I have edited audio for years with Adobe Audition and really liked it. I have done a few podcasts with it, edited a few voice overs for videos I shot, and narration for virtual tours for Kay’s real estate business. But I refuse to “rent” my software from Adobe for the rest of my life so have been stuck at Creative Suite 6 with no way to upgrade to newer Adobe products.
I have several projects coming up, notably a lot more podcasts in the near future. Kay and I decided to create an Oklahoma Real Estate Radio podcast to help with her fast expanding business. I also am doing a Ride Oklahoma podcast for one of my web sites. So I started looking for an audio editing program to use in podcasting.
At first I tried Garageband, and the latest version is pretty darn good. But I knew the learning curve for a new audio tool would be steep and huge, so I was reluctant to invest so much time in learning Garageband, then be forced to upgrade to something more powerful and have to relearn everything again. I checked into several programs and settled on Apple’s Logic Pro X – basically Garageband on super steroids. From everything I ready it is a very, very powerful audio editing tool that pro musicians use. While it is geared towards creating music, it has plenty of features for podcasters like me.
Little did I know how much of a learning curve I was biting off. Holy cow, Logic Pro X is a HUGE program, sort of like Photoshop. The biggest challenge is learning the new terminology. I didn’t know that you “bounced” a project to an MP3 file instead of “exporting” a file. I also had a hard time with all those analog-looking sound meters. But once I discovered you could turn them into digital graphs, I kind of started picking things up a bit quicker. Editing sound is kind of like editing photos and video – you have a digital stream of data in various frequencies and you have to massage those frequencies to get the sound you want. I always worked with digital sound graphs and meters with Audition so it took me a while to get Logic set up in more of a digital mode rather than looking like an old analog recording studio.
After a week I have learned the basics of the program and produced 4 short podcasts. I have been able to create templates for my projects and create reusable compressors, equalizers and even learned how to create a noise gate – something I never knew about in Audition and that is pretty darn handy.
After a steep week long learning curve I am starting to get the hang of Logic Pro X and even liking it MORE than Adobe Audition. I still have a LOT more to learn and doubt I will ever master the program, but hopefully I will learn enough to produce quality work in minimum time.
If you are a business and need to produce a podcast in Oklahoma, give me a shout. I have the gear and the tools to get it done.
Hi James,
How is the Logic Pro X working for you? I am coming up to a year on Adobe Audition, been using it for my podcast, however I am with you and do not want to rent this s/w for ever and a day. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
So far it is working fantastic. A bit different than Audition but it has HUGE third party support behind it so lots of options and add-ons available. I won’t be going back to Audition, I can promise you that. I am trying to get away from Adobe completely since I hate their software rental model. Adobe has opened the door for lots of other software companies and these other companies are finally starting to fill the void.
Thank you James for your feedback! I am making the transition. I too do not want to rent s/w for ever
Have you made some sort of guide or published anything showing how you edit and what youve learned? Id love to learn from your experiences. Havent found any good resource on it specifically for editing a podcast.