When we asked over 500 podcasters which software they used to record and edit their audio, the majority told us it was Audacity. Launched in the Spring of 2000 (twenty-four years ago!), this free, open-sourced Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) has stood the test of time. In fact, looking at its interface can feel like you’ve travelled back in time, but that’s all part of its charm. In this Audacity for podcasts guide, I’ll explore the why and the how, as well as suggest some Audacity alternatives if you decide this old warhorse isn’t for you!
Data from the 2024 Podcaster Gear Survey
Is Audacity Good for Podcasts?
The data doesn’t lie, and a massive amount of podcasts have been created on the platform for almost a quarter of a century. It might not be “the best” option, but it’s a good one for several reasons:
Audacity is free
Audacity is open-source
Audacity is flexible and powerful
What Audacity CAN’T Do
As more and more modern podcast-focused software platforms seek to build “all-in-one” solutions, there are a few notable areas Audacity doesn’t serve. At least, yet, anyway:
Audacity doesn’t have a built-in online call recorder for remote conversations
Audacity doesn’t have video production tools
Audacity doesn’t have hosting, so you can’t publish and distribute your podcast with Audacity
Are these dealbreakers to using Audacity for your podcast? Definitely not. Plenty of other tools specialise in these processes, and it isn’t like Audacity will cost you an additional subscription on top of them. That said, if an all-in-one solution does appeal to you, then I’ll cover that in the Audacity alternatives section.
How to Set Up Audacity for Podcasting
The best way to decide if Audacity is a good fit for you is to try it out for yourself. It won’t cost you a penny to download, so record and edit some audio in Audacity and see how you find it. Here are the basics:
Installing Audacity
Go to the Audacity website and choose Windows, Mac, or Linux. Select your preferred language, and the Audacity Setup Wizard will guide you through the process.
Importing & Playing Audio
You’ll need an existing audio track on your computer for this. Click ‘File’ in the menu at the top of the screen. Select ‘Import’ then ‘Audio’, and browse to find the file you’d like to load up.
Imported audio will appear in Audacity as a waveform. A waveform is the visual representation of your audio file. The vertical line that runs from left to right along your waveform as it plays is called the Playhead.
Hit the play button (triangle) to play your audio.
Hit the stop button (square) to stop your audio.
You can use the Space bar as a short key to stop and start playing.
All of this work happens inside of an Audacity session, which is also known as a “project”.
Connecting Your Equipment
Make sure your equipment is connected to your computer and switched on, if appropriate. If you’re using a Windows computer, you may need to install your gear’s corresponding driver, too.
Click on the ‘Audio Setup’ dropdown menu. Here, you can select your preferred recording and playback devices.
If you’re using an external kit, such as a USB mic or interface, plug your headphones into that, rather than directly into your computer, then set the device as both your ‘Recording’ and ‘Playback’ option.
Recording Audio
The ‘Record’ button is the big, obvious-looking red circle. If you hit it, you’ll start a new stereo track. The Playhead will begin moving across the screen from left to right, and if you talk into the mic, you should see your audio appearing on the newly created waveform.
You can stop recording by clicking the ‘Stop’ (square) button, or by hitting the space bar.
Editing Audio
Editing audio is a simple process in Audacity. When you’re working with spoken word content, this allows you to remove mistakes, interruptions, and unwanted sections.
Click and drag the mouse over the section of waveform you’d like to remove. You can then either:
Hit backspace on your keyboard
Right-click and select ‘Cut’
Use shortcut Ctrl + X (PC) or Cmd + X (Mac)
Multitrack Production
You can add new stereo or mono tracks by clicking the ‘Tracks’ menu at the top. Multiple tracks give you the option to add in other layers or elements, such as ad breaks or music.
To move tracks around your workspace, hover the cursor over the top end of one (the bit where you see the track’s name), and a wee hand icon will appear. You can use this icon to drag and drop tracks to a position of your choosing, and this is how you build a podcast episode.
Exporting Audio
Once you’ve laid out the segments of your podcast episode and want to mix it down into one single file, hit ‘File’ then ‘Export Audio’.
Audacity will ask you if you’d like to export it to your computer, or to a cloud storage drive on audio.com. If you’re doing this for the first time, just go with ‘Export to Computer’.
You’ll be asked to name your file, select a saving location, and pick the file format. Typically, podcasters export and publish episodes as MP3s. MP3s need a bitrate setting, too. If you’re doing spoken-word content, I’d click ‘Bit-Rate Mode’ and select ‘Constant’, then click ‘Quality’ and choose ’96kbps’. Then, hit ‘Export’ when you’re done.
You now (in theory, at least!) have a podcast episode, ready to upload and publish to your podcast hosting account!
Saving Your Work
Saving a project is different from exporting audio. A project is your multitrack session in its entirety and everything that’s carefully laid out there. Whether you’re working on a long-term project or simply don’t have time to finish and export right now, you can save your work and come back to it later. Go to ‘File’ and ‘Save Project’, then pick a suitable location on your computer or cloud drive.
Audacity project files display as .aup3, and when you open one, your session will be restored.
Audacity Tips & Tools
The above is a very bare-bones approach to recording, producing, and exporting audio. Audacity has a lot more to it than that, and no doubt, your podcasting plans do, too.
Audacity’s Editing Tools
There are a bunch of editing tools in Audacity’s main menu. Here’s a whirlwind tour:
Selection Tool
The Selection Tool allows you to move the playhead to a certain point in your session, and also to click and drag over specific parts of your audio file.
Envelope Tool
The Envelope Tool lets you quickly and easily adjust the overall volume level or manipulate and shape your waveform.
In podcasting, this is most commonly used to blend music into an episode. Clicking on the waveform with the envelope tool will create little ‘nodes’ or control points from which you can drag your audio in or out.
Creating and moving one set of nodes will adjust the overall volume of your waveform. Clicking and dragging two (or more ) sets of nodes will change the shape of your waveform. These changes will be apparent in the volume of audio as the manipulated waveform is played back.
Draw Tool
The Draw Tool is only available when you are zoomed far enough into a waveform to see the individual samples (this relates to audio sample rates). It enables you to literally redraw the shape of the waveform, by clicking and dragging these samples.
Some producers use the Draw Tool to ‘draw out’ flaws in the audio, such as mic pops, but this can be a time-consuming workflow.
Multi-Tool
The Multi-Tool gives you access to all of the editing tools at once. If you hover over different parts of your audio track, the icon will change. This means you don’t need to keep swapping your tool to perform different tasks.
Zoom Tools
There are five different Zoom tools. They all look like slightly different variations of a magnifying glass. You can zoom in or out, toggle between maximum and minimum zoom, fit the zoom selection to the width of your audio track, or fit the whole project to width.
Other Audacity Editing Tools
There are two more editing tools in the Audacity interface that you might find useful. With the ‘trim audio outside of selection’ tool, you can select a piece of audio you want to keep and delete everything else around it. Similarly, you can select a section and remove all sound from it by clicking ‘silence audio selection’.
Recording & Playback Levels
Recording Level and Playback Level indicators show you (at a glance) if your audio is too loud or too quiet. I like to see these bounce up to around the -12 mark during recording and production. Little sliders on them enable you to adjust the gain and volume as you work.
Track Gain, Panning, Mute, & Solo
Each audio track has a control panel of options on the left-hand side of the session. Here, you can toggle off ‘Mute’ (mute the track) and ‘Solo’ (play only this track) options.
You can also adjust the gain of this individual track with its gain slider or pan the sound left or right with a similar ‘Pan’ slider. Panning can create extreme stereo effects in your audio. It’s uncommon to have panning in typical spoken-word podcasts, but you’ll find it used more in the fiction podcasting and audio drama realm.
Audacity Plugins for Podcast Production
“Plugins” are optional capabilities, enhancements, and presets you can add to Audacity to make it more powerful. If you click ‘Effect’ in the menu, you’ll find a tab for ‘Plugin Manager,’ which shows you all the plugins installed by default.
You can download more plugins on the Audacity website, but the platform has recently integrated with MuseHub, which takes audio effects and enhancements to a whole new level. MuseHub is a “creative playground” for audio producers, and you’ll find a slew of plugins, tools, apps, and elements there. You can use these to create or enable track effects or presets.
Audacity Presets for Podcast Production
If you’re still early on in your audio production journey, you might feel hesitant to mess about with too many settings manually. The good news is that Audacity offers plenty of presets for you to experiment with.
Track Effects
The control panel on the left of each track has an ‘Effects’ tab. Here, you can add effects such as reverb and distortion. Of course, these are exactly the kind of effects most podcasters don’t want in their audio. However, you can add and install preset effects designed to enhance spoken-word audio sound via the Audacity website or MuseHub integration.
The Effects tab will apply these non-destructively to all audio on that track, meaning you can simply turn them off or swap them for another—they won’t permanently change the sound of your source audio.
Clicking ‘Effects’ on a track’s control panel will also now bring up a ‘Master Effects’ track, too. This lets you apply preset effects to your entire session instead of your individual tracks. Again, this is non-destructive, but anything you set here will be applied to your full episode when you export it.
Noise Reduction in Audacity
Whether it’s a noticeable level of hiss under your recording, an annoying constant buzzing sound, or the steady whir of an AC unit, Audacity has a pretty good Noise Reduction tool that should strip it out without having to adjust any settings. The above video shows you how to do that, quickly and easily. But check out our Audacity Noise Reduction guide if you’re looking for a deeper dive.
Audacity Compression Settings for Podcast Loudness
Audio compression, in its most basic form, is a process to bring the quietest parts and loudest parts closer together. This offers a much more consistent sound and can prevent your listeners from having to continually adjust the volume on your podcast episodes.
Hit ‘Effect’ in the menu at the top of your Audacity session, then ‘Volume & Compression’ > ‘Compressor’. Audacity has a default preset that will make a decent stab of levelling out your audio. If you’d like to go a little more extreme, try lowering the Threshold (say, -40dB) and bumping up the Ratio (try 2:1) and see what happens. Compression is a whole subject of its own, so check out our guide to the Audacity Compressor for a deeper dive.
Audacity Alternatives for Podcasters
Audacity has a lot to offer podcasters, and it has improved significantly these past few years. According to data from our 2024 Podcaster Gear & Setups Survey, 17% of podcasters use it as their recording software of choice, while 24% use it for editing and production.
But, Audacity isn’t necessarily the right option for you. Maybe you want a remote call recorder or hosting tools built-in. Maybe you run a video component of your podcast. Or, perhaps you simply don’t like Audacity’s look and layout. Whatever the reason, there is no shortage of Audacity alternatives out there. Here are a few notable ones:
Garageband
If you use a Mac, you likely have Garageband installed by default. It’s designed to look a lot more beginner-friendly, though it is, first and foremost, a platform designed with music production in mind. As a podcaster, you might start to feel like it’s a bit limited for your needs over time.
Alitu
Alitu is a ‘Podcast Maker’ tool, perfect for complete beginners or ultra-busy creators. Its editing tools are simple but intuitive and entirely tailored to podcasters, with features such as text-based editing included. You can record remote calls (or solo episodes), and Alitu will automatically clean up, level out, and optimise them for you. It can even automatically remove uhms, ahs, breath sounds, and long pauses! With its built-in hosting tools, you can publish and distribute your show from within Alitu. Where this platform might not be suitable is if you’re running a video podcast, as its video recording and editing tools are still in the pipeline (although they are coming soon!).
Descript
Descript has many of the same tools and features as Alitu, with the added bonus of its popular AI Video Editor feature. It doesn’t have a built-in call recorder, but it integrates seamlessly with remote video and audio recording tool Squadcast. You can’t upload and publish a podcast with Descript (yet, anyway), so would still need a separate podcast hosting account, but Descript is a powerful and innovative tool and another superb Audacity alternative.
Adobe Audition
I’ve been using Adobe Audition for the best part of 14 years. In that time, it has served me well, enabling me to record, edit, and produce several hundred podcast episodes and creative audio projects. There isn’t much you can’t do in Audition, though it isn’t a beginner-friendly DAW and has suffered from Adobe’s lack of support in recent years. I think the company is more focused on its video-first software, Adobe Premiere, these days. Whilst Adobe Audition, on a features level, is a notable Audacity alternative, I don’t find myself recommending it to beginners. Check out Audacity Vs Adobe Audition for an in-depth comparison.
Hindenburg PRO
I’ve minimal experience with Hindenburg as a DAW, but I have only ever heard good things from the podcasters who use it (and those who like it, REALLY like it). It seems to me that Hindenburg has found a sweet spot in the space, in relation to its pricing, accessibility, and features. If you like what Audacity does and how it runs, but find the look and layout dated and cluttered, Hindenburg might be the alternative for you.
Conclusion: Audacity for Podcasters
The dictionary defines Audacity as “a willingness to take bold risks.” However, Audacity, our venerable Digital Audio Workstation, is anything but risky. It’s free and open-source, and it has been around for a long, long time. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Audacity has stood the test of time and continues enabling no small amount of podcasters to make their shows. Podcasting has benefited immeasurably from this software and the folks who help run it, and I hope it continues to be as popular in the years to come as it has been up until now!
If you’re still looking to shop around for the best podcast software or podcast editing software, then we have full roundups dedicated to both. And if you’re looking for more help and support in launching your show, then be sure to check out The Podcraft Academy. In there, you’ll find all of our courses (including one on Audacity!) and downloadable resources, and we also run weekly live Q&A sessions, too.