folder, located on the desktop. We ll want to change our location to this folder. We will start at the desktop, since our exercise file folder, epclass, is located there. 1. To move to the desktop, The current location is now set to the desktop. All of our exercise files are contained in the epclass folder, located on the desktop. 2. To open the epclass folder, The epclass folder contents are now visible. We will need to open the Podcasting subfolder of the epclass folder that contains all of the necessary documents. 3. To open the correct folder, the Podcasting folder Podcasting: The Basicsv

26 4. To open the file, WordOfTheDay.wav A new track is added to our project below our recording: Our recording Imported file Listening to the Recording Let s listen to this new file. If we click the play button right now, we ll hear the audio of our recording along with the audio of the imported file, which will probably sound like a jumbled mess of people talking over each other. To allow us to just hear the imported file, we will have to mute our recording. 1. To mute our recording, in the track labeled WordOfTheDay, Solo NOTE: You can achieve the same effect by clicking the Mute button in the Audio track; the Mute button can be used to temporarily silence individual tracks. 22 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

27 2. To play our file, in the audio controls, the play button The imported file plays. We hear some loud scratching at the beginning of the recording that sounds like the person may have made a last-minute adjustment to the placement of their microphone. We ll want to get rid of this. The waveform we see in the track can be highlighted and modified the same way that words and phrases can be selected and modified in a word processing program like Microsoft Word. We d like to discard the scratching noise that exists in the imported track. 3. To highlight the unwanted sound, in the waveform of the imported track, from 0:00 to roughly 0:01.65 NOTE: It is not important to end the selection at 0:01.65 exactly, just be sure you do highlight the entirety of the scratch sound. 4. To delete the unwanted sound, press: ç The unwanted sound has been deleted, and the rest of the recording now starts at 0:00. Adding Music To the Recording Our podcast is now coming together; let s add some music to add interest and increase the listenability of our recording. Podcasting: The Basicsv

28 A Word About Music and Copyright Issues Most of us are not professional musicians and don t have original music that we created ourselves to include in our podcast. And, in order to use commercially available music in our podcast, we have two choices: obtain a license from the record company or performance right organization who owns the license, or use sound recordings not subject to copyright protection. With a decent budget, it is conceivable that we could purchase the licensing rights in order to use copyrighted music legally in our podcast. There are several sources for royalty-free music, where one pays a one-time fee for access to music and then can use it without giving credit to the artist. Some royaltyfree music sources are: For our podcast, however, we need to find music that is as close to free as possible. There is another option, which is to find music licensed with a Creative Commons license: Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that seeks to expand the flexibility of copyright by allowing content creators musicians, writers, scientists, filmmakers, anyone, really to indicate how and under what circumstances others may use their work. As part of the Creative Commons project, CCMixter is a site devoted to music licensed under Creative Commons licenses, which supports the creative re-use of music. This site can be found at: The CCmixter site offers a search interface, where you can find both entire songs and samples that are all licensed under Creative Commons, which means that each piece of music has its own rules about how it can be used. The music we re about to include in our podcast is a song by Dan the Automator called Relaxation Spa Treatment, and is licensed under the Sampling Plus license, which allows for noncommercial sharing and restricts advertising uses. Since we ll be using this music in a noncommercial, educational podcast, we are allowed to use the song. Importing Music Let s go ahead and import the music and see how to integrate it with the rest of our recording. 24 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

29 1. To begin importing the music, in Audacity, Project, Import Audio You see the Select one or more audio files... dialog box. 2. To open the file, Dan the Automator - Relaxation Spa Treatment.mp3 A new track is added to our project below our recording: Our recording Word of the Day imported music (Dan the Automator - Relaxation Spa Treatment.mp3) Notice that this track is stereo, and thus has both a right and a left channel. Let s listen to this track next. In order to listen to this track by itself, we will click the Solo button on this track. 3. To listen to this new music track, in the Dan the Automator track, Solo We will also need to remove the soloing from the WordOfTheDay track. 4. To temporarily turn off playback, in the WordOfTheDay track, Solo Podcasting: The Basicsv

30 5. To listen to the music track by itself, in the toolbar, the play button, the stop button We re satisfied that this music is appropriate for our podcast. Let s plan ahead and think about how we want our various tracks to play back: The music should fade in, and play at full volume for 5-7 seconds The music should then decrease in volume as our recorded introduction comes in After the recorded introduction is over, the music should return to full volume and play for a few more seconds The Word of the Day should come in as the music drops in volume. In order to accomplish this, we ll have to use two new tools from the Audacity toolbox: the Envelope tool, to modify the volume of our music track, and the Time Shift tool, to adjust where a particular track is placed on the timeline. Let s start from the beginning, and work on gradually fading in the music track. Adjusting Volume of Tracks in Audacity Here we ll use the Envelope tool to create a fully-adjustable envelope around portions of our music track in order to control the volume. 1. To select the Envelope tool, in Audacity s toolbar, You see a thin solid blue border appear along the top and bottom of each track in the project. This blue border marks the sound envelope (the volume) of each track; we can modify the sound envelope by setting points on the sound envelope and then dragging those points up or down to increase or decrease the volume at those points. Let s see how this works. 26 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

31 2. With the envelope tool selected, in the music track, at the 00:00 mark on the blue envelope border at the top of the music track When your cursor is in the correct place, you should see your cursor turn into a double triangle, as seen here: When you see this cursor, you can click. You should see small dots appear at that point in the track: Now we ll add additional control points. Then we ll see how to shape the volume using them. 3. Add additional control points at roughly the time indicated: 5 seconds 12 seconds 15 seconds Again, these don t need to be exact. Your music track should look something like the following: Next, we ll use the control points we ve added to change the volume of the music to allow a fade in and fade out. Podcasting: The Basicsv

32 4. To decrease the volume at the beginning of the track, the first control point on the top of the track, down until the blue line almost meets in the middle We ve now adjusted the sound envelope so that the music will fade in at the beginning. Let s listen to this effect. 5. To listen to the effect of the modified sound envelope, in the toolbar, the play button, the stop button The track plays from the beginning and we hear how the sound starts almost at a whisper and then smoothly increases in volume. Let s continue shaping the volume envelope of the music track; we want to let the music play at full volume for not more than five to seven seconds, then fade out so that our listeners can hear the introduction to our podcast. 6. To create the fade out of our music track, the fourth control point on the top of the track, down until the blue lines almost meet in the middle Your music track should now look like the one in the previous image. Let s listen to this track by itself to see how these first 20 seconds sound. 28 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

33 7. To listen to the effect of the modified sound envelope, in the toolbar, the play button, the stop button Excellent! As the music fades out, we want to hear our recorded introduction. We need to adjust when our recorded introduction appears in the project; to do this, we ll use a new tool, the Time Shift tool. Adjusting Timing of Tracks in Audacity Because all of our tracks start at 0:00, they will play over the top of one another when the recording starts. We d like our music to play first, then our recorded introduction, and then Word of the Day. 1. To begin the process of moving our recorded introduction, in the editing tools, the Time Shift tool 2. To shift the recorded introduction past the music, in the timeline of the track labeled Audio Track, Move the recorded introduction to the right until it begins just as the music track is fading out to the right, so its beginning lines up with the fade out of the music track We ll listen to the effect in a few minutes. Podcasting: The Basicsv

34 Creating the Second Transition Now that we have the first two tracks set, let s work on the transition from our recorded introduction to the Word of the Day track. We want the music to swell up after the end of our introduction, play very briefly, then fade out as the Word of the Day comes in. Let s use the Envelope tool first to adjust the volume of the music track, then the Time Shift tool to move the Word of the Day to occur later in the timeline. 1. To select the envelope tool, in the toolbar, 2. To add additional control points to the music track, with the envelope tool selected, at the following time markers on the blue envelope border: 00:22 00:24 00:28 00:31 Your music track should look somewhat like the following: Four new control points Next, we ll adjust the volume. 30 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

35 3. To fade the music in, with the envelope tool still selected, the second new control point on the top of the track, up until the control point meets the top of the track Your music track should look something like the following: Next, we ll increase the volume at the third control point so that the music plays at full volume for a few seconds before the Word of the Day begins. 4. To increase the volume at the third control point, with the envelope tool still selected, the third new control point on the top of the track, up until the control point meets the top of the track Your music track should look something like the following: Great! Now we re set to move the Word of The Day after the second fade out. We ll need to select the Time Shift tool in order to accomplish this task. Podcasting: The Basicsv

36 5. To select the Time Shift tool, in the toolbar, 6. To move the Word of the Day audio to the correct place in the timeline, with the Time Shift tool selected, the Word of the Day waveform to the right, until its beginning lines up with the second fade out of the music track Your tracks should look something like the following: Move the Word of the Day waveform to the right so it begins just as the music track is fading out Let s listen to our project and make sure everything sounds good. 7. To remove the soloing of the music track, in the track labeled Dan the Automator, Solo 32 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

37 8. To move the playhead back to the beginning of the timeline, in the audio controls, the Skip to Start button 9. To play the recording, in the audio controls, the play button, the stop button It sounds good, but there s one additional thing we should do before saving and exporting this file as a podcastable.mp3 file. If we save and export this file now, our podcast will be 1:45 long the length of the longest track, the music track. In reality, however, our podcast ends after the Word of the Day ends. Let s trim our music track now. Trimming a Track In our case, we want to trim the music track. Let s see how to do this. 1. To select the Selection tool, in the toolbar, 2. To put the selection cursor in the correct spot, in the music track, after the end of the Word of the Day Click in the music track just after the point on the timeline where the Word of the Day ends Podcasting: The Basicsv

38 3. To select the rest of the music track, in the Menu bar, Edit, Select..., Cursor to End The remainder of the music track is highlighted. 4. To delete the selection, press: The rest of the track is deleted. ç At this point, it is possible to use Audacity s built-in editing tools to cut and paste sections of audio, adjust the sound levels further, and even remove hissing or popping sounds. However, what we have is sufficient for now. Let s save our project file again before exporting it. 5. To save the project file, File, Save Project Exporting a Recording as an.mp3 Now that we ve saved our recording as an Audacity project, let s export an.mp3 file for publication. 1. To begin saving the recording, File, Export As MP To dismiss the warning dialog box, NOTE: This warning dialog box informs us that our two tracks will be mixed down to one. Since we ve saved our project file, which keeps our tracks separate, this is fine. You see the Save As dialog box. We need to specify where to save the file and what to call it. 34 Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

39 Setting the Location and Filename When the dialog box opens, it lists a default location for saving the file. On a PC, this location is displayed in the field near the top-left corner of the dialog box. We want to move to the epclass folder, which is where we will save our file. 1. To move to the desktop, The current location is now set to the desktop. All of our exercise files are contained in the epclass folder, located on the desktop. 2. To open the epclass folder, The epclass folder contents are now visible. We want to save this document in the Podcasting subfolder of the epclass folder. 3. To open the correct subfolder, the Podcasting folder Now that we have specified the Save in location, we need to specify the filename. Let s make sure that the filename is highlighted first. 4. If the filename is not highlighted, across the default filename Podcasting: The Basicsv

40 Because this.mp3 file will eventually be distributed using a web server, it is important to follow standard naming practices for web-based files. These include: No spaces in file names. Substitute the underscore or hyphen character in place of spaces. Use only regular alphanumeric characters. Do not use special characters like # or ~ in file names. Additionally, because many podcatchers put all downloaded podcast episodes into the same folder on the listener s computer or portable media player, it s important to establish a convention for your podcast file names and make them unique to avoid accidental overwrites. 5. To provide a file name, at the beginning of the File name text box, type: WR To continue saving our recording, Save An Edit the ID3 tags for the MP3 file dialog box opens. Adding an ID3 tag An ID3 tag allows you to save information about the recording with the recording itself, including title and author. This information is used by podcatchers like itunes to provide information about a particular episode to a listener. Remember that once you publish a podcast, your listeners may transfer it from their computer to a portable media player. The ID3 tag associated with a podcast is the only way to help your listeners identify the title of the podcast, from where it came, and who created it. ID3 tags were initially created for music CDs, not podcasts, so some fields (like genre) may not seem applicable to a podcast, but try and enter as much information as possible anyway. 1. To complete the ID3 tag for this recording, type the following text into the specified fields: Field Name Title Artist Album Text WR121: Episode 1- Introducing the Class Your Name WR Podcasting: The Basics v3.0.0

41 Field Name Track Number 1 Text Year 2008 Genre Speech 2. To finish saving the recording, Closing Audacity The recording is saved as an.mp3 file. We are finished working in Audacity today. 1. To exit Audacity, from the Menu bar, File, Exit NOTE: For more information on how to use Audacity, see Audacity Tutorials: Creating a Video Podcast In the last section, we learned how to record an audio podcast. In this section, we will see how to create a video podcast using open-source software available for Windows computers. Types of Video Podcasts As we have seen, creating a simple audio podcast is quite simple and doesn t require very much in the way of equipment or audio engineering skills. When many people hear the term video podcast, the image that comes to mind is of footage shot via a digital video camera. While this is certainly one format for video podcasts, there are others. For example, a screencast is often used to describe a podcast where the video action takes place on a computer screen a demonstration of how to use Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet, for example, or a PowerPoint presentation combined with audio annotation. It is also possible to use programs Podcasting: The Basicsv