Podcasts are everywhere and most of them are nothing more than sales talk. But, if your podcast has some meat, web users will listen. Sound professional and even more will listen.

To sound professional, you need an audio editor. Some are open source software, others stand-alone and some, like Sound Forge, are bundled (with Director, in this case).

Ready to get started? There’s plenty of software to edit and mix your audio files so you sound good.

Traverso DAW

Any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) needs lots of functionality. Who knows, you may be working with .aif files one day and .wav the next. Or you may be importing both for use in the same podcast. That’s why I like Traverso.

It’s totally x-platform, you can add or remove lots of plug-ins and edit on the fly, even as the audio is playing. You can drop in a music bed in real time to monitor your progress.

Also, Traverso enables you to open numerous .wav and .aif files simultaneously without blowing out your systems’ cache. Powerful utility and easy GUI makes this one of my top picks for professional editors and beginners. Try it. You’ll like it.

WavePad

Wavepad is a feature deep audio editor that comes with a kit full of special FX. It’s easy cut-and-paste GUI simplifies editing chores, but WavePad goes far beyond simple editing.

This editor comes with a package of FX – echo, controlled distortion, automatic room tone generator and a bunch of other features that even the expensive audio editors don’t have.

WavePad works with .wav files, mp3 files and other Microsoft-based formats, but wait, there’s more. This editor is x-platform so you can import sound files in just about any format including .aif (Mac’s format), .vox, .ogg, .au, real audio and other popular formats used by YouTube and other social media sites.

WavePad is a real workhorse, enabling you to open as many time lines as you need, And mixing from stereo to mono is as simple as one click. I highly recommend WavePad for beginners cause you’re going to like what this editor does for you.

Free Wave MP3 Sound Editor

Free Wave MP3 Sound Editor is simple to use. That’s why I like it. It’s a strictly Windows-based tool that lets you record your podcasts in MP3 format.

Free Wave comes with a few FX features – echo, noise reduction and such, but if you want to keep things simple and you don’t want a long learning curve, this is the editor for you.

BTW, even though Free Wave is strictly Windows based, your podcasts will automatically be translated from MP3 or .wav format to Mac’s proprietary .aif format, which means Mac users will hear you loud and clear.

Simple. No learning curve. A couple of features. If that’s all you need, Free Wave is all you need.

Expstudio Audio Pro

Lots of features with this editor/mixer including voice conversion and manipulation, easy zooming on the GUI for those fine edits, mic in the sound or import it from a full slate of sources, visual editing simplified.

Also comes with the full package of features standard:

• Room tone generator

• Noise filters

• File conversion (.wav to .aif, .aif to .wav, for example)

• Multiple markers with complete labeling functionality

• Compression to ADPCM, GSM, ALF2 and other industry-standard compression formats so your audio sounds good on any system using any browser. In other words, listeners hear you, not noise.

Got something to say? Got something worth hearing? Consider adding podcasts to your site and change them often.

Regular, updated podcasts create site stickiness. Give visitors a reason to come back with professional-sounding podcasts.

This is a guest post by Edward Khoo, a tech blogger based in Malaysia. Follow him on Twitter @squall768. Want to guest post for us? Visit the Guest Post information page to read how you can submit guest posts to us.