Polishing the Sound of Your Podcast Episode

Even the best talk show hosts make mistakes. With GarageBand, it’s easy to cut out your flubs so you sound perfect and professional. You can remove pauses to improve the pace of your show, and cut out coughs or annoying sounds like shuffling paper. When your interview or narration sounds just right, you can add music and sound effects to make your podcast episode sound like it was made in a professional studio.

You can use the track editor to modify everything you record in GarageBand. The Loop Browser includes great-sounding musical jingles and sound effects to give your podcast episode the right mood.

Tips

Improve how you sound by applying different effects to your voice

You can experiment with different effects settings even after you’ve finished recording. Select the track you want to hear and then click the track info button. Click Real Instrument and select an effect. Play back your recording to see if you want to use the new effect settings, or try something else.

Make your podcast more compelling with jingles, stingers, and foley

GarageBand includes great sounds you can use to make your podcast sound like a professional radio show. You can use musical jingles in your intros, or as bumpers to break up your segments. Click the Podcast Audio button in the Loop Browser to show the podcast audio loops. The browser shows the available jingles, stingers, and foley sound effects. Jingles are music loops that can set the tone for your podcast or podcast segments. Stingers are short bursts of sound or music to emphasize a point. Foley sounds are real-world sounds like closing doors, or breaking glass.

Import audio you’ve previously recorded from the Media Browser

If you want to use an audio file you previously recorded in GarageBand or another program, you can use it in your GarageBand podcast project. Choose Control > Media Browser to open the Media Browser or click the Media Browser button in the GarageBand window. Next, click the Audio button. The Media Browser lists audio files located in your Music folder. Find the audio files you want to use. (You can also search for files by name by typing in the search field.) Drag the audio file from the Media Browser to the timeline to create a new track with the audio file.

Smooth out transitions between music, sound effects, and narration with volume curves

To make sure your narration and other audio parts flow smoothly into one another, you can use the volume curve on each audio part’s track to lower the volume of the track you want to fade out, and gradually bring up the volume of the track that’s starting.

Steps

Isolate and delete a mistake you made in recording

Drag the playhead to a position just before the section you want to remove.
Go to the Edit menu and choose Split to divide the audio track into two regions.
Drag the playhead to a position just after the section you want to remove.
Choose Split.
Click the region that includes the mistake and then press the Delete key.
Drag the second region back to the first region, so what you recorded before the mistake flows smoothly into what you recorded after it.