Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter April/May 2007

March 2007 Meeting -- The Sheer Audacity! Using Audacity -- The Open-Source Audio Editing Program to Produce Great Podcasts
Presented by Jerry Franklin and reviewed by Steven Baratz

"What is podcasting, why is it important to me, and how can I get in on it?" Jerry Franklin gave us a sneak preview of the Audacity presentation he'll be giving at the May, 2007 STC conference in Minneapolis. The evening began with an overview of podcasting in the corporate world, including some examples of how podcasts are used to deliver technical information. Then he gave a high-speed, high-level tips-and-tricks demonstration on how to use Audacity -- a powerful, free, open-source, cross-platform audio editing application (downloadable from audacity.sourceforge.net).

"What's podcasting?" A coup by Apple marketing executives! Because there's nothing about podcasting that requires using an iPod. A podcast is simply an audio file that can be played on any MP3 player or computer. Typically these are longer, talk-centric broadcasts aimed at a particular audience. Podcasts are gaining popularity, quickly moving from the "blogosphere" into the mainstream and corporate America. Jerry cited statistics estimating current podcast listeners at 2-10 million worldwide, expected to increase to 60 million by 2010. It was surprising to learn that most people listen to podcasts not on their MP3 players, but on their computers at work!

"Why should I care?" "Sixty percent of I.T. professionals prefer listening to podcasts to reading white papers." (If you want to know his sources, you'll have to contact Jerry directly: audacityguy@gmail.com.) Some corporations are buying iPods for their employees to distribute training, sales and marketing, and other information. Companies such as Exertrack are creating exercise podcasts for working out. Whirlpool's podcast, "The American Family," boasts 60,000 downloads per month. There are podcasts of every shape and flavor to suit every interest and audience. Perhaps the largest and most popular clearinghouse for podcasts is the iTunes store, accessible from within Apple's iTunes application on both the Mac and PC. There are tens of thousands from which to choose.

"Why Audacity?" It does everything you could want in sound editing (unless you are a pro), it's fairly intuitive, and it's free! It uses common conventions and keyboard shortcuts like "cut and paste." Pressing the space bar stops and starts the audio playhead along a timeline showing the audio waveform. If you have used other audio editing tools, Audacity will look very familiar.

Jerry broke down the editing process into eight steps and gave the following suggested workflow:

1. Import sound files.
2. Arrange sequentially.
3. Edit, fine tune, and clean up.
4. Adjust timing.
5. Add musical introduction.
6. Adjust volume (keep it consistent).
7. Add/refine timing and transitions.
8. Mix, Master, and Export to MP3, including ID3 tags.

His advice to beginners:

• "Don't start too big." Choose something modest and manageable for your first project.
• "Organize your files." Arrange them in order within your project, and do this early in your production process.
• "The Mute and Solo buttons and the Undo command are your best friends." Mute and Solo allow you to listen to tracks individually. Audacity has unlimited Undos, so you can easily retrace your steps if you make a mistake -- even, apparently, after you Save, after which you're usually out of luck in most applications.
• "Don't be a perfectionist. It'll drive you batty and take you forever."
• "Have you Saved your file lately?"
• and perhaps most importantly, "Let your ears be your guide."

Jerry covered a lot of ground in an hour and a half and gave lots of good advice along the way. For instance: always record ten or twenty seconds of ambient sound to capture background noise. If you need to insert a pause, adding silence will be an abrupt change and will sound odd, while ambient sound will fit perfectly. Also, don't edit speech too severely, losing the natural cadence and personality of the speaker. A few "ums" are ok. Audacity has an "Envelope Tool" to adjust background music behind the speaker's voice.

Just as you edit images in high resolution for maximum quality before you save them out at 72 dpi for Web or screen, you should edit your audio in the high-fidelity WAV format before exporting it as MP3. A twenty-minute WAV file will take up about 100 MB on your hard drive. An MP3 is about one-tenth the size without much audible quality loss, especially for voice.

Note that due to software patents, Audacity can't include an MP3 encoder with the program. Directions and links for both Windows and Mac are included on the site. Before exporting, remember to include ID3 tags. These are invisible, inaudible "meta-data," much like keywords on a Web page. ID3 tags are used by spiders, crawlers, and other webbish flora and fauna to find and catalog your podcast.

For more information about Audacity, visit audacity.sourceforge.net/help/ where you'll find documentation, tutorials, FAQ, and a Wiki with dozens of topics, tips and tricks. "Let your ears be your guide" and remember -- have fun!

Steven Baratz is a technical writer and instructional designer. He is currently working half-time as the Technology Coordinator for the Raskob Learning Institute in Oakland, and editing technical documents for the Department of Academic Technology at SF State University where he's a full-time student, completing his Master's degree in Instructional Technology. As if that weren't enough, Steven is working as part of a team, creating in-house e-Learning at Leapfrog. Steven holds a California teaching credential from SF State, Bachelor's degrees in Photography (Art Center) and English (Tufts), and is looking for a full-time position starting this summer. His Web site is: sbaratz.home.mindspring.com. Email: sbaratz@mindspring.com.

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