Tutorial: Page (1) of 3 - 02/28/06

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When Apple released the Chapter Tools feature for podcasters, all sorts of applications sprang up to assist those wanting to create an enhanced podcast.  Unfortunately, these solutions were often time consuming sometimes being a kluge at best.  Now with the release of GarageBand 3.0, Apple has made enhanced podcast creation a snap by keeping it in one application.  In this tutorial I?ll walk you through the steps.

Step 1:  Launch GarageBand 3.0, and select New Podcast Episode from the start menu.

Step 2:  Select your directory, and name your show.  For this example, I?ll be creating a short podcast for those interested in Astronomy, so I?ll call mine AstroBytes. 

Click Create.

By default GarageBand creates several tracks for you.  The first is the Podcast Track.  This is where you can images, artwork, or other material for your enhanced production.  The second track in your list is created for the Male Voice ? although you can change this without a problem.  The same goes for the Female Voice track.  The Jingles and Radio Sounds track are for quick music creation.

Step 3:  Let?s record your voice first.  Connect your microphone to your Mac, and then activate the appropriate voice track (in this example Male Voice) by clicking on the track record button.

NOTE:  If you are connecting an external mic you might need to go into the Preferences and from the Audio/MIDI tab, select the appropriate Audio Input.

Step 4:  Do a quick mic check and see how your audio is coming into GarageBand.  With my setup, the mic is coming in on the Left Channel only.  To solve this problem, click on the Open Track Info icon (make sure the voice track is selected).

Change the Input from Channel 1&2 (Stereo) to Channel 1 (Mono).

Step 5:  With your script or outline in hand, press the Record button to record your podcast.

Then, when finished, press the Play Button to stop recording.

The nice thing about GarageBand is if you remember you needed to add something else on your track, it is a simple matter of placing the Timeline Indicator at the right location and continuing to record.

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