What about Audacity?

Posted by Wesley Fryer on in guestblogger, Podcasting

Ewan McIntosh (via his social bookmarks) alerted me to the PoducateMe website by Micah Ovadia. The website is touted as offering “practical solutions for podcasting in education.”

If this site is practical, then why is Audacity not included in the list of 22 recommended software options for podcast recording? Certainly that’s an extensive list of commercial products, but if the site really wants to be practical should a FREE, powerful, and cross-platform podcasting solution like Audacity be included on the list of recommended software recording programs?

I think so.

The website’s PoducateMe Guide is 186 pages long, and really does look fantastic. It is free to read online, and DOES include references to Audacity. On page 64 of the guide, the author writes:

Because it is free, multiplatform and easy to use, Audacity is often mentioned as an attractive option for recording and editing sound on both Macs and PCs. However, you will not be able to utilize dynamics processing plug-ins while recording with this software.

Certainly there are many limitations to Audacity, but the fact it is FOSS makes it more relevant and useable by educators around the planet than any other podcasting software alternative I’ve seen.

Thanks to Micah for creating a thorough and fantastic guide for podcasting. I’d recommend, however, including Audacity on the list of recommended software programs for recording. I’d also recommend including Garageband and Adobe Soundbooth.

I’ve added a link to Michah’s list of podcasting sequencer programs to my wiki curriculum, “Digital Music Creation: Engage, Inspire, Have Fun!” I’ll be sharing that again (with the help of my own kids) on August 3rd in Oklahoma City at the A+ School’s annual state conference focused on integrating the arts for learning in K-12 schools.

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4 thoughts on “What about Audacity?”

  1. Dave Jackson

    I’ve helped alot of people get started with Audacity. The only thing I would say is its a good place to start. Use it until you decide you DO want to continue podcasting (even after you figure out it takes longer than you thought). It may only happen one out of 100 shows, but everyone I know who has used Audacity for longer periods of time has as an “Audacity story.” It goes something like this…

    “We are all laughing, riffing on each other, one of the best shows ever, and then at the 28 minute mark it crashed and we lost everything….”

    It’s always on the “total gem” of a show.

    Dave Jackson
    http://www.personalpodcastcoach.com

  2. Micah Ovadia

    While I use Audio Hijack Pro for recording, I do recommend and use Audacity for editing. With AHP, I can easily record phone calls, work with plug-ins, count on its stability and receive fantastic support. To me, anyway, it’s well worth the $32 cost of the program. In addition, I too have heard tales of “the lost show” Audacity bug mentioned by Dave Jackson.

    There is a section in the PoducateMe guide on editing with Audacity beginning on page 93.

    Thanks for the comments!
    Micah Ovadia
    http://www.poducateme.com

  3. Wesley Fryer Post author

    My experiences using Audacity have been extremely positive, and I’ve never lost a show at the 28 minute mark or any other time because of a software crash. That likely is more attributable to the fact I usually am running Audacity on my MacBook running OS X, rather than a Windows computer. I’ve used Audacity a lot on the Windows side too, however, and have not run into any big problems. I’ve now created somewhere around 200 podcasts in the last couple of years, and I’d say I’ve used Audacity for over 90% of those. I’ve used Garageband, Ubercaster, and SoundBooth a bit, but Audacity continues to be my favorite. Undoubtedly there are many other software options, and I’d be better informed if I tried more of them. I do appreciate Micah aggregating so many together on the website, and hope I’ll be able to give more tools a spin to see what additional benefits they afford podcasters. For the typical classroom teacher, I remain unconvinced they need a tool with more options or features than Audacity for basic classroom podcasts that include recorded student audio interspersed with introductory, transitional and outro sound clips.

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