Three Things I’ve Learned From Editing Podcasts
Over the last nine months, I’ve been editing and doing the audio for a few podcasts here and there, but mainly, it’s been editing a podcast by my friend Jonny Miller called Curious Humans. Since the beginning, I’ve been continuously learning about the process that goes into editing, mixing, and mastering audio. It’s been entirely different from what I’m typically used to, music production.
So here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that may help you in your podcast production/editing journey too.
Get the best recording you possibly can
Firstly, the best sounding audio always starts at the source, where the recording takes place. This is key to making your life, or the life of your editor, a lot easier.
Basically, the more you do to minimise background noise or plosives, the better the resulting audio will sound. It’s pretty basic, to be honest. Like in photography, the better you can tune your photograph at the moment of capture, the more comfortable and better the post-processing will be.
So here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Microphone Positioning: Where you position your microphone can do wonders to the quality you get. Too close to your mouth and you can have all sorts of unnecessary (and sometimes gross) sounds, like unintentional lip-smacking to my worst nightmare — plosives (Sounds produced by the release of air from your mouth — think P’s and S’s).
- Buy or make a windscreen: If you’re going to be recording outdoors, like interviewing someone at the park, it’ll be essential to minimise the effect of wind on your recording, and the plosives too. That’s why it is vital to invest in making or buying a windscreen (a fuzzy jacket for your mic). You can easily make one out of felt and velcro or even using an old coat hanger wire for more sturdiness. If you’re lazy like me, you can buy all sorts online and at many different price points.
- Unless you’re a travelling podcaster, try to have a permanent recording area, where you know you’ll be able to record peacefully and practically. Use tape on your desk to mark the perfect place for your mic, so every time you record, you’re recording from the same distance. You can even create a makeshift sound booth with old egg cartons (or buy one). Standardising all these things can make life so much easier while editing.
Life isn’t 100% perfect, so the sound of your podcast shouldn’t be 100% perfect either. You need a few blemishes to sound, human.
You don’t need expensive equipment
While living in Bali, I met many podcasters travelling the world (mostly on a budget), and I was pretty surprised to see that the majority used their iPhone or a handheld device as their primary recording device. Yeah, there were a few with a whole rig setup, but for the most part, they had simple, cheap and effective ways to record what they wanted to say.
You don’t always have to get the latest shiny recorder; you don’t need the best audio interface to do the job. All you need is a mic of some sort, and a device to store it on. I’d recommend getting something like a Blue Yeti USB Mic, Zoom H1/H2/H4, Zoom iQ6/iQ7, or Tascam DR-05X. You could also try and find some used equipment at your local music store or on sites like Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree.
Like in the previous section, you can easily make any accessories to help with sound quality, like a windshield for background noise or egg cartons for a makeshift sound booth. I’ve even met someone who records in a closet full of clothes to keep background noise at a minimum.
On the software side, you can edit on a budget with Audacity and Garageband, which some of the most of the top podcasters still use today. Additionally, an account with Landr could help with mastering your finished audio.
Learn to listen, learn to see
When I got my first audio file to edit, I’ve got to admit; I was a tad bit lost with what to do. Being a perfectionist, I found it very difficult to edit even a short 15-minute file. First of all, it took way too long to get through the whole recording. Because I wanted to be perfect, I spent days going through the recording trying to find any inaccuracy or an unnaturally long pause. I decided to take out every single cough, grunt, and Ummm I could find. I over-processed to the point where the recording sounded like a robot speaking rather than a flowing conversation between two people.
I then realised that for the most part, for a podcast to sound natural, you do need a few pauses here and there, you do need to hear the intake of breath before speaking. Life isn’t 100% perfect, so the sound of your podcast shouldn’t be 100% accurate either. You need a few blemishes to sound, human.
However, on the other hand, you don’t want your podcast to sound unprofessional. There’s nothing worse than people speaking over each other, way too much coughing and honestly, the sound of lip-smacking makes my ears hurt. But how do you get rid of these?
Instead of listening to the podcast, I began to notice differences in what the waveforms looked like on my editing software. Specific shapes would always mean someone was clearing their throat, while other shapes were always laughs. Noticing these drastically cut my editing time down. Rather than listening to a 2-hour recording from start to finish, I was able to cut out all the long pauses, umm’s, and ahhh’s.
The main takeaway is that, like everything, it’s going to be hard at first, but once you get going, it’ll get easier and easier. Learning while doing has always been the way I go about things, and especially in podcast editing, you won’t know unless you try.
