Anchor: Review of editing features

Here's a quick review of Anchor and its editing features. Screenshots to give you visuals are below.

I tend to use Garageband for editing as I record remotely via Zencastr.  I combine the audio files here then upload to Anchor via desktop website.

You can edit recordings within Anchor desktop or the app, whether you’ve uploaded the recordings or recorded directly via the app. I say editing, but really you are limited to splitting segments and trim start/end points, which is probably adequate if you are a beginner. Trimming start and end points is easier on the mobile app than it is on the desktop. For some reason, on the mobile you can position the points to trim more precisely than when I did the same thing on desktop.

In Garageband, I tend to change the volume of the track and remove echo which you can’t do via Anchor. This is the limitation to my editing skills, I’m sure there is more you can do.

With Anchor, you can record directly to the app. I haven’t used this feature however by recording on your app, you have the option to:

• record remotely by adding friends (Figure 1.5)
• Add flags, I guess this helps with trimming segments or if you want to link to the timestamp (figure 1.2 and 1.3)
• add background music so that it brings the track to life (Figure 1.1)

I’ve not added the background music via Anchor as I find the music really loud compared to my voice on the verge of drowning my already soft voice. I can’t find a way to tone the background music down either. I've not recorded remotely via Anchor either as :

1. Your guests don't have to download the Anchor App to join the recording. With Zencastr, they copy and paste the link you send them in Chrome and Firefox and they are in!
2. Recordings are saved to local drive so if internets fails, you won't lose what you've recorded so far at either end.

As a free option Anchor is fine, however, next time, I set this up, I would distribute the podcast yourself by submitting the RSS feed Anchor generates for you. This way you can access Apple podcast analytics and maybe speed up the go live time. It took a week for Apple to approve my podcast. 

Let me know if you found this useful or if you wish for me to expand on any points!

Here are some screenshots so you can see the views available to put your podcast together. 

Figure 1.1:  Add background music to audio recorded via the phone.

Figure 1.2: Use Flag Button 

Figure 1.3: Trim audio using flags 

Figure 1.4: Editing options within the Anchor app

Figure 1.5: Add others to record remotely

Figure 1.6: Add preset interludes and sounds. You can import your own.

Listen to the podcast to see editing in action.