
A lot of folks have come to me hoping to learn how to make a guided meditation with music. Surprisingly, it’s not all that hard to do! I’m going to walk you through an easy way to do this (and have it sound good) on a limited budget. Ready? Let’s go!
Prefer a video tutorial? Check that out here.
What You’ll Need Before You Start
There are a few things you will need before you start the process. You may already have these things or maybe you’ll need to get them.
A Computer
Hopefully you have access to a computer because this tutorial requires you to download some free software in order to make your guided meditation. Most computers will work fine, but you probably won’t be able to complete the process if you have a small netbook-like computer such as a Chromebook. Macs and Windows PCs will work fine!
A Microphone
Don’t worry if you haven’t purchased a microphone, because a lot of computers have a decent microphone built in! If you have a Macbook, for example, you probably already have a microphone ready to go. Of course, you will have better sound quality if you purchase a nicer microphone, but that isn’t necessary to make a guided meditation. Perhaps you’ll want to start by using the built-in microphone and decide to purchase a fancier microphone down the line! If you do want to get a nicer microphone, I would suggest a good USB mic such as a Yeti Microphone from Blue.
Headphones
These are technically optional, but you will want to make sure your microphone doesn’t pick up any sound from your computer. So, if you DON’T have headphones, you will definitely want to mute your computer’s speakers while you are recording your voice.
How to Make a Guided Meditation With Music
Follow the steps below and you’ll be able to easily make guided meditations! There are many ways to do it, but I find this method to be approachable and simple for beginners who may not have a large budget.
Step 1: Prepare Your Script
Maybe you have already done this or maybe you are planning on improvising your meditation. Either option is fine, but make sure you will be ready to hit that record button soon! If I were you, I would suggest writing down what you will be saying, or at least prepare an outline with bullet points of what the meditation will cover.
Step 2: Download Audacity
You will need an audio editing program to create your guided meditation. There are many programs you can use, but I suggest using a free program that works for both Mac and Windows computers. It is called Audacity. If you have a Mac, you may also want to try using GarageBand, but this tutorial will be using Audacity.
Follow the instructions to download and install on the Audacity website and then continue on…
Step 3: Download Royalty-Free Music
I always prefer guided meditations that have good music in the background. However, it’s important to understand that you can’t use just any music in your guided meditation, especially if you plan on selling it. Royalty-free music is music that you can purchase which allows you to use the music in your project without needing to pay royalties. There may be other music options, but I find that royalty-free music is the best bet for creators!
Also keep in mind that royalty-free music can have different guidelines for use. You’ll want to make sure to pick music that works for you! For example, some royalty-free music will only allow for a certain number of uses or will only allow use in personal projects. You’ll also want to pick music that is about the same length as your script is, or longer!
This may be a good time to mention that I offer dozens of royalty-free meditation music tracks on this site! They all allow for unlimited, commercial use. Therefore, you pay to use them once and you can make as much money as you want with your guided meditations. My music has been listened to over 15 million times, across multiple platforms. I would love to have you use it in your project!
Step 4: Open Your Music in Audacity
Open your newly downloaded and installed Audacity. Then select File > Open and locate the royalty-free music you have saved on your computer. Select the music file you want to import and click “Open”.
Step 5: Decrease the Music Volume
If you keep the music at full-volume, you most likely will have a hard time hearing and editing your voice track. You can adjust the music and voice levels later, but for now you should decrease it to -15 db for now. To do this, click and drag the slider to the left of the music track labeled with a “+” and “-“. You should drag it down to about -15 db.
Note: I am adding the music first because you’ll want to make sure your voice recording is shorter than the music and it can also be helpful to hear the music in your headphones while you are performing your guided meditation.
Step 6: Record Your Voice
Get your script out and your microphone ready. Remember, if you have a built-in microphone, you may not need to do anything. If you have a USB microphone, you will need to plug it in and possibly download drivers (if applicable). This is not a tutorial on how to use a microphone, so hopefully you have all that figured out!
Important: Be sure to record in a quiet room, free of distractions. You should also wear headphones or turn the volume on your computer all the way down to make sure you don’t record anything coming out of your speakers (such as the music)!
To record, you will simply click the red record button in Audacity and perform your meditation to the best of your ability. Remember to speak slowly and with diction, emulating guided meditations that you have enjoyed in the past. This is your opportunity to add your unique spin, so do your best and have fun with it!
Note: Make sure you are starting your recording at the beginning! To do this, you may have to hit the double arrow button to move the playhead to the start of the track.
Click the yellow, square “stop” button when you have finished recording! It’s okay if you make a mistake or want to record this in multiple sections (see below)!
Step 7: Removing Mistakes & Recording in Sections
If you were able to record the entire guided meditation perfectly on your first try, good job! Most of us, however, will not be able to do this. Maybe you recorded the first part perfectly but then messed up or had to stop because you lost your place. In either case, it’s fine, don’t worry! In order to remove audio that you don’t want, you simply have to highlight it using the selection tool (which is active by default) and hit delete!
To begin recording where you left off, use the selection tool again and click on the audio track to the right of where the previous recording ended. This will mark where you would like the new recording to begin. Then, click the red record button again and continue your performance. You can do this process as much as you want.
Removing small errors such as a random cough is easy! You simply have to click and drag to select the part of the track where you coughed and then hit delete! Keep in mind that this may not be the best method if you need to remove large sections. It might be better to re-record, especially if you are a beginner. You may also have to zoom in (using the magnifying glass tool) to find the cough in question and only highlight that part before deleting it.
Step 8: Compressing & Normalizing
You may have already noticed that it’s difficult to hear your voice. Don’t panic. This is very common. In order to fix this, I am going to have you complete a few steps. You may have to do this process for each voice track if you have multiple voice tracks within your project. You will probably have multiple voice tracks if you had to record in sections. New recordings automatically start in a new track!
First, click on the left part of the voice track to select it (under the two sliders). Alternatively, you could click and drag (using the selection tool) to select the entire voice track. Then complete the following:
1) With the voice track selected, click Effect > Compressor
2) Click “OK“
3) With the voice track still selected, click Effect > Normalize
4) I like to set it to -2 db for meditations.
5) Click OK
Remember that you may need to do this for every voice track if you have your voice recording separated into different tracks! Again, this may be the case if you recorded it in sections.
Step 9: Leveling Music
You must now go back to changing the volume of the music track to make it sound balanced when paired with your newly edited voice. You can use the gain slider to the left of the music track to do this. Click the play button in Audacity to listen to your guided meditation and raise/lower the volume of the music so that it plays softly in the background. You want to be able to hear the music, but you definitely don’t want it to be too overpowering!
Step 10: Fading the Music Out
You may have noticed that your music track is longer than your voice track. We’ll need to fade that out so it ends naturally without a long period of music following the guided portion. If the music is too short, you will likely need to pick something longer and use the shorter music for a shorter guided meditation. If you’re skilled in audio editing, you could edit the music to repeat, but that is definitely more advanced!
Anyway, to make the music fade out, you’ll want to select the bulk of the music that extends beyond the end of your voice recording, leaving about 10-15 seconds. Like so…
Then hit delete!
Once you’ve deleted this, you will want to fade the music out. So you’ll need to select the remaining small section of music that extends beyond the end of the voice track. Like so…
Next, select Effect > Studio Fade Out
Step 11: Save Your Project
Now you should have a well-balanced guided meditation! You’ll want to save this file just in case you need to edit it later. In fact, you should probably save the project throughout the whole process, just to be safe. To save, click File > Save Project, give the project a name, and save it somewhere on your computer.
Step 12: Export Your Project
This is the final step! Congratulations. You now get to export your completed guided meditation as a file you can use. You can sell this on your website, make a YouTube video using it, or put it on a CD. It’s up to you!
To export, click File > Export Audio and use the “Format” dropdown to select an audio type. I would recommend an uncompressed audio type such as “WAV – 32 bit”.
You’re Done!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you learned how to make a guided meditation! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to use the contact area below or get in touch. And remember, I have lots of relaxing royalty-free music you can use for your guided meditations!
Feel free to comment your thoughts and share the guided meditation you created in the comments section below!
Thanks for reading! 🙂
Thank you so much for your article Chris! I appreciate it. I have written guided meditations for a long time and lead groups with them but never thought I could record them or knew how. With your article I think I will be able to record them now. I just ordered a microphone and headphones and downloaded the Audacity program. I am looking forward to giving it a try when the equipment arrives. I also unknowingly have been listening to your music meditations on the app Insight Timer recently. Thank you for your help!
Shannon
I’m so glad my tutorial has helped, Shannon. 😊 So sorry I missed this comment until now!
Hi Chris , thank you so much for all this info .
I’ve been listening to you on Insight Timer for a while now, and I’m just realizing who you are , so double thank you , your work is awesome ??
I’m new to recording my own meditations and I’m going to purchase your $60 Meditation pkg to start. My microphone will be coming in a few weeks so I will practice with the computer mic for now , your music and my scripts. I’m so excited?
Blessings to you ???? Rebecca
PS How do I get intouch with questions ?
Hi Rebecca! Thank you so much for your comment and your support (both here and on Insight Timer). I’m so glad you will be starting to make your own guided meditations and that you’ll use my music in the background. You can always get in touch via email at info@indiemusicbox.com – Thanks!
Thank you, Chris! This is so helpful! I am so glad I found you and your music!
You’re welcome Kimberlee! I’m glad it’s helpful!
Hey Chris just wanted to say thanks for your amazing music and this super helpful info here.
You’re so welcome, Lauren! Thanks for supporting my music! I hope it works well for you.
What a great how-to. Thank you! Your music is beautiful. I am in the beginning stages of creating my own meditations and will certainly be back to purchase your music.
Thank you so much! I’m glad the article is helpful and that you like my music!
Hey chris hope you are safe, can you help me to understand how to engage people in your music as a artist.
Hi Maya – Thanks! I hope you are well. For me it was many years of making music and putting it out there in different ways. There is no one method that will work for anyone. I would try to find what feels right for you and have fun with it, knowing that it may take some time to gain traction!
Amazing blissful music Chris!
Keep it coming. Thanks a lot!
Thank you so much!!
Dear Chris, I can hardly believe it. I treat myself to a creative day today and listen to a meditation on YouTube with your music. So I get to the website and discover the article about taking meditations. I’ve been doing this for years, but my technique is miserable. I owe my listeners better quality, but I don’t know how to do it. Til today. Your article is like a gift from heaven to me. Thank you from the heart and be blessed. Great support.Greetings from Lake Constance (this is an automatic translation)
Thank you so much for your kind words, Genka! It means a lot to know that this article helps. I am also so happy to hear that you enjoy my music as well. It is wonderful to hear from you!
Hiya, thank you so much for such an insightful article, it has been such a help. I am struggling with one thing, making my meditations available to select people. I am looking for a way to upload them online and make them accesible via say a password, which is obtained via purchase through my website. Is this at all possible? Many thanks and blessings.Lexie
Thank you so much, Lexie! I’m glad you like the article. Hmm…that’s a good question. It looks like you have a Shopify website. There is a plugin for Shopify called Locksmith that allows you to password protect a page. I imagine that you could create a digital product that delivers the password to this page via email to your customers. That would probably be the easiest way to do it with your current setup. I hope that helps! Good luck!
Thanks so much, Chris. This is helpful. Thanks also for your music.
I’m glad it is helpful, Barbara! Thank you!
First of all I want to tell you that when I saw your guidance for Audacity I almost cried. I’ve been trying to hard to figure out an editing plan, and you made it seem soooo easy! Now that I know I can purchase your downloads I’m SO excited to start the process of recording! Seriously, thank you so much. Second, I’m wondering if you have a soundtrack (at least 70 min) that is only rain (no thunder) or only ocean waves. For my Yoga Nidra meditations, I prefer something that won’t activate the mind ~ just gentle white noise in the background. For mindfulness I’m going to LOVE searching through your music! I’m so excited! You’ve really gotten me motivated and I just feel so grateful. Thank you Chris!!
Terri – I’m so glad this was what you were looking for! I hope that this (and the music) turns out to work well for you. I might have some gentle sound effects—I will look. Can you email me at info@indiemusicbox.com about that request? Best of luck with your Yoga Nidra meditations!
Thank you! I bought Breath of Zen, followed your instructions step by step, and I did it! I created a beautiful meditation for my clients. Your instructions made it easy and your music made it beautiful.
That’s wonderful! I’m so glad it helped. Thank you for buying Breath of Zen as well!
Wowww!!! This was the most clear and useful article I’ve read in a long time. As a Kundalini Yoga teacher and doctor of Acupuncture, I tend to use guided imagery and meditation with most of my clients. Today I was asked to record the meditation I used during a treatment. Of course I had no idea how to do so, minus using my voice clip app on the iPhone. Boom. Interweb search. Connected with you, via this tutorial. And presto- one hour later. One script later. One record later. I’ve created my first guided meditation and feeling so confident in a new tool to help people. Do you have other resources on how to create YouTube meditations with the visuals? Or just a black screen? So grateful!
Hi! Thank you so much for this message. I’m so glad my tutorial was able to help! Hopefully you’ll be able to make many more guided meditations in the future as well. My advice for posting guided meditations on YouTube would be to create some sort of visual to accompany the recording. This could be something as simple as a picture with the title of the guided meditation, your name, your website URL, and any other information you want to share. You can create a beautiful image for your video very easily using canva.com, which is a free service (with paid, premium options). You could use any program you’d like, however. If you wanted to get fancy, you could edit an actual video with a title screen, closing screen, and something in the middle to emphasize the meditation. There are plenty of stock videos you can purchase for your guided meditation videos. I would probably start with a simple image if it were me, though. I hope this helps!
Thank you for this amazing “how-to” and the even more amazing music; I’m thrilled that I can finally start recording my guided meditations with music! I am a complete novice when it comes to doing this and it took me a few tries; I didn’t know that after opening my music I also needed to add a new track (Tracks/Add New) for my voice. Once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing. Adding this comment it case it helps out another newbie. 🙂 THANK YOU!
Thank you for sharing this comment! I’m sure it will help others. I’m happy you are enjoying the music and that the tutorial was helpful. 🙂
Thank you so much for this Chris! I so appreciate your beautiful music and have used it before and will continue to use it. Due to Covid lockdown I have not been able to get back into a studio and looked everywhere online for these tech specs for Audacity in order to record at home. I have used Audacity for other things but could not find any info through Google, YouTube…you name it pertaining to meditations. Then I found them here and so appreciate you sharing them! Looking forward to continuing to infuse your beautiful energy into my meditations & affirmations. Sending light from Toronto, Canada.
Thank you so much, Liis! You are so sweet to reach out and say all this. I’m super glad that it was helpful for you and that you’ve been using my music too. Sending light right back! 🙂
Hi Chris,
THANK YOU so much for this incredible tutorial. I want to create meditations to go along with my digital products, and turn my subscribers on to your music!
I’ve been meditating for over 45 years now. I like being in the Brainwave Patterns of Alpha at 8-13.9 hz or Theta at 4-7.9 hz. How do those frequencies (4-7.9hz and 8-13.9hz) relate to your music listed at 432hz?? I’m a bit confused and hoping you can clarify for me. Thanks Again,
Robert
Hi Robert, thank you for your kind comment and I’m glad the tutorial helps! I responded to your email about this, but I will mention here (for others) that 432hz music is just the tuning system that is sometimes used. Binaural beats, such as alpha and theta waves, are a different effect that can be added to any tuning system. ?
Hello I am absolutely a beginner and have just worked out how to download Audacity. I have already purchased the royalty free music you suggested. I am hitting the red record button but then after I hit play I can’t hear a thing?? Please can someone hold my hand a bit more for someone who has never used a program such as this before. PS I am on a Mac, what kind I can’t even tell you!
Regards
Alicia
aprouchandy@hotmail.com
Hi Alicia – Thank you for your comment and for purchasing some of my music for your project! My guess is that the audio isn’t recording. When you hit the red button and record, do you see the sound being captured (as seen in the screenshots here) or is it just blank? If the sound isn’t recording, you will want to make sure you have a working microphone first. Also, make sure the correct microphone is selected in the dropdown menu right next to the microphone icon.
Another option is that the sound isn’t playing when you play it back. Make sure the volume within Audacity is turned up. Sometimes it is down. There should be a volume slider (as well as a microphone input slider) up near the top of the program. Make sure both of those are in the middle (and adjust as necessary).
Those are my best guesses! If you need more help, I would try watching my video tutorial to see if there is anything you missed in the process: https://indiemusicbox.com/2021/05/guided-meditation-tutorial/
Here is another video on YouTube that explains the basics of recording and editing. That might help as well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ClwSNm362E
You can email me at info@indiemusicbox.com if you have any other questions!
Hey Chris. Any thoughts on how to avoid the mic delay when recording with a USB mic and a laptop? From what I’ve been able to determine it seems there’s no workaround for this.
Hi Cat – Thanks for using my tutorial! I’m sorry you are having this problem. I have three ideas for you that could work:
I hope this helps! I haven’t encountered this problem before, but these are my ideas.
Hi Chris! Thank you so much for this tutorial. It has been immensely helpful and incredibly easy to do. I love your music as well, will definitely be purchasing more tracks.
Hi Jacqueline! I’m so glad it has been helpful! Thank you for using it and for using some of my music as well. 🙂
Hey Chris, I followed your instructions this morning & created my first ever guided meditation — which I then sent out to my list today as a new year’s gift. Super excited to be able to do this (it seemed beyond me at first). Thanks so much for your clear, step by step instructions. When I need music I’ll know where to come (I used my own recording of ocean waves this last time). Happy New Year!
Hi Kerry! I’m so glad my tutorial helped. Congratulations on your first guided meditation! 😊
Thanks Chris. About to do my 2nd! 🙂
That’s wonderful! I’m sure it will sound great! 😁
Simply gorgeous blog!!! When music and meditation are combined, the pleasant effects of both are amplified, and you experience more stress alleviation. As an added bonus, for many people who are new to meditation, using a supplement like gummies with music to develop a free mind can make meditation feel easier and more calming than other forms of practise – Nidra Nutrition
https://www.nidranutrition.com
Do you have guides like this for Adobe Audition or Premier Pro?
I don’t! I’m sorry, Jeff. I will keep that in mind as an idea for the future.
Hi Chris! I may have missed this, however, is there a way to add a few seconds of music to the beginning of the meditation after it has been recorded? I had to delete a little bit from the beginning of mine and it jumps right in with me speaking. Thank you!
Hi Jacqueline! I think the best way to do this would be to put your playhead all the way at the beginning of the vocal track and then, in the top menu, click “Generate” and then “Silence”. From there you can choose exactly how much silence to add before the vocal track starts up.
I hope that helps! Thank you for commenting.
Thank you very much Chris for this tutorial. I have learned a lot and I am ready to put it in practice with my first ever track. I will be checking your music first as suggested.
I’m so glad it helped! Thank you for using my tutorial and for checking out my music! Take care, Nelson. 🙂
Chris, thank you so much for this tutorial. I purchased your music and will incorporate it with my guided meditations. I am ready put it to the test. I’ll let you know how it goes. Be well.
Namaste,
Eileen
Hi Eileen! I’m so glad it helped! Thank you for getting some of my music. I hope it works well in your guided meditations! 🙂
Chris, I just love your music and every time I make an audio (with or without music), I refer to these instructions as they help remind me of the steps that make my audios sound so much better! I will continue to get music from you as I expand my meditation making. Thank you so much, Maree
You are too kind, Maree! I’m so honored that you like my music and that you keep coming back to these instructions. Thank you so much for your support! 🙂