Select Audio Hardware from the Default Stereo Input drop-down when you are working on a Multitrack session.
Last updated on
Apr 27, 2021
Learn to record, mix, edit, and publish podcasts using the custom-built templates and presets in Adobe Audition.
Podcasts are radio-style talk shows and audio broadcasts that can be downloaded or streamed over the Internet. Creating a podcast requires basic understanding of recording, audio editing and mixing, and streaming or publishing.
Audition makes the podcast creation process easier through its intuitive editing and mixing interface. Begin your podcasting process by scripting the content and setting up the ambience, microphone, and other recording equipment. After you record the audio, you can edit and refine it in Audition to remove unwanted noises, using the EQ to enhance the audio, and perform advanced edits and refinements.
Preparing your recording setup
You can record your podcast audio using a variety of equipment, ranging from a standalone USB or analog microphone to a combination of microphones, audio interfaces, and mixers. Most podcasters record audio by plugging a microphone directly into a USB or microphone slot on their audio hardware.
Audition supports a wide range of audio input and output hardware. The equipment is detected, drivers are updated, and audio preferences are set as you connect a recording device to your computer. Before you start to record, be sure to check the audio input and output preferences in the Audio Hardware Preferences dialog box.
To set audio preferences according to your requirements, choose Edit > Preferences > Audio Hardware (Windows) or Adobe Audition > Settings > Audio Hardware (macOS) and select your settings under the Default Input and Default Output options.
Note
The recommended Sample Rate for podcasts is 44100 Hz. If you are planning to deliver your podcast as a video file, you can choose 48000 Hz.
The connected input and output devices appear in the Default Input and Default Output drop-down boxes with their auto-detected settings. Select your options based on your requirements, then click OK.
Learn more about connecting your audio hardware to Audition.
Recording your podcast
You can record your podcast using the Waveform editor or the Multitrack editor. The Waveform editor is ideal for recording voice from a single microphone and editing individual recordings. On the other hand, the Multitrack editor is used when recording and editing multiple audio tracks from multiple sources.
Record using Waveform editor
Plug your microphone or any other voice recording equipment into the microphone input port of a sound card of your computer. Audition detects the hardware and sets up the device for recording.
Choose File > New > Audio File to create a recording.
Choose your sample rate 44100 Hz or above, channels as Stereo, and Bit Depth as 32 (float), and then click OK.
Click the record button when you are ready to record the audio and click the pause and stop button as needed during your recording.
Choose File > Save and save your file after verifying the settings. You can keep the Sample Type and Format the same as the source or change them by clicking the Change button.
Clear the Include markers and other metadata check box if you want to avoid default markers and metadata, in case you to want add custom markers and metadata later on.
Click OK to save your file. The Save As dialog box gives you an estimated file size before saving.
Record using Multitrack editor
Choose File > New > Multitrack Session.
In the Session Name box, type a name for your podcast multitrack session file and in the Folder Location, select the location to save your file.
To create a podcast session with default Host, Interview, Sound FX, and Music Bed tracks, pre-populated with podcast-specific effects, select Podcast in the Template dropdown box. Audition automatically populates the Sample Rate, Bit Depth, and Mixing fields with recommended values.
Click OK to get your multitrack session ready for recording.
Select the settings for the track. For example, the volume level, input as mono/stereo, and output as mono/stereo/5.1.
Click the R icon in the track in which you want to record the audio and place the marker in the Editor panel at the exact time at which you want to start the recording.
Click the record button to start the recording and use the pause and stop buttons to control the pauses and endpoint of your audio track.
Editing your podcast
Your podcast can be a solo recording or a combination of voice and other elements such as ambience, special effects, background music, and voices of multiple speakers. To bring all these elements together and prepare a complete program, edit the various audio tracks in a multitrack session.
In a multitrack session, add your voice recording, music, and other audio elements to different tracks.
Arrange your clips on different tracks in the sequence that you want them to appear. For example, if you have different types of clips in your podcast session, arrange them in the following sequence with pauses and effects:
- Title music
- Intro sequence
- Voice of the primary host introducing the episode/topic
- Recording of the other hosts' talks with overlapping background music
- Sign-off
Removing unwanted background noise from your audio
The Essential Sound panel lets you assign a mix type to your clip and apply edits that suit its nature. For example, if you assign Dialogue as the mix type for a voice clip, the Dialogue tab of the Essential Sound panel presents you with several parameter groups related to that mix type. The parameters allow you to perform common dialogue tasks, such as unifying recordings to a common loudness, reducing background noise, and applying compression and EQ.
The mix types in the Essential Sound panel are mutually exclusive; that is, selecting one mix type for a clip reverts the previous changes made on that track using another mix type.
Choose Window > Essential Sound to open the Essential Sound panel.
Assign a mix type for the track that you are editing, for example, Dialogue.
You can refine a track using a preset from the Preset drop-down box. For example, the Podcast Voice preset has predefined settings for noise and rumble reduction, and de-essing.
To manually repair your sound, under Repair Sound, select the check boxes for the following settings and use the slider to adjust each of them according to your requirements:
- Reduce Noise - to identify and reduce background noise.
- Reduce Rumble - to reduce low-frequency sounds and plosives.
- DeHum - to reduce hum sounds caused by electrical interference.
- DeEss - to reduce harsh ess -like sounds.
You can use advanced noise reduction techniques, such as capturing noise print in a specific frequency range using the spectral editor and removing it.
Play the multitrack audio after you change the settings to test the output.
Matching loudness
In Audition, you can measure loudness in audio clips and apply correction to align loudness levels to accepted loudness standards.
Because podcasts are primarily consumed on mobile devices and in noisy environments, they require higher target loudness. You can set it at a level between -20 LUFS and -16 LUFS. The ITU broadcast standard for target loudness is -18 LUFS.
Choose Window > Match Loudness to open the Match Loudness panel.
Drag one or more audio files and drop them in the panel.
Click the Scan icon to analyze the current loudness values for each clip.
Click Match Loudness Settings to expand the loudness parameter group.
From the Match To drop-down list, select a loudness standard that suits your regional standards and content. For your podcast, choose the ITU broadcast standard preset that sets the Target Loudness to -18 LUFS.
Adjust the Maximum True Peak Level (between -0.2 dBTP and 1.4 dBTP), tolerance (at 2 LU), and click Run.
Applying effects
Note
This section is meant for expert users of Audition who want to edit their audio using the advanced features. If you apply rack effects by following the instructions given in this section, Audition overwrites the changes that you had made using the Essential Sound panel.
In the Multitrack Editor, you can apply up to 16 effects to each clip, track, and bus, and adjust them while a mix plays. (Apply clip effects if a track contains multiple clips that you want to process independently.)
Spoken-word podcasts sound better when they are equalized by boosting the lower frequencies and dampening the higher ones. You can do this using the effects in Audition.
Do any of the following:
- Select a clip, and click Clip Effects at the top of the Effects Rack.
- Select a track, and click Track Effects at the top of the Effects Rack.
- Display the fx section of the Editor or Mixer. (In the Editor panel, click the fx icon in the upper-left corner.)
To add preconfigured effects for podcasts, select Podcast Voice in the Presets dropdown box. The following effects are added to the track:
- Speech Volume Leveler
- Dynamic Processing
- Parametric Equalizer
- Hard Limiter
To manually add and configure effects, choose a slot and add an effect. For example, the Vocal Enhancer effect, which enhances male and female voices with separate settings.
You can add effects for up to 16 slots in the list.
You can choose from a list of Equalizer effects to equalize your audio--typically to boost the lower frequencies and reduce the higher frequencies.
Exporting and publishing your podcast
After you are done with your edits and previewing your changes, you can save your podcast in the format and settings that suit your target media.
The most common formats for podcast delivery are MP3 or AAC. MP3 is the most popular format used by podcasters. However, AAC files, often stored as .aac or .m4a files, offer better audio quality at smaller file sizes compared to MP3. AAC also supports metadata that MP3 does not support, such as Chapter Markers, and embedded links and images.
Recording your podcast at a higher encoding rate retains rich audio details. For stereo podcasts, 128-kbps MP3 is widely used. For mono podcast talks, 64-kbps MP3 is used. When it comes to efficient compression, smaller file size, and better audio quality, a 64-kbps AAC-HE (high efficiency) stereo file would fare better than a 128-kbps MP3.
Audition gives you a range of output and encoding options within the application or outside, such as exporting to Adobe Media Encoder. Media Encoder includes a series of formats and presets that allow you to render and publish high-quality audio output from Audition. To use the Export with Media Encoder, you must have installed the same version of Media Encoder as Audition on your computer.
Use one of the following options:
- To create a podcast file using Audition, choose File > Export > File.
- To create a multitrack mixdown, choose File > Export > Multitrack Mixdown, and then select Time Selection, Entire Clip, or Selected Clips.
- To export your output to your chosen output format using advanced encoding settings, choose File > Export > Export with Adobe Media Encoder.
To export using Audition, choose your format, sample type, format settings, and mixdown options by clicking the Change button in the Export Multitrack Mixdown or Save As dialog boxes.
Learn more about the various options for exporting your audio output in Audition.
Edit, mix, and record with Audition
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