Getting Separate Audio Files for Each Participant on a Zoom Call.
And Why This is SO Important.
Due to the current circumstances of the entire world, we are seeing a lot of podcast interviews take place on Zoom.
This was actually the case well before COVID-19 started to spread, simply because it is easier to connect with the best people for your show when you do not have to be in close proximity to them.
As a podcast producer, I’m going to quickly go over exactly how you should set up your Zoom account to make your audio sound better after you complete these recordings.
Your audio guy will thank you.
Step 1: Open Up Zoom and Go Into Your Settings.
Ultimately what we are going to do here is change our Recording settings so that Zoom will record separate audio tracks on a call.
One for you and one for your guest.
The reason that this is so important is because everyone’s voice is different.
In audio editing software, there is no one setting that will make everyone’s voice sound crisp, bright, and pleasant to listen to. The settings change with each person.
That makes it super important to have separate files to actually edit when you are in the software.
Step 2: Go to the Recording Settings.
Zoom has A LOT of settings for you to play around and mess around with.
Once you get to this screen, click on the “Recording” button as highlighted in the image.
This will bring you to a list of different settings that you can toggle on or off.
For the purposes of this article I am just going to show you how to make sure that you get separate audio files for each individual on your show, but you can look around the settings yourself and try to see if there is anything else that will help you in the long run.
Step #3: Get Those Separate Audio Files
Finally, make sure that you tick the box next to “Record a separate audio file for each participant.”
And BOOM! That’s all that there really is to it.
While you are in here, you could also look into ticking the “Optimize for 3rd party video editor” box. I’ve never found that to be very useful, but if you or your production guy would prefer that, this is where you would change that setting.
There It Is!
There you have it. Now the next time you record a podcast you should be able to get separate audio files for each participant, and that will ultimately make your podcast sound 100x better.
Keep in mind that no matter what you do, Zoom really is not the best way to be recording a podcast for the highest quality audio.
At the end of the day, a recording done on Zoom is still going to sound like a recording done on Zoom.
If you want even better audio quality, check out platforms like ZenCastr and Squadcast. Those platforms automatically give you multiple high-quality files to work with, and they were designed for podcasting.
