I recently started looking around at what I needed to create a podcast. Besides coming up with a good title and concept, I knew that I wanted it to sound half as good as a lot of the podcasts I listen to (see Relay.FM, ATP, etc). Besides getting a decent microphone and understanding the basics of good microphone technique, I knew I needed to understand some of the audio processing steps that took a podcast from good to great. A quick search on Google & by no surprise Jason Snell (of the wonderful Six Colors) has a great post on simple ways to use Garage Band to do just this.

However, GarageBand is perfectly suitable for podcast editing, and don’t let anyone tell you different. Every Mac comes with GarageBand, meaning every Mac user has access to a free multitrack audio editor capable of generating high-quality podcasts. And while it’s true that the latest version of GarageBand (version 10) lacks some of the podcast-specific features of GarageBand 6.0.5 and earlier, it’s not true that you can’t edit a podcast in the current version of GarageBand. You can! (Earlier on Six Colors I wrote about editing podcasts in more depth.)

Jason points out that although a lot of podcast editors may use Logic or expensive Digital Audio Workstations to make their podcasts sound like they were recorded in professional studios, a lot of what is needed to make a podcast sound better than most can be accomplished in GarageBand. I have created the presets discussed in the article and even recording directly into my MacBook Pro’s built-in microphone I notice a significant difference in sound quality.

With all that said I will be starting my own podcast so be on the lookout for that soon!