Audio Recording Tools: Garageband (Macintosh) or Audacity (Macintosh and Windows)

If you don't already have audio editing software, you can download Audacity for free (Mac and Windows). If you have Garage Band on your Macintosh, see the digital audio page. One other thing that you will need is a quiet place for students to record their podcasts. Springfield MS students use a podcasting booth to minimize background noise.

Audacity: It's free, Open Source software available for both Macintosh and Windows that allows you to record audio files and save them in MP3 format for podcasting. Note that you need to install the Lame encoder so that you can create MP3 files; a link to it is on the Audacity download page.

If you are not sure how to use Audacity, see the Audacity Online Help, watch a video (Mac or Win), or read the handout (Mac or Win). If you have never used recording software before, you might want to take a look at the help section. However, Audacity is very easy to use! Tips for setting the Audacity preferences in Windows.

Saving your File as an MP3: When you are finished recording/editing, select File/Export as mp3. The first time you do this, you will need to locate the Lame file.