How to make a podcast in GarageBand: record, edit, add music and export

Open GarageBand, choose Empty Project, and pick the microphone (audio) track. Turn off the metronome and count-in, and switch the display from bars and beats to time so you can read minutes. Select your mic as the input and record in mono. If GarageBand shows no input, see core audio is not available.

Solo or in person, give each mic its own track. GarageBand can't call a guest, so many podcasters talk over Zoom while each person records their own voice locally, then import the files into GarageBand and line them up with a clap at the start. It works, but syncing is fiddly. A browser recording link gives you separate tracks without the stitching.

Place the playhead and split the region with Command-T, delete the bad part and close the gap. Do it across all tracks at once so voices stay in sync. Step by step in how to cut a track in GarageBand and editing audio in GarageBand. A long-running host we spoke to keeps edits light: cut what clearly should go, and leave the rest the way it happened.

Drag your intro and outro music onto their own track (find tracks in royalty-free podcast music). Show automation with A, then add points on the music's volume line to lower it when you start talking and bring it back at the end. For the ending, see how to fade out in GarageBand.

Choose Share, then Export Song to Disk, pick MP3 and a high quality setting, and upload the file to your podcast host. Details in how to export GarageBand to MP3.

GarageBand is a music app that works for podcasts. If you'd rather not manage timelines, the Hilite editor lets you cut by deleting words in the transcript, cleans the audio, adds intro music, and publishes the episode without exporting a file.