You love everything about podcasting except the audio quality worries that come with it! It can be confounding when you are starting off. All of a sudden your perfectly recorded podcast is barely audible or your voice sounds too nervous or flat. Every podcaster, who’s stumbled his way through audio recording tripwires, knows that are some tricks in the book that can be the magic wand you were looking for.
Having a patient friend helps!
Most newbie podcasters can’t believe despite all the inflections and enthusiasm infused into the audio, the podcast still sounds like the pledge you recited at school. Have a friend drop in during recording. Imagine your friend to be the audience who are going to tune-in and record your podcast. It sounds so simple you are mildly skeptical. But it works! Your voice sounds a lot different when you are talking to a person and not to a wall.
Minimize BG noise or learn to live with it
If you are recording in a studio you are one lucky person. Most amateur or budding podcasters find it too expensive or intimidating. What do you do when you cannot shut up the neighbor’s dog? Poisoning it is not an option. A podcaster I know of usually adds lines that weren’t in the podcast script like “there goes Tim again”. It adds a bit of natural humor and down to earth charm to podcasts. Everybody enjoys self deprecating humor as opposed to a battle of who screams the loudest.
Which mike works best?
If you don’t want to find out the hard way, do a little scouting around before recording. A unidirectional mike works best as it filters out unwanted disturbances and picks up your voice. If you are going to conduct regular interviews or chats on your show opt for a bi directional mic. Check the audio pick up and optimal distance between you and the microphone beforehand.
Playing tic-tac, toe?
There are so many podcast recording softwares around, we don’t blame you if you are playing tic- tac, toe. Audacity wins hands down when it comes to ease of use and features available. Evoca is also a favorite of podcasters. Zoom recorder developed primarily for musicians is very inexpensive albeit high quality audio software.
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