Just moved or migrated to Adobe Audition and need to know how to create, edit and master your podcast?… We’ve got you covered! Audition makes the podcast creation process easy through its intuitive editing and mixing interface. Now there are of course several software packages out there that can do something similar like Audacity, Garageband or Logic Pro, but we believe this is personal preference and what you’re familier with using. My team and I have use the Adobe Creative Cloud for a multitude of apps so it’s logical to take advantage of the the power house of Audio editing that is ‘Audition’.
This article assumes a small level of experience with audio equipment and software but fear not if you’re new to the podcast world!… We offer free guides and courses to help you create a top-ten podcast show, launch and monetise it! Click here to learn more….
You’re about to learn it all, how to edit, master, and create your podcast in Adobe Audition.
…Ok, let’s get started!
Begin your podcasting process by scripting the content, be that a solo or guest interview, and setting up the ambience, microphone, and other recording equipment. After you record the audio, you can edit and refine it in Audition to remove unwanted noises, using the EQ to enhance the audio, and perform advanced edits and refinements.
1. Create your setup to record
It’s possible to record your podcast audio using a variety of equipment ranging from a standalone USB or analog microphone to a combination of microphones, audio interfaces, and mixers. Most podcasters record audio by directly plugging in a microphone to a USB slot or microphone slot on their audio hardware.
Audition supports a wide range of audio input and output hardware. The equipment is detected, drivers are updated, and audio preferences are set as you connect a recording device to your computer. Before you start to record, be sure to check the audio input and output preferences in the Audio Hardware Preferences dialog box.
Here’s how to set audio preferences according to your requirements, in Windows choose Edit > Preferences> Audio Hardware, on a Mac choose Adobe Audition > Preferences > Audio Hardware and select your settings under the Default Input and Output options then hit OK.
2. Recording your podcast
You can record your podcast using the Waveform editor or the Multitrack editor. Waveform editor is ideal for recording the voice from a single microphone and editing an individual recording. On the other hand, Multitrack editor is used if you are recording and editing multiple audio tracks from more than one source,
Record using Waveform editor
- Plug your microphone or any other voice recording equipment into the microphone input port of a sound card of your computer.
- Choose File > New > Audio File to create a recording.
3. Choose the sample rate 44100 Hz or above, channels as Stereo, and Bit Depth as 32 (float), and then click OK.
4. Click the record button when you are ready to record the audio and click the pause and stop button as needed during your recording.
5. Choose File > Save and save your file after verifying the settings. You can keep the Sample Type and Format the same as the source or change them by clicking the Change button.
6. Clear the Include markers and other metadata check box if you want to avoid default markers and metadata, in case you to want add custom markers and metadata later on.
7. Click OK to save your file. The Save As dialog box gives you an estimated file size before saving.
Record using Multitrack editor
- Choose File > New > Multitrack Session.
- In the Session Name box, type a name for your podcast multitrack session file and in the Folder Location, select the location to save your file.
- To create a podcast session with default Host, Interview, Sound FX, and Music Bed tracks pre-populated with effects suited for podcasts, select Podcast in the Template dropdown box. Audition automatically populates the Sample Rate, Bit Depth, and Mixing fields with recommended values.
- Hit OK. Your multitrack session is ready for recording.
5. Select the settings for the track. For example, the volume level, input as mono/stereo, and output as mono/stereo/5.1.
6 .Click the R icon in the track in which you want to record the audio and place the marker in the Editor panel at the exact time at which you want to start the recording.
7. Fire up that record button to start the recording and use the pause and stop buttons to control the pauses and endpoint of your audio track.
3. Editing your podcast
Your podcast can be a solo recording or a combination of voice and other elements such as ambience, special effects, background music, and voices of multiple speakers. To bring all these elements together and prepare a complete program, edit the various audio tracks in a multitrack session.
1. In a multitrack session, add your voice recording, music, and other audio elements to different tracks.
2. Arrange your clips on different tracks in the sequence that you want them to appear. For example, if you have different types of clips in your podcast session, arrange them in the following sequence with pauses and effects:
- Title music
- Intro sequence
- Voice of the host introducing the episode/topic
- Recording of the other hosts’ talks with overlapping background music
- Sign-off or call to action
4. Removing unwanted background noise from your audio
The Essential Sound Panel allows you to assign a mix type for your clip and apply edits that suit the nature of the clip. For example, if you assign Dialogue as the mix type for a voice clip, the Dialogue tab of the Essential Sound panel presents you several parameter groups related to that mix type. The parameters allow you to carry out the common tasks that are associated with dialogue, such as unifying the different recordings to common loudness, reducing background noise, and adding compression and EQ.
The mix types in the Essential Sound panel are mutually exclusive, that is, selecting one mix type for a clip reverts the previous changes done on that track using another mix type.
- Choose Window > Essential Sound to open the Essential Sound Panel.
- Assign a mix type for the track that you are editing, for example, Dialogue
- Refine a track by using a preset from the Preset drop-down box. For example, the Podcast Voice preset has predefined settings for noise and rumble reduction, and de-essing.
4. To manually repair your sound, under Repair Sound, select the check boxes for the following settings and use the slider to adjust each of them according to your requirements:
- Reduce Noise – to identify and reduce background noise.
- Reduce Rumble – to reduce low-frequency sounds and plosives.
- DeHum – to reduce hum sounds caused by electrical interference.
- DeEss – to reduce harsh ess -like sounds.
5. Play the multitrack audio after you change the settings to test the output.
5. Matching loudness
In Audition, you can measure loudness in audio clips and apply correction to align loudness levels, this is especially handy when you have two recorded audio tracks that aren’t quite the same volume…. and no one wants to keep adjusting their volume when listening to a podcast!
Because podcasts are primarily consumed on mobile devices and in noisy environments, they require higher target loudness. You can set it at a level between -20 LUFS and -16 LUFS. The ITU broadcast standard for target loudness is -18 LUFS.
- Choose Window > Match Loudness to open the Match Loudness panel.
2. Drag one or more audio files and drop them in the panel.
3. Select the Scan icon to analyse the current loudness values for each clip.
4. Click Match Loudness Settings to expand the loudness parameter group.
5. From the Match To drop-down list, select a loudness standard that suits your regional standards and content. For your podcast, choose the ITU broadcast standard preset that sets the Target Loudness to -18 LUFS.
6. Adjust the Maximum True Peak Level (between -0.2 dBTP and 1.4 dBTP), tolerance (at 2 LU), and click Run.
6. Applying effects
This section is really meant for expert users of Audition who want to edit their audio using the advanced features. If you apply rack effects by following the instructions given in this section, Audition overwrites the changes that you had made using the Essential Sound panel.
In the Multitrack Editor, you can apply up to 16 effects to each clip, track, and bus and adjust them while a mix plays. (Apply clip effects if a track contains multiple clips that you want to process independently.)
Spoken word podcasts sound better when they are equalised by boosting the lower frequencies and dampening higher frequencies. You can do this using the effects in Audition.
- Do any of the following:
- Select a clip, and click Clip Effects at the top of the Effects Rack.
- Select a track, and click Track Effects at the top of the Effects Rack.
- Display the fx section of the Editor or Mixer. (In the Editor panel, click the fx icon in the upper-left corner.)
2. Let’s add some preconfigured effects for podcasts, select Podcast Voice in the Presets dropdown box. The following effects are added to the track:
- Speech Volume Leveller
- Dynamic Processing
- Parametric Equaliser
- Hard Limiter
3. Now to manually add and configure effects, choose a slot and add an effect. For example, the Vocal Enhancer effect that enhances male and female voices using separate settings.
You can add effects for up to 16 slots in the list.
7. Exporting and publishing your podcast
After you are done with your edits and previewing your changes, save your podcast in the format and settings that suits your target media.
The most common formats for podcast delivery are MP3 or AAC. MP3 is the most popular format used by podcasters. However, AAC files, often stored as .aac or .m4a files, offer better audio quality at smaller file sizes compared to MP3. AAC also supports metadata that MP3 does not support, such as Chapter Markers, and embedded links and images.
Recording your podcast at a higher encoding rate retains rich audio details. For stereo podcasts, 128-kbps MP3 is widely used. For mono, podcast talks, 64-kbps MP3 is used. When it comes to efficient compression, smaller file size, and better audio quality, a 64-kbps AAC-HE (high efficiency) stereo file would fare better than a 128-kbps MP3.
Audition gives you a range of output and encoding options within the application or outside, such as exporting to Adobe Media Encoder.
- Use one of the following options:
- Creating a podcast file using Audition? Choose File > Export > File.
- To create a multitrack mixdown, choose File > Export > Multitrack Mixdown, and then select Time Selection, Entire Clip, or Selected Clips.
- Then export your output to your chosen output format using advanced encoding settings, choose File > Export > Export with Adobe Media Encoder.
2. To export using Audition, choose your format, sample type, format settings, and mixdown options by clicking the Change button in the Export Multitrack Mixdown or Save As dialog boxes.
And thats it!… Your guide to edit, master and create your podcast in Adobe Audition! If you’re new to the podcast creation world you’re in the right place my friend!… We have a tonne of podcast articles, templates, free guides and courses to help you create a top-ten podcast show, launch and monetise it! Click here to learn more.
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