An incredibly honest accounting of how I make podfic in powerpoint form

Ravin

Voiceteam Mystery Box 2021 Voiceteam Mystery Box 2023

https://ravinpods.neocities.org/PodficResources

Step 1:

Locate a comfy place to set up. You might be here a while, so someplace you can sit for a long time with good posture is a must cause breathing while talking is important.

A comfy chair

Lion kitty approved

Step 2:

Acquire a cheerleader. Someone to encourage you to keep going, or maybe just to sit on you until you finish.

Lion Kitty

He is very accomplished at sitting on people and not moving.

Step 3:

Plug in Microphone.

Very important step. Do not recommend skipping.

Correctly plugged in Microphone

Step 4:

Open recording program. I use Audacity, so it works best if the Microphone is plugged in first.

�Specifically, I use version 3.1.3 which has all the features I like and does not contain some of the newest stuff which seems to irritate the people more used to the older Audacity veterans.

�If you haven’t tried Audacity, but want to, you can use it online without downloading anything at https://wavacity.com/.

Screenshot of Audacity

Step 5:

Position your mic. I’ve found it works best if my mic is NOT on the same surface as my computer because it will pick up sounds from the vibrations even though the fan isn’t too noisy. I’ve also found out that making sure the cord is not somewhere where you or your policing cheerleader are going to accidentally bump it mid-recording is very important.

Don’t get too close! Plosives are a pain to fix. You can avoid them by pulling back a little from your ic and not talking directly into it.

Step 6:

If you have not yet located a fic to record, do so now. �When I don’t already have something in mind, I start by picking a tag that I’m interested in. From there, I filter for complete works, language, and word count; use BrickGrass’s BP highlighter; and then scroll until I find something interesting.

Screenshot of AO3

I love using AO3 tag filtering.

Step 7:

Set up your screen. Most often I do this by putting AO3 and Audacity side-by-side on my monitor, but this may not work on smaller screens. A second screen or device may be quite helpful, but it depends on what you have available and what works best for you.

AO3 and Audacity side-by-side

Ignore how Spotify is open in the background.

Step 8:

Click the red button.

Screenshot of Audacity

The red button is circled. It is very important.

Step 9:

Wait two seconds. This is both so you can visually verifying that you are recording, and to get some background noise by itself because you’ll probably need to filter it out of your recording later.

Screenshot of Audacity

Two seconds of background noise

Step 10:

Read your fic. Sometimes I try to do character voices, but I’m not very good at it because I tend to forget what voice I’m doing for which character, but that’s okay because I have fun trying. That is the most important thing to me about podfic. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it is something that can just be fun.

Screenshot of Audacity

Step 11-100:

Mess up. You are going to do this a lot. There are many ways to deal with it.

1. Just keep going. Some people record everything in one take and don’t bother re-recording or editing. This is a perfectly valid method of creating podfic.
2. Stop recording, delete you mistake, and then re-record the affected line(s) before continuing. Another valid method, but not one I recommend. Very time-consuming.
3. Mark your mistakes and come back to them later. By using long pauses or loud noises, like snapping, you can visually see your mistakes and edit them out later. Use whatever method suits you and keep recording. I used to use this method and it works very well.
4. The punch-and-roll method. This is what I use now and I love it (Thanks Jocunda!). Punch-and-roll means that I can re-record over my mistakes as I go and eliminates so much editing time later. See JocundaSkykes’s awesome tutorial for more information on how.

Step 101:

Save your recording. Seriously, do it. Right now. Before something goes wrong.

It’s always the one time you don’t save where something goes wrong. Don’t tempt fate.

CTRL

+

S

Step 102:

Edit. Or don’t edit. This step is entirely optional. Feel free to skip straight to step 106. I do sometimes.

If you aren’t skipping, then this is where you delete any mistakes you need to delete.

Step 103:

Noise reduction.

1. Remember that two seconds of silence? Go back and highlight just those two seconds.
2. Click Effect > Noise Reduction > Get Noise Profile
3. Select your entire track
4. Click Effect > Noise Reduction > Ok

Screenshot of Audacity

Step 104:

Run some other filters. I used to not bother with this step. Then I read JocundaSykes’s tutorial on how she does things and now I use the same set of filters all set up in a Macro so I don’t have to think about them. I’ll let you go read her tutorial yourself and if you want to set up your own macros someone else (I don’t know who, I’m sorry), has a wonderful tutorial on how to set up macros in Audacity here.

Step 105:

Listen through one final time for any mistakes, odd pausing or other timing issues, etc.

I frequently skip this step.

Step 106:

Add metadata.

Edit > Metadata

To make this easier and faster, I have a default template set up in Audacity that pre-fills most of my data. I just add the link author and title.

Step 107:

Export.

File > Export > Export as MP3

Step 108:

If I have made cover art for the podfic (or if someone else has), I’ll now attach the cover art to the podfic. I use Adobe Audition, but there are many free programs out there that so the same thing. Or you can skip this set entirely.

Screenshot of Adobe Audition

MouseK made the lovely cover art pictured here

Step 109:

Upload to the internet. These days I use Archive.org, but I’ve also used dropbox in the past and it works just as well. I prefer hosting options that can be steamed directly from AO3 myself, but there are many more out there.

GodOfLaundryBaskets has a great guide to the different options and how to use them here.

Step 110:

Post.

Adding all those tags can take forever, but with irrationalpie’s podfic posting helper, posting podfic is a breeze.

Get the extension for yourself on Firefox or Google Chrome.

Step 111:

Make another podfic.