It’s easy to use, free, and there are versions that run on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It has a number of features that enable you to record, modify, and export audio files. Here is an article from the TechTips section to help you record your podcast with the free Audacity program:Īudacity is an Open Source sound recorder and editor. Your audience will appreciate it if they can “subscribe” to your podcast (which will require some extra steps and perhaps more software), but you can also just provide a link to a basic name for your audio file (like todayspodcast.mp3), ask your audience to bookmark that link, and simply save each new podcast using that same name, overwriting the previous one.

You will need a special software on your Internet server to publish your podcast.įalse! If you have a website on which you can post files for people to download, you can simply upload your audio file, and create a link to it on a webpage.

It takes special “podcasting software” to create a podcast.įalse! While there is software that might automate the process of making and posting a podcast, you can create a podcast with any software that will record sound, and save it in a format that most people will recognize and be able to play (usually MP3).Your audience might choose to listen to it on their computer, their cell phone, their iPod or whatever audio player they prefer. Your audience must have an iPod to listen to it.įalse! A podcast is just an audio file.If you are using a computer which doesn’t already have Audacity installed, visit to download Audacity and the LAME MP3 decoder you’ll need to create MP3 files. For instructions on getting everything setup correctly to start your podcast, take a look at How To Setup a Podcast.) Depending on the model of laptop you have, you may also have to install the LAME mp3 decoder.

(Look for it in your Start menu->Digital Media Tools or Start->All Programs->Digital Media Tools, inside the Audio Editors folder. This is free, open-source software, which is already installed on WFU Thinkpads. Since MP3 is a well-recognized format, and MP3 players are ubiquitous, most people choose MP3 as the format for their podcast.Īn excellent tool for recording yourself and publishing the audio as a podcast is Audacity. You can use any software you’d like to record your podcast, as long as it will save the audio as a type of file that your intended audience will recognize.

Using audacity for podcasts