Speaker 1: In today's video, let's talk about a web-based audio editing and recording software that you can use maybe with your Chromebook, or maybe you don't want to download something like Audacity. I've got some answers for you coming up here shortly. Stick around. Hey there, podcaster. My name is The Shan Man, radio broadcaster, podcaster, and podcast producer. And today's video is powered by, of course, by Agora Pulse. And we're talking today all about web-based applications where you can edit up your podcast. Now, there are a lot of applications out there that you can use as a service where you can record your podcast, where you can use those services as hosting for your podcast, get analytics. But there is no real dedicated software out there that is similar to something like, say, Adobe Audition, or maybe even Pro Tools, even Audacity for that matter. And this is actually... The reason why I'm making the video really is because I want to show you how to edit your podcast. And I want to show you how to do that. And the reason why I'm making this video really is because it was a question that was asked on my YouTube channel, whether or not there was some type of software that this person could use for their Chromebook. And I said at the time that there wasn't, and I didn't know of any type of software that was like that. It wasn't until later on in the comments that someone actually commented and said, hey, you know what? There actually is software out there that you can use to record a podcast. If you have a USB microphone, yeah, you could probably do it. And you can go ahead and record a podcast. And I said, hey, you know what? There actually is software out there and develop some type of podcast from that point forward. And I thought, well, let me go ahead and check this out. Now, the two programs that were mentioned inside of that comment thread were one program called Soundation and another one called Soundtrap. Today, I'm going to be doing a review basically on Soundtrap because that is the one that I thought that worked better. When I downloaded Soundation, it seemed to be a little more clunky. And based on the follow-up comments in that particular user looking to use that type of software, she said that Soundation just really didn't work out. And I found kind of the same thing. It just really wasn't something that was really user-friendly. Now, as far as Soundtrap is concerned, I want to talk to you about my thoughts on the actual application itself and whether or not it's worthy of being a part of you and your podcasting journey if you're just trying to get started with your podcast. And that's where a lot of people are when they're starting a podcast. They're like, I don't have the money to... To get something like Adobe Audition or maybe I just don't want to use Audacity because it looks a little outdated. And I totally get that. At the end of the day, if the processes are right in terms of systems and if your systems are set up right for audio editing and those applications are able to handle your systems, then I would say that it's really worthy for your podcasting journey. So let's just jump into my review of Soundtrap. Soundtrap and whether or not it will be good for you in the podcasting journey. Okay. So the first thing that I want to make note of is that, and I said it earlier, that you can use a USB microphone with a Soundtrap. And this is something that I think that is a benefit for those of you who don't want to buy a mixing board and you don't want to get extra microphones, or maybe you want to do a podcast with someone who lives in Illinois when you live in Los Angeles. This might be an option for you. There are other ways you can record interviews. Say, by using Zoom or Google Hangouts or whatever, but Soundtrap gives you this option. And I want to kind of make that known that Soundtrap really is for collaborators, for people who want to make music. That is its primary function in terms of how you create audio inside of Soundtrap. It's really for music making, but there is a podcasting function that is available when you go in and you start a brand new project within Soundtrap. So just understand that this is really a beginner's software, web-based application software. It should be pretty easy to use, but it's going to have some limitations, especially when it comes down to recording and maybe the sound of the recording. And I'll jump into that here very shortly. Now, if you are using a USB microphone, like say the Blue Yeti that I have here, or maybe it's an Audio-Technica 2100 or any other USB-capable device that will be able to plug straight directly into your computer, you are able to go ahead. And use this USB microphone, only one USB microphone in the computer. You can't plug multiple ones in and run a show that way. You're only able to use one microphone. And this is a common question that gets asked by a lot of people who are trying to start a podcast. Can they plug two USB microphones in and record into the application itself? No, you can't do that. You only get one option to select that microphone, and that will be just one Blue Yeti. So just kind of understand that. If you're a Blue Yeti or you're an ATR2100 into Soundtrap or into your computer so that Soundtrap can recognize it, you can actually monitor yourself in headphones if you're looking to record a podcast with, say, another person that is on the collaboration tool within Soundtrap. And I think that is really cool. There's specific reasons why you use headphones when you record a podcast. I have a video that you can go ahead and check up right here as it flies out on the video screen. You can tap there if you're interested in learning more about soundtrap.com. And I'll see you more about why you use headphones and picking some of the best headphones for yourself. But for the most part, if you're going to monitor yourself and use that function inside of Soundtrap, it is available. You can use headphones. There is also noise canceling or voice canceling, I believe, within the actual application itself. When you jump into that screen, it'll ask you, are you using headphones? Are you not using headphones? So they really kind of take into account whether or not that sound is bleeding over into your microphone from, say, your speakers into your microphone. Or if you're just using headphones itself. Now, I will say this about using the Blue Yeti microphone. And I don't know if this is common for other USB microphones, but when I plugged in the Blue Yeti into the computer and was monitoring through Soundtrap, the monitoring through my headphones sounded a little weird. And I think that's as a result because this particular microphone has a headphone jack on the very bottom of it. So you can already monitor yourself. So I don't know if that was an issue. But in the final recording, when I recorded, I was able to monitor myself. I recorded something inside of Soundtrap. It came out pretty decent. I'm not going to say it came out great, but it came out decent. So that's just something that you can think about or consider whenever you're recording. It might not be the best audio, but it's going to be some pretty good audio. It wouldn't be something that I think that would deter me from podcasting at all. But it's not going to be super high quality if you're running it, say, through a mixing board or anything else like that. These Blue Yetis do a pretty good job. But you have to remember, you're running through a web-based application. And sometimes the audio, it may not be all that great. Or maybe there's a setting that you didn't set up right within Soundtrap. You might want to research their FAQ section on their website to see if you can figure that out for yourself. Now, I keep bringing up this topic of collaboration, the collaboration tools. And I mentioned Zoom. I mentioned Google Hangouts. And podcasters who are looking to, say, co-host a podcast with someone who's in another location, remote hosts, I guess, is what you would call it. Soundtrap gives you that option inside of, their web-based application, especially when you start a brand new project. If you go up to the top right-hand corner, you can see that there is a button that shows a couple of people on the side. And then, of course, you tap on that, and it'll give you an option to share out the invitation to your Facebook page, your Google Plus page, your LinkedIn page, I believe, Twitter. But you can also send out those invitations via email too. So maybe it's just you and a guest. You can go ahead and just share that out to someone's email address. If you don't want to do it up on social media at all. Now, I do believe that those people do need to have a Soundtrap account. I can't be for sure. I haven't tested this out. But I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out that answer whenever you do go through and use Soundtrap. But this could present a bit of a problem for people who are going to be guests on your podcast, not co-hosts, but guests. So you want to interview someone who specializes in a particular field. They may have to make a Soundtrap account. Can't be for sure. But if you do, you can do that. But again, you'll figure it out whenever you start testing and playing around. I recommend that you always test and play around with the software before you use it. But as long as that person has a quality microphone on their end, say they do have another Blue Yeti or an ATR2100, the sound should come out pretty clean, pretty clear too. So that is kind of a benefit there. One of the things whenever you record into the multitrack editor session of Soundtrap is that when you create options, you're going to be able to record the sound that you're going to be able to record. So if you're going to record audio, voice tracks itself, Soundtrap will automatically separate the voice tracks out from one from the other. Now, this really is basically a preference of a lot of podcasters. And I don't understand why they use this method. I mean, I understand why they use it. They want to isolate one voice from another voice so that they can edit that particular sound and maybe normalize it to where it sounds, the volume sounds almost equal to your volume and they can fix that. But to me, it's all about time. It's about already setting up the processes to make sure that their audio sounds great and recording on one track. And I particularly record on one track when I use Adobe Audition because a sound that is coming through a phone line that is coming through a microphone over the computer, it should already be normalized and you can utilize some of the tricks inside of Adobe Audition that will help you fix that audio. But in the case of Soundtrap, you're getting two audio files and just know that it might be a little bit difficult whenever you're editing. You might trim something or you might splice something and you might screw up a couple of areas that I could see probably being a problem. But more than likely, you might not have that issue. But having two voice tracks might become a little cumbersome. And that's just something to really think about. I personally don't use that method. When you record an actual voice track itself, you can set up presets that will have a compression, they'll have dynamics processing, normalization, equalization. That inside of the actual settings themselves, whenever you go in and you start recording it, Soundtrap will ask you, which microphone do you want to use? And then you'll see some knobs and dials right there that will say, where do you want to pan the audio? So you can set that up right away inside of Soundtrap itself so that you can get a quality recording. But that's just not it. After you're finished recording, you can go in and do some more detailed dynamics processing on pieces of audio. And this is pretty good. I mean, considering that it's like an Adobe Audition, it does pretty good. Just understand that the processing that you would be putting on a voice isn't going to really be as good as something, sayenta Pro Tools or a Adobe Audition, those are specifically made for optimizing the sound of the voice or the sound of the piece of audio. So you just kind of have to really understand that. For the most part, if you want to create a voice track where you have a lot of deep and low end on your voice, you can do that inside of Soundtrap. Just make sure you go in and you are clicking in the settings of those particular layers of the multi-track editor, and you can set up the settings and the dynamics processing for your voice in those areas. Now, Soundtrap does allow you to create up to five projects. So that means if you had a podcast that you were creating and you wanted to record a podcast, I don't know how you would work that workflow inside of Soundtrap, but if you were creating five different interviews, you would get five projects per month. And then after that, you're going to have to pay for the projects, for additional projects. And really, like I said, this is for music projects alone. But if you wanted to use it for podcasting, you could do that for yourself. But the pricing to get maybe an upgraded version, I think it ranges anywhere between $399 to maybe even $20. I can't even remember what the pricing structure is. But if you just go ahead and you click, on the pricing structure, it will tell you what you will get with a $399 plan. I don't think it's $20. In fact, if you look on the screen right now, it's actually $12 a month to get the supreme plan. You get unlimited projects, you get all kinds of auto-tuning stuff. And again, this is for musicians only. Will you need it as a podcaster? It will be completely up to you. So make sure that you double check and see whether or not that is going to be worth it for you. Some things to consider whenever you're recording a podcast. Soundtrap is that the functionalities are not like Adobe Audition, obviously. But the reason why I want to bring this up for you is because the functionalities that I use in Adobe Audition are time-saving techniques. They are life-saving techniques. Let's say your computer crashes or your program crashes. Adobe Audition is constantly saving your work. So you can always jump back into Adobe Audition and pick up right where you left off. When you record into Soundtrap, you're not getting that type of, I guess you would call it service. You can record a podcast and you can go on and on and on to record a podcast, but you may have to take breaks within the podcast itself and save the actual podcast itself manually. And that might take some time. And that kind of worries me just because you could save a project and there's that potential that your web browser could crash and you could lose the entire interview itself. So that's valuable time that could be lost altogether. So just kind of be careful what you're using. I'm sure Soundtrap understands that, but you're using a free software with a lot of great functionality, but you got to be careful about whether or not your CPU can handle the workload or the payload of what you're asking it to do. Remember, these are all web-based programs and they are going to use some CPU. And if you're using up the CPU, depending on how many files you have on your computer, depending on how many files or applications that are being used, you may want to close down every application except for your web browser to make sure that you're getting a quality recording. But I can't be for sure. That's a question that you would probably have to ask Soundtrap themselves to see whether or not, if there's some type of recovery, which I doubt there is, you're going to have to always save your work, but just be careful with what you're recording because the CPU that you're using will overload your computer probably. I mean, I'm not really a computer super... Geek whiz, but we all have had a computer or an application crash and you understand where that can lead to. So just kind of be aware of that. One of the cool things that I saw inside of Soundtrap is that you can import your own audio files. So let's say that you had a piece of audio that was pre-produced by some type of sound editor or designer. You can actually drag in... I'm sorry, not drag in. You can actually open those pieces of audio and put them inside of Soundtrap's multi-track editor. Now, you can't drag them in, with Adobe Audition, you can drag files in and it takes just a few seconds for it to render and you can start editing and you're saving a lot of time. With Soundtrap, it's got to upload the audio into the platform itself and that does take time. So if you have large pieces of audio, it might take a lot of time, but I don't anticipate you as a podcaster uploading more than a couple minutes of pieces of audio if you're using them for intros and outros. That's probably going to be okay for you. Okay. But as far as maybe bringing in your audio, you can drag files in and it takes just a few seconds to get them in. So if you have a podcast that you recorded on some other application that you're trying to edit inside of Soundtrap, it may take some time for that file to upload, but you probably still could be able to upload it and start editing after a few minutes. Just understand that it could be a little cumbersome if you're trying to import tracks. And if you're trying to create templates within your podcast itself, so that you can kind of just have the same format going on and on and on over and over, it might be useful. But if you're trying to create a template within your podcast itself, so that you can kind of just have the same format going on and on and on over and over, it might be useful. Later on down the line, but just understand the upload process does get a little cumbersome. I was actually really surprised with the audio edits that you could make inside of Soundtrap. In fact, you can create fade ins, you can create splices, you can create fade outs. There's a lot of cool functionality. And I want to recommend to you or urge you to actually just go in and start playing around with Soundtrap with pieces of audio to see what you can do and how you can make your own podcast or maybe even a new music piece. It's really kind of useful, I would say. The one thing you have to be aware of is whenever you're editing, there's going to be a button that is up in the top right-hand corner and it's for snapping to the grid. And in other words, you can drag a piece of audio within the timeline itself. And if you splice something and you're trying to drag pieces of audio so they can connect together, typically those pieces of audio will snap together and they'll be really close together. I don't like having snap to grid on all the time, because I like to make really, 10% of the time, I don't like having snap to grid on all the time, because I like to make really, fine edits. And with those fine edits, you're able to really make really seamless pieces of audio whenever you're doing any type of editing. One of the downfalls though, I think, with Soundtrap is that you can't drag one piece of audio from one layer into the next layer. You have to actually create duplicate layers. And that is just a piece of... It's just part of the process for Soundtrap. It's not an Adobe Audition. It's not a Pro Tools. You're using one web-based software, just to understand that. So you're not getting as great of service that you would get when you're using some other software that really does the job really well. So my final thoughts on Soundtrap is that it's actually a pretty decent program for being free. I'm not going to lie that I was kind of surprised after I started playing with it a little bit. The sound quality can probably improve. The editing functions can probably improve a little more. I could also see that there will be a lot of things that are going to be a little bit more different. There will be better dynamics processing that will be included later on in future versions of the web-based application. But for right now, if I were to give this application for beginners a grade, I would give it probably a good B or B+. It wouldn't get an A just because it's not a professional piece of audio software that you can edit on. The only reason I give it a B plus is because the time-saving techniques that you can use in an Adobe Audition do not exist inside of Soundtrap. And when you're editing podcasts in Soundtrap, it's going to take you a lot longer. And I just don't like spending a lot of time inside of my audio editing program when I can be spending more time cranking out more content or looking for guests. So Soundtrap gets a B plus, still a pretty good grade. And I would recommend it for any beginning podcasters looking to start up a brand new podcast. So let me know, do you think that Soundtrap is going to be something that you will be using for your audio editing needs or maybe even your recording needs? Leave a comment down in the section below if you're watching this online. And I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye. And of course, leave this video a thumbs up. And while you're there, go ahead and subscribe to this channel. I do post out videos that talk about things about podcasting. You never know what type of topic I'll come up with. And sometimes things pop up like this particular video. And I thought I would go ahead and share this one out with everyone because I know you're looking to start this podcast, but just don't know where to start. Now, if you are looking to jump into something that's a little different, maybe have higher quality sound that can service maybe you and your guests a little bit better, go ahead and click the link down below to my essential equipment guide for podcasting. It's where I use a mixing board and I plug it into my computer and I get this high quality sound that you can create. It's actually like sound that's like comes out of a radio station, really. So you can check that out. And of course, I will go ahead and leave a link to the basic podcasting setup that accompanies that particular guide itself. It's very useful and it's very helpful for you. Of course, I'll leave a link for it up here in the up here as well. If you want to go ahead and click on the button, if you're if you're getting close to finding out all the information of your of how to start a podcast and over here on the right hand side, I'm going to go ahead and leave a video for that basic podcasting setup. If you missed that link above and you can go ahead and check out that video itself. And in the meantime, thank you guys so much for watching. I really appreciate it. I appreciate your comments down below. Let me know what you think about Soundtrap, if this is going to be something useful. And in the meantime, thanks so much for watching. I'll talk to you next time. Bye for now.