Tutorials Podcasting

How to Edit Podcast Audio in Audacity

Beginner · ~45 min

Overview

Audacity is free, powerful, and does everything you need for podcast editing. This guide gives you the exact workflow, from raw recording to finished MP3, including the settings that actually matter and the order in which to apply them.

What You Need

Audacity 3.x (free at audacityteam.org)
Your raw podcast recording (WAV or MP3)
FFmpeg library installed in Audacity (for MP3 export)

Steps

Import your recording

Open Audacity → File → Import → Audio. Your waveform appears as a horizontal track. Use Ctrl+Scroll (or pinch on trackpad) to zoom in on the timeline. You need to see individual words and breaths clearly, zoom in until the waveform fills most of the screen.

Cut the bad takes and long pauses

Select a region with your mouse, then press Delete to remove it. For false starts, select from just before the mistake to just before the clean take. For long pauses (over 1.5 seconds), select most of the silence and delete it. Leave 0.3s of room tone. Avoid cutting too aggressively. The conversation needs to breathe.

Apply noise reduction

Select a 1 to 2 second region of pure room noise (before you started speaking). Go to Effect → Noise Reduction → Get Noise Profile. Then select all (Ctrl+A) → Effect → Noise Reduction → set Noise Reduction: 12, Sensitivity: 6, Frequency Smoothing: 3 → OK. Listen back and check it doesn't sound phasey or robotic, reduce the dB value if needed.

Add compression

Select all → Effect → Compressor. Use: Threshold −18dB, Noise Floor −40dB, Ratio 3:1, Attack 0.20s, Release 1.0s. Tick Make-up gain for 0dB after compressing. Compression brings loud moments down so quiet moments sound relatively louder. The result is a voice that sits consistently in the listener's ears.

Normalise loudness to LUFS

Select all → Effect → Loudness Normalization. Set: Normalize Stereo/Mono to −16 LUFS. This is a single clean gain pass applied last, after all your processing is locked in. It ensures your episode meets podcast platform standards.

Export as MP3

Go to File → Export → Export as MP3. Set: Bit Rate Mode = Constant, Quality = 128 kbps for mono voice, 192 kbps for stereo with music. Add metadata tags (artist, title, album art). Save and you're done. Upload the MP3 to your podcast host.

Pro Tips

Always save the Audacity project file (.aup3) before exporting, if you need to re-export later, you won't have to redo your edits.
Use keyboard shortcut Z in Audacity to snap selections to zero-crossings, which eliminates click artefacts when cutting.
Record in WAV, edit in WAV, export to MP3 only at the final step, re-encoding an MP3 compounds quality loss.

Knowledge Base

What You'll Learn

Edit podcast and voiceover audio in Audacity, the free, open-source audio editor. Learn recording, trimming, noise reduction, EQ, compression, and export settings.

Audacity Basics

Record (Ctrl+R), play (Space), stop (Space). Waveform appears in track. Select sections by clicking and dragging on waveform. Edit menu provides trim, cut, copy, delete, paste.

Editing Workflow

Import music track (File → Import Audio).
Record voiceover separately (Ctrl+R, select track, record).
Trim silence at start/end (Select → Silence Finder).
Align voiceover to music (move track with Time Shift Tool).
Adjust volume (Amplify or Normalize).
Apply effects (Compressor, EQ).
Export as MP3 (File → Export Audio).

Essential Effects

Noise Reduction: Get Noise Profile from silent section, then apply to whole track.
Compressor: Reduce dynamic range. Threshold -12, ratio 4:1.
Equalization: Brighten (boost treble) or warm (boost bass). Subtle changes only.
Normalize: Peak audio to -3 dB (leaves headroom).

Where This Fits

This guide covers one specific part of podcasting. The wider picture. The whole setup from equipment and recording through editing, publishing, and handling remote guests, is in Best Podcast Setup for Beginners, which frames the discipline as a whole and links out to the detailed guides underneath it, including this one. If you are starting from scratch rather than solving a specific problem, read that first and come back here.

FAQ

Q: Should I use Audacity or Reaper?
A: Audacity is free and simple. Reaper is more powerful ($60) but steeper learning curve.