Another Audacity option – Soundtrap

I learned about Soundtrap this morning during the This Week in Ontario Edublogs. Stephen Hurley and I were joined for the show by the EduGals (Katie Attwell and Rachel Johnson) and one of our chats was about the changes with Audacity. That’s been the focus of the past couple of blog posts here. In our discussion, it was noted that there were a few people who were using Soundtrap as their podcasting tool. I opened a tab and landed on the page to explore later.

One of the concerns was the restriction that people aged 13 or under would not be able to use version 3.0 of Audacity going forward. I’ll admit that the significance of 13 didn’t click in until Stephen Downes’ commentary on the blog post. D’uh, of course. I missed it completely.

Later in the day, I had a chance to revisit the Soundtrap tab that I had left open and started poking around. I’ll admit that I was a little surprised at the ownership (purchased by Spotify) and the pricing. There is a free option on the general pricing page. (scroll to the very bottom of the page.)

Of course, I turned to the wisdom of others to see just how the software works.

And podcasting specifically since I’m thinking of the void that Audacity would leave educators.

As I wandered around the site, it’s really apparent that this is more than a simple voice recording tool and to pigeon-hole it as a podcasting tool only would be a disservice. Once registered, you get access to classroom ready support “Get started with our portal of lesson plans, learning events, rubrics, curriculum, and more across different grade levels and subjects.”

I’m glad that I had the conversation this morning and am happy to pass it along to anyone who drops by for a read and/or is looking for an alternative to what they’ve been using.