Audacity is an open source, cross-platform sound editing application. It is the sound editor I use for producing the PodLeaders and it@cork podcasts.
The process I use for producing the podcasts was:
- Record the interview using Skype and Wiretap Pro (with Wiretap Pro set to save as mp3)
- Import the mp3 file to Audacity and edit
- Export as mp3 and publish
After a recent conversation with Doug Kaye, I decided to try his Levelator application to get the levels on the recordings the same. This meant I had to change Wiretap Pro to output to aiff ( a lossless format) instead of mp3.
I did this and recorded a number of interviews successfully, saving the interviews as aiff. However, yesterday, when I went to edit the first of those interviews, I was disappointed that the Levelator couldn’t work with the files (gave an error and stopped trying to level them).
However, I was horrified when I tried importing the files into Audacity only to find that the imported files had massive echo problems, echo problems (!). No matter what I tried I couldn’t get rid of the echo and it made the audio useless.
Finally, I hit on a solution:
- Import the aiff files into iTunes
- Export from iTunes as mp3
-
Import the mp3 file into Audacity – no echo (phew!)
I should have hit on this solution sooner but it had been a long day!