Sound card (or mixer?) recommendation (two inputs required)

[UDPride]

I am trying to do the exact same thing as this genleman. I want to create podcasts using my headset for speech, but want to queue up sound effects on my PC that are mp3 and wav files.

The stopping and moving of audio files to create these effects really isnt a viable solution because I want to talk over some of these sound effects, not pause completely then queue the effect. In most audio program Ive found you need to choose one recording device input and one only. Obviously this becomes a problem because you need mic and integrated functioning at same time.

How do podcasters do this? They have to cross this hurdle every day. Should be very straightforward. I cannot figure it out in audacity.

[steve]

How do podcasters do this? They have to cross this hurdle every day. Should be very straightforward.

Talk for a bit and record your voice - when you get to a place where the music will start, continue recording (pretend that the music is playing) until you get to a natural pause, then stop the recording.

Add your music to a new track - position it exactly where you wanted it to start playing.

Wind back a bit and start recording - listen to the last bit of your talking and hear the music begin at exactly the right moment (sounds like you are a pro radio DJ) then start talking (over the music if you wish).

Continue in this fashion until you get to the end of the show.

You can now adjust the levels of the voice and the musical extracts to get a nice balance. You may want to use the "Auto Duck" effect so that the level of the music drops while you are talking over the top of it (just like in a real radio show).

Then, mix the show to a stereo track and apply a little dynamic compression to level out the volume (either the "Leveller" effect included in Audacity 1.3, or the excellent plug-in "Chris's Dynamic Compressor").

Finally, Normalize the entire show to about -0.2dB and Export in your preferred format (and a WAV copy as a backup).