This book is all about Audacity, an open source audio editing software. This means that the software is free to download, and you can use it to create items that are freely distributable. You'll learn all of the basics about creating audiocasts—or podcasts—that can be uploaded to the Web and shared with the world.

To start with, this chapter will discuss what audio editing software is, who typically uses it, how you can use it, and what computer operating systems it will work on. We'll also talk a bit about how Audacity is an open source project and what that means to you and your projects, as well as the differences between Audacity 1.2 and the latest version, in case there are a few readers who want to work with the upgrade.

Also covered will be an overview of the Audacity software main screen, the main menu, main window, all of the toolbars, buttons and settings, as well as what a 'project' is in Audacity. We'll also get into some of the basic fundamentals to remember when setting up a project in Audacity. All of this will lay the foundation for your very first Audacity project of recording a podcast!