We have finally come close to the end of connection of a home recording studio. A digital recording software allows you to capture digital information or signals to something we can use, i.e. save to harddisk as a file.

An audio file save music or voice information. You can mix, arrange, playback, convert, and finally master all the results for production and distribution.

More sophisticated audio recording software usually comes with an editing feature too.

When digging through the software options, you may notice that much of them perform the same basic functions. There are even some free software available to record edit basically edit the audio file.

For more advanced users, those basic functions barely scratch the surface of what they expect their digital studio should be able to do.

Still, a myriad of choices are available from a single software package to multiple independent software that allow them to not only record voice and music data from a mic, but also multiple sources, edit MIDI data, mix, add effects and take the audio to the level you want.

Choosing the Right Audio Recording Software

Unlike music professionals, talkshow podcasters who want to do it themselves only need to master some basic functions of audio recording and editing.

For examples, you may or may not want to know a single thing about recording MIDI data and editing it if you don’t want to. In other cases when you want to create your own intro and outro music, you want to take a look into looping features of the software.

It comes back to what you want to accomplish. Most operating system with what we should say the most basic of recording software. It can record short messages and encode into different audio format for personal use.

It may even be widely distributed as a podcast but with a better software, you can produce more professional recording, not to mention that you can edit out clips and other neat features.

Podcasters should require nothing more than recording, basic editing, probably mixing voice data with intro and outro music, and finally convert the results into the format ready for distribution on the Net.

Options Every Podcast Publisher Should Have

Most sound recording software include these features out of the box. But just to be on the safe side, you will want the software that supports:

• The audio format you want to distribute. Whether it is an MP3, WMA, RM or any other formats, make sure the software has support for it. MP3 encoding, to take it as an example, is not a free format. Some software will require you to install a separate MP3 encoder for this feature to work.
• Sample rate and bit depth of your final podcast. For music distribution, you want a higher definition in terms of sample rate (kHz) and bit depth (bits). Podcast publishers have the option to encode audio at lower quality. Even free recording software should have these options nowadays but old software may not.

Recommendations

Audacity is by far one of the most popular free recording studio software available on the market. It is available in multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

If your budget is tight and you want to start podcasting immediately, you cannot go wrong with Audacity. I have no experience with Mac OS, so apologize for the lack of insights in this particular area.

The software I personally use for recording and editing podcasts is Adobe Audition — formerly known as Cool Edit Pro. It is quite easy to use, supports various effects, noise reduction, time stretching, etc., so you can virtually produce a podcast the way you want without having to be a techie.

Alternatively, you can get Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio edition for Windows. Studio and Producer version may be too costly for podcasters but the home studio edition is a steal and should be able to cater the need of a professional podcaster.

Tips on Choosing Audio Recording Software

The first tip is of course, don’t buy immediately. Take advantage of free trial. If you dislike anything, install and test another package. Make the most out of every dollar you spend.

You don’t have the get the shiniest and newest version on the market. If you stumble upon a used software for sale for half of the original price, take it. Don’t forget to check for the completeness of the package to include CD, manuals, and so on.

Most important of all is your familiarity with the software. You might be surprised about what you can do with a sound recording software if you master it to heart. It will involve quite a learning curve, but for basic podcast requirement, you should be able to get up and running from zero in a day or two.

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