By: Gracie Brison

Creating audio stories or podcasts is truly a work of art -- and an under-appreciated one at that. The hardest part in the early stages of editing is making your vision come to life. You may have an idea in your head, but you can’t get the music to play properly under your voice. Or you came to realize that your brilliant interview had some distracting background noise. I’m not going to tell you it’s a walk in the park, but I’d like to make the walk a little bit more enjoyable.

After studying journalism at Ryerson University and becoming a bit obsessed with the radio and podcasting field, I knew I wanted to to work in the industry in some way or another. So I launched my own podcast, The S*** We Do For Money and landed myself an internship at brand new podcasting agency, Lead Podcasting.

With time (and a healthy amount of time at that) I came to love the tediousness of editing; the mixing of the music, the cleaning up of a person’s sentences, it can be very satisfying. But there is really only one way to enjoy the editing process and that is to enjoy the editing software. 

Audio editing software has a lot of power and often easy to use. But just like other technology, it has the potential to drive us crazy if you have no idea where to begin. But if you’re reading this, then you’re off to a great start.

There are tons of audio editing software out there and they all have their pros and cons. I’ll save you the research and list some notable ones here.

Audacity

Audacity is an excellent tool if you’re looking to start a podcast with little to no budget because it is one of the only free audio editing software out there. You can import audio, mix it down, combine tracks and export it as one output. These are the basic tools for creating a podcast. For a free software, Audacity is a great start and you are likely to be affected by its limitations the more you edit. The major limitation is that all edits are destructive which means you can edit as much as you’d like in the moment, but you can’t go back later for little tweaks and adjustments. This article from PC Magazine advocates that Audacity really does do the trick but if you want my advice: use Audacity only if you’re cleaning up the ums and ahs of a chat-cast podcast. Otherwise, if you’re able to invest, try a slightly more advanced software.

Hindenburg

Hindenburg is a great choice if you’re looking for a user-friendly upgrade from Audacity. For a one-time fee of $125, you can have all the tools of the editing trade. According to an article from The Beat, one of the greatest perks of Hindenburg is its in-software recording. The sample rate and audio levels will be automatically adjusted and it produces high quality audio. Hindenburg will give you all of the same base tools that Audacity offers, but it is argued by many Reddit users that Hindenburg is more user friendly. The biggest upgrade to me from Audacity to Hindenburg is that edits are non-destructive. Trust me, when you realize you wished you kept that extra few seconds of a clip and can just go back rather than reimporting the audio file and sorting through it, you will be very happy to have made the investment.

Pro Tools

Pro Tools is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that is recognized in the podcasting world as delivering “the cleanest audio editing workflow on the planet,” according to PC Magazine. For a lot of podcasting content, Pro Tools is considered the industry standard software, so I do believe it is important to have a solid grasp on how to use it. Pro Tools is powerful with features like simple looping technology and the ability to add descriptions to your audio files making them easier to organize. It also recently added a feature called SpaceClips which automatically spaces your clips on your timeline with the click of a button, saving you tons of time manually spacing out all of your clips that you’re working with. All of these extra features are what makes it world-renowned. I also think this price point makes Pro Tools and jobs in the podcasting industry less accessible to the average person. In fact, The Verge even considers it a form of gatekeeping creating a lack of diversity in the audio world -- especially given its price of over $100 per month. So long review short, is it excellent? Of course. But is it worth it? Maybe not.

 Adobe Audition

Last but not least is my personal favourite and the DAW that I use as an intern at Lead Podcasting; I see Adobe Audition as a more accessible version of Pro Tools. Since it is my DAW of choice, I will outline some tools you can use to help make your audio sound incredible. 

1.     Vocal Enhancer 

The background noise where you recorded your interview adds a great sense of ambience but sometimes, it can be too loud. If you are interviewing a man, but there is a female voice in the background, use the vocal enhancer to amplify the male voice in the clip. Click effects > special > vocal enhancer and select “high tone” or “low tone” (depending on your subject’s voice).  

2.     Noise Reduction

Sometimes during an interview, you can’t hear the white noise fan in the background. But in the editing process, it is loud and clear. Select the clip or section of the clip you want to fix in waveform, and click Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration > DeNoise. If you want to fix a very specific sound and you have a small chunk of time in your audio where there are no voices, you can also capture a noise print. Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration > Capture Noise Print and select the sound you want to get rid of. Then use the Noise Reduction (process) to apply the captured noise print to the file and voila, it will be gone. 

Sometimes in recordings, especially when recording virtually, you have to take the best audio option there is, which might not be perfect. I’m editing a podcast for baby and children company, Snuggle Bugz, and I had to fix the distracting computer fan noise. Take a listen to this before and after clip. 

3.     Time Stretch

Time stretch can be used for tons of different audio treatments. A common one would be to slow down or speed up music. Here is an example of some theme music I was editing. For this clip, I slowed it down from the defaulted 100 per cent to 116 per cent. It doesn’t take much to make a really great adjustment.

Here’s how to do it: clip the section in multitrack that needs a speed adjustment by using the razor tool, which can be quickly accessed by clicking (R) on your keyboard. At the end of that clip, hover your mouse about a quarter of the way down the end of your clip and a clock with a double-sided arrow appears. Drag your mouse until it is stretched to the percentage you are happy with.

Audio editing is not for the impatient, which is why it is so rewarding. There are tons of YouTube videos and in-software tutorials to help you learn and get quicker at this kind of art. If you put in the time and choose the right software for you (like I did), you might just find yourself falling in love with the tediousness of making audio stories come to life.