Recording a Podcast

A bit of planning and practice is required before you produce your first podcast episode. Whether you’re podcasting from a home studio or in a professional recording studio, you’ll need to assemble some podcast equipment, and you’ll need to find a quiet room suitable for recording. 

You don’t need to spend a lot of money on hardware and recording software to make a high-quality recording. As important as the equipment is your comfort in speaking into a microphone. With a bit of practice, however, you’ll soon sound like a natural.

Read on to learn how to prepare a space to record audio, find the recording hardware and software you need, and establish a connection with your listeners when you’re getting started.

Recording a podcast

The first step for beginners in podcast recording is to find a suitable location. You can have the best equipment, but if the studio you create is plagued with noise from an air conditioner, cooling fan on your computer, or a pet seeking your attention, your audio quality will not be good. And if the room in which you record your podcast has a lot of hard surfaces—wood floors and windows, primarily—then audio files could be filled with distracting echoes. 

You’ll get the best podcast audio if you find a quiet place and then add soft, sound-muffling surfaces so you can get a clean recording. You don’t need to spend money on expensive soundproofing—plenty of podcasters start out recording in a home closet. A carpet, curtains, and a strategically placed blanket or two can greatly improve your sound quality. If you don’t know how to set up a home space, look for step-by-step tutorials on how to create a home recording space to get some tips.

If you’ll be conducting remote interviews or working with a cohost, make sure they have a similar location suitable for remote recording.

Once you have settled on where to record, you’ll need to plan out your first episode. Some podcasts are scripted, so that you follow a prepared script word for word, while many others are unscripted and more spontaneous. For the latter, it’s still useful to write an outline—a bulleted list of points you want to hit, at the very least—to keep you on pace and on topic. 

Don’t worry if you misspeak, discover upon listening to your first few recordings that you say “um” too much, or make other mistakes. Audio editing can take care of minor errors in post-production, and rerecording is part of podcast hosting. You will likely need to rerecord parts of an episode—or the entire show—until you become more confident and sound more natural speaking into a microphone and interacting with your cohost or guest.

Required hardware: Microphone and headphones

It’s not technically necessary to purchase any equipment to record a podcast. You could record it using the built-in microphone on your phone or laptop with free audio recording and editing software. You can improve the sound and create a more professional-quality recording, however, with a USB or XLR microphone. A mic stand will also help keep your microphone steady and in the right position—ideally two to four inches away from your mouth.

For most podcasters starting out, a USB microphone will suffice. More expensive podcast microphones, like an XLR microphone, are the tool of audio professionals and require a separate audio interface and specialized audio cables. A USB microphone is less expensive and easier to set up and use than an XLR microphone. You can plug in directly to your computer for a streamlined, plug-and-play setup that requires no other equipment.

Headphones are not required, but they will help you monitor sound and keep your levels in the right ranges, while ensuring there’s no echo from other speakers in your audio. Likewise, a pop filter isn’t a requisite but will make for a cleaner recording. It helps eliminate popping noises when you speak into a microphone, particularly words with “p,” “b,” and “t” sounds.

If you’re planning to do any kind of video podcast episodes, decide whether you need a professional camera or whether your phone or tablet camera will suffice for what you plan to do with the recording.

Required software: Audio recording and editing apps

There are plenty of low-cost recording apps and editing software options for your podcast. There are apps you can use on your phone and more robust apps to use on a computer with a USB microphone. Depending on your computer, you might already have an audio app installed that you can use when recording for podcasts. You can also record the audio from a video conferencing app using the record button, and pull the audio out separately.

It’s also a good idea to make a backup recording on your phone—and have guests or cohosts do the same—in case of an equipment malfunction or user error where you discover that you missed a recording.

Your podcast recording software should also give you the ability to edit out any audio you don’t want and adjust the levels to boost the sound of your voice and minimize any background noise. If you know you’ll need to edit a specific point out of a recording, you can mark the timestamp by making noticeable noise, like a clap, that will be easily identifiable in the audio overview. If there are multiple voices on your recording, make sure the level of each is the same so it doesn’t sound like one person is yelling while the other is mumbling. 

Establishing a connection with your listeners

In addition to interacting with listeners on social media, you can use your podcast to start building a connection with your audience. Starting each episode with an introduction will set expectations and hook listeners to keep them interested. If you will be speaking to someone on your podcast, a bit of banter at the start of an episode gives listeners a glimpse of your personality and that of your guest or cohost. 

Concluding with a teaser about the next episode to follow or some recurring closing banter will also help maintain your audience. These small additions at the start and end of each of your episodes can have a large impact on the connection you make with your listeners.

Including intro and outro music for your podcast, which you can create yourself or license for use, can also strengthen this connection. A theme song played during each episode will begin to sound familiar to your listeners and will help you establish your podcast’s brand. 

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