iLife '11: How to Modify a Podcast Episode in GarageBand

By Tony Bove from iLife '11 For Dummies

In iLife, GarageBand '11 is the perfect tool for creating audio or video podcast episodes with narration, dialogue, music, sound effects, chapter markers, artwork, and Web addresses (URLs).

Including images in your GarageBand '11 podcast

You can import media files from other iLife applications, including iTunes and iPhoto, into a podcast project. For example, you can drag artwork or an image from the Photos pane of the Media Browser to the Podcast Track. To find and preview media files, click the Media Browser button in the far right corner of the GarageBand window (or choose Control→Show Media Browser). You can even import other GarageBand projects that have been saved in an iLife preview.

To add artwork for the podcast episode (a photo or an image that’s visible while the episode plays), drag the image from the Media Browser to the Episode Artwork well in the Editor. You can also resize and crop the image: Double-click the image in the Episode Artwork well or the marker list to open the Artwork Editor, and then drag the Size slider in the Artwork Editor to resize the image, and drag the image within the black border to crop it.

Adding and editing markers in your GarageBand podcast

Markers are useful for separating sections of a podcast episode. You can add images to each marker region of the Podcast Track so that they appear during that portion of the podcast episode. Follow these basic guidelines to be able to create and add markers:

Add a marker: Click the Podcast Track, move the playhead to the place where you want to add the marker, and click the Add Marker (+) button at the bottom of the GarageBand window. The marker appears in the Editor below the tracks, and the start time for the marker appears in the Time column in the marker’s row. The marker also appears as a marker region in the Podcast Track: To resize the marker region, drag either edge of the marker region; to move it, drag it to a new position in the Podcast Track.
Add an image to a marker region: Drag the image from the Media Browser to the Artwork box in the marker’s row in the Editor. You can also drag the image directly to the Podcast Track, which adds a new marker region including the image.
Add a chapter title to a marker, turning it into a chapter marker. When people play a podcast episode in iTunes, they can easily move to a specific chapter in the episode. To add a chapter title to a marker, select the placeholder text in the Chapter Title column of the marker’s row and then type a title.

Adding episode information to your GarageBand podcast

Podcasts require information such as the episode title, author, and description. An episode may also have a parental advisory, which appears when someone plays the podcast in iTunes.

To edit the podcast episode’s information, select the Podcast Track and click the Track Info (look for the i) button (or choose Track→Show Track Info) to see the Episode Info pane. Click the Title field to type a title, and click the Artist field to add artist information. You can choose None, Clean, or Explicit from the Parental Advisory pop-up menu and include a description of the podcast episode in the Description field.

Learning to duck tracks in your GarageBand podcast

You may want to duck, or lower the volume of, the backing tracks for a podcast episode in order to better hear spoken narration or dialogue. The ducking controls appear in the track header for a podcast project with arrows pointing up and down. (If the arrows aren’t visible, choose Control→Ducking to turn them on.)

First you make a track the lead track by clicking the upper part of its ducking control (the arrow pointing upward). Then you make other tracks backing tracks by clicking the lower part of the track's ducking control (the arrow pointing downward). As a result, whenever sound appears on a lead track, the backing tracks are lowered and the volume of the lead track stays the same.