Finding music and sound effects for your podcast responsibly can be tricky. You cannot use most music without purchasing a license, but some creators make content for others to use license-free. The following is list of sources of music and sounds that you can freely use in your podcasts. Many of these sites ask for "attribution", or, put more simply, they are asking to be given credit. You can give credit by either putting the music details in your podcast summary or by verbally mentioning the creator at the end of your podcast recording. 

Read the notes under each link for more details about how these creators would like to be credited. 

How do I Podcast Responsibly? 

When podcasting you might want to add in clips of music, film, or other copyrighted material. But, using any length of copyright material may be copyright infringement. Before adding a piece of audio NOT created by yourself into your podcast, you need to examine WHY you are using this clip. Your use of a copyrighted audio might fall under fair use. Fair use is a legal exemption, that allows you to use copyrighted material, but it must be used for the following purposes: 

• Criticism
• Reporting/Research
• Teaching/Scholarship 

Please evaluate your purpose in using this clip, the nature of the copyrighted material, the amount you are using of the work, and the effect you using this clip would have on the original copyright holder. 

For a deeper examination check out this fair use guide.

The guide was created as a companion to the Pollak Library Makerspace's Podcast Studio. It will assist you with recording, editing, and finding free/fair use music or sounds. 

There are four ways to record in the podcast studio: 

1. Record directly on the RØDECaster Pro. To do this you need to bring a micro-SD card. You will use all of the buttons on the mixer, you do not need any outside devices
2. Record using AUDACITY on the Studio Mac. The RØDECaster Pro is already set up to record to the Mac. Open Audacity and use the controls in Audacity to record. (i.e. do not click "record" on RØDECaster Pro, click the record button (red circle) in Audacity)
3. Record using Adobe AUDITION on the Studio Mac. The RØDECaster Pro is already set up to record to the Mac. Open Audtion and use the controls in Audition to record. (i.e. do not click "record" on RØDECaster Pro, click the record button (red circle) in Audacity)
4. Record to your own laptop. We have a USB cord that connects to the RØDECaster Pro. You can connect your own laptop and use whatever recording software you want on your own device. 

This video demonstrate how to add multiple tracks and manipulate sound levels in Audacity 

This video demonstrates how to pair a cell phone or laptop to the RØDECaster Pro through Bluetooth. This allows you to record audio from other devices. 

If you are finding that your mic is not picking up your sound as loud as it should. You might need to adjust your gains. Here is a video the demonstrates how to adjust gains on the RodeCaster Pro. 

Audacity Controls: 

Settings to Amplify Voice:  Effect > Volume and Compression > Compressor > (input these settings) 

Audacity

Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor and recording application software, available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like operating systems. This is easy to use and recommended for beginners. 

Adobe Audition 

Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation developed by Adobe Inc. featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view 

* CSUF students, faculty, and staff can access Audition by downloading Adobe Creative Cloud Pro Suite  

RØDECaster Pro User Guide