Garage Band & iTunes Walkthrough for Podficcing

Updated January 2008: This walkthrough now uses GarageBand from iLife '08, though for the most part it is the same as '07. I've also cleaned it up and simplified a few things and added screenshots.

Intro to Podficcing

A lot of you seem interested in Podficing! I'm really hoping it catches on so I can build a huge stash of podfic on my iPod and carry them around with me when I go places.

But I figured, maybe a lot of you would like to know how to -do- this. Below is a tutorial for recording and adjusting a Podfic in Garage Band, and then tweaking the file into an mp3 with some neat tricks in iTunes (PC or Mac). Garage Band is probably only on macs, but isiscolo has a tutorial on her LJ linked to in the comments of the previous podfic post about a downloadable, free program you can use on PCs.

Equipment

If you are using a laptop with a mic built in, you won't need to buy one. An external mic can run on USB and be bought at an office supply or tech store for roughly ten Canadian dollars. Cheap, easy to use, and very simple.

GarageBand Pre-Recording

Obviously, we'll start by opening Garage Band. When the splash image opens, it gives you four options for different projects you can record. The fourth option is "Create New Podcast Episode". Click this.

Next you'll have to give it a name. I usually do "[fandom] Title of Fic Here", which will later be the exact name of the mp3 you produce, but it's up to you.

When Garage Band opens, the right-hand panel is full of images and media that you can associate with or insert into your podcast. I usually close this by clicking the "i" button right next to that to bring up some audio options instead.

Next, you need to pick your mode. The top left of Garage Band lists five automatic options and "tracks":

Podcast Track
Male Voice
Female Voice
Jingles
Radio Sounds

Click the small circle right next to the image of a head behind a mic for Male or Female. I'm female (obviously), so from now on I'll refer to the Female Voice track, but the options are all the same for Male, they're just optimized differently. (And automatically! So no worries.)

Now having picked "Female Voice" is great, but if you record as is right now, all the background noise of your room will be included. The hum of your computer, any air filter systems, and small background sounds. Often this comes off as a low buzzing sound that's really annoying. To fix this, take a look at the right hand panel, in the top corner.

Because I don't use an external microphone, I've selected Podcasting > iSight Microphone Female. This way, GarageBand will take into account the fact that my computer might hum, or that background sound might be recorded. It cleans up the sound as you record.

GarageBand Recording

The bottom section of GarageBand is where you're actually going to do your recording, where you can delete sections of a clip or adjust the pauses between segments.

To start recording, just hit the big red button, and talk.

I recommend starting a Podfic with the title, fandom and your name. If you're not the author (make sure you have their permission to do this!), you'll probably want to mention that, too. When you've said all that, hit the big red button again to stop.

Again, I'm on a laptop and the sound of me using the actual mouse button is pretty loud. It's easy to cut out, but to make things easier I just lightly tap using the touch-pad.

The red line indicating the time (it moves left-to-right as you speak) will go further on for a few seconds before stopping, to create a space between chunks of speech. The first time you hit the red button and then hit it again to stop, the red line will continue moving right until you hit the now blue "play" button. Move the red line back to a spot you're comfortable with and any time you hit record after this, the same amount of space should exist between chunks of audio.

This red line indicates where you are in the recording.

You can make as many "chunks" as you'd like. I like to read a section at a time, stop, drink, breathe, relax a little and maybe read ahead a bit before starting the next section. Also, if I've screwed up, I can always go back, highlight the section that was a problem and hit Command-X (Apple-X) to cut it. Then just drag the red line back to where you want to start from and continue.

It's a good idea to record some sample sound first just to make sure everything comes out okay. You can easily delete a section you don't like and tweak the settings until you think you're ready to record for real.

At the end of a story, I reiterate the title, fandom and author, and then give the address of the website where I post all my fics. I think it's just convenient.

Editing in GarageBand

When I first started recording in GarageBand the hum from my laptop was really loud. I mean it was kind of obnoxious. The thing is, it's a lot easier to get rid of that sound before you start recording than it is after. You can use Audacity to do it, but I've had some trouble navigating Audacity with a file I created in GarageBand. So really, tweak those settings Tweak them and tweak them again until you're actually ready to record.

But let's say you want to have more than one person recording audio in your story. The top half of GarageBand is where you can record separate tracks for that. For instance, if I'm recording audio with my friend Chris, I would record all the female audio first. Then I would go back and hit the red button next to "female narrator" again

to stop recording female audio, and then instead hit the one next to "Male Voice". Follow the steps at the beginning again to make sure your Male Voice is configured to remove background noise or other problems, and then record his track.

Alternating the dialogue between make and female is easy. Just drag your male voice so that is it above a gap in the female recording where you want it to be heard like this:

Now when that segment of female-audio stops, the male begins. Easy!

Cover Art

Cover art is one of my favourite add-ons to a podfic. If you're lucky enough that someone made cover art for you, or skilled enough to make it on your own, it's easy to add into the file before you even get into iTunes.

Along the very top of the screen you'll see the text "Drag artwork here!"

Scroll back to the very start of the track and do that-- just drag your cover art into that grey area.

Right there it looks kind of silly, eh? Look down in the bottom left instead.

If your image is bigger than the square that an iPod or other MP3 player will show, simply double-click your cover art here

and you can drag it around, crop it, or even re-scale it to fit better. When you're done, hit set.

When you think your podfic all set, hit Share >> Send Song to iTunes.

Every field here needs to be filled out or the file won't export. You'll notice that I've selected AAC Encoder here even though the drop-down box gives me the option of MP3 Encoder. I've done this to improve the quality of the file before it gets to iTunes, including the way it handles album art.

Make sure your Audio Settings say spoken podcast. GarageBand will shrink the file and optimize the sound one more time while it exports the file to iTunes.

Okay, I'm in iTunes with this file! What do I do now?

First, make sure you have iTunes set so that you can convert files to .mp3s instead of .aacs or .mp4s. Open iTunes options >> Advanced >> Importing >> Import Using:
And set this to MP3 encoder. Hit okay and you're done.

To convert the file to mp3, just right (control) click > Convert Selection to MP3. It takes about 30 seconds to convert a single file.

Right-click your podfic and hit "get info" inside your library.

iTunes lets you put a lot of information in about a single mp3. Hit the Info tab.

The Name section should already be filled out with the project name from Garage Band, but just in case it isn't, something like [Fandom] Title of Fanfic Here is probably good. Under Artist, obviously you want your name. But what about album?

You might be tempted to list the fandom here again, or write podfic, but if you're playing this on an mp3 player, this line will actually show up on the read-out. For that reason, and because it shows up in iTunes, it's probably better to put the address where your fics are here. That way it's easy for someone to find the rest of your stuff.

I usually put Fandom Fanfiction (replace Fandom with the name of the fandom) under Grouping just because it sorts nicely. The composer would be you again, and then under comments I write a disclaimer.

I don't post disclaimers on my fic subsite or even generally inside a fic. Instead I put a general disclaimer on my website that applies to everything under my domain. Regardless, having a disclaimer built into the file like this is a nice safety-net. Who knows if The Powers That Be will suddenly decide that Podficing is tantamount to Napster or something. If you're not sure how to handle a disclaimer, don't copy the random text I've put in this dialogue box-- it's not what normally goes in my podfic. Instead you might want to visit the OTW.

Now you could leave things just like this, or you could go a step further. I've only done this for one or two of my trials so far, but it looks like a good idea. Click the Lyrics tab.

You can paste the whole story in here. The whole freaking story. Talk about mixed media. I thought this was a great option because it keeps the whole package in a single file. Even if you lose your drive or something, your computer crashes and all your fanfic are gone--

Someone out there might have your podcast, and your podcast might have the story built in, already transcribed, and all you would have to do is copy and paste. Another safety feature as well as a convenience on both ends.

More on Album art, extras, etc.

There are a few other awesome things you can do with the file if you want, too-- really neat little things. A lot of you probably read yin_again's stories and listen to her podfic and are familiar with her "albums". Yin puts together say, five stories in a series, each in a separate podfic, but compiles them as an album. It really just means changing that line up above in the Info section where it says "album" and also putting information right beside it under "track __ of ___". Really easy!

You can also put album art in the file. I know-- it's awesome. Right now you're under the Info tab from ctrl/right-clicking an mp3 and hitting "get info" inside iTunes. Along the top there are all sorts of other tabs, and the last one is Artwork. Click that.

You can hit "add" to browse your files and add more than one image to the file, or you can just drag an image in directly to that white pane from another window. If you download a newer copy of my Hydro-universe fics, you'll get cover artin the file that will show up in iTunes or on your iPod or other mp3 player. It's just a .jpg file, but it's built in to the .mp3! (Though if you've already done this in GarageBand, you don't have to!)

AudioBook Format & Other Web Resources

Also there is the AudioBook format. Having your podfic converted to an Audio Book is convenient for several reasons. For one, it automatically groups every audio book together on a single playlist on your iPod or in iTunes. For another the files are smaller. Cybel on LJ will often convert files from .mp3 to audio book out of the kindness of her heart, which is great because the best program I know of for doing this costs money. Similarly, General_jinjur hosts a multi-fandom podfic archive on her domain that you can dig through or request to be included in.

The podfic community has really expanded since I first started listening and recording. A few places you might be interested in posting on, getting help from, or perusing on Livejournal are:

Podfic_tips: A place to ask questions, get help, or dig through tutorials and other information.
Podslash: Not just slash, surprisingly. Multifandom.
SGA Podfic: For Stargate Atlantis.

A further list of many podfic coms can be found thanks to mathmusician here.

That's all, folks.

Hopefully that was helpful. I didn't go into anything crazy because... I've only done this a few times and I'm still trying to improve my recordings. You can add images to your podfic, sound effects, music, movies, all sorts of things. You could probably make a pod-vid-fic if you wanted. Some sort of combination of an AMV and a Fanfic. With music. I don't know how, but somewhere on the net there's a walkthrough.

Just remember to speak slowly and enunciate as much as possible. It's really really tempting to rush through because it's kind of embarrassing. That's why I do this only when everyone else is out. But try it. Just give it a shot!

It's fun, it's easy, and it's great on both ends. You can even get other people to read your fic for you. They do request posts on both of the above coms!

Mostly, I just want to download podfics by more people.

This walkthrough is for information purposes only. Please do not reproduce without permission.