So maybe you’re passionate about something that you want to share with the world. Or you’ve got a great back-and-forth with your friends that makes people laugh. Or you read our last blog post and realized you’ve just been putting off starting your million-dollar podcast idea! No matter what’s motivating you, you want to get started with making a podcast of your own. But how?
We’re here for you! Whether everyone’s together or spread across the globe… Whether you want a cozy conversation or a bombastic debate… And whether your budget is gigantic or nearly zero, there’s options for you—and we’ve used them all! Let’s go through some options for different use cases so you can see what’s best for you.
STARTER SET: LOW BUDGET, NO PROBLEM
It’s easy to hear “podcast recording” and think of a bunch of people with thousand-dollar microphones in a soundproofed room with a dedicated producer listening in. And sure, that’s a great way to get a high-quality recording… but you don’t need all of that! You can get started with some very simple and affordable gear that’ll still give you top-tier audio.
For example, have a look at this road case that always lives in my bag. It’s about the size of a lunchbox, and it’s got two great options to get started in podcasting.
In the little cloth case is a DJI Mic, which is basically a silver bullet for sound recording. The single-mic version here is $159. And straight out of the box it’ll record premium-quality sound with an absurd battery life. It’s rated at five hours of continuous operation, but in our experience it’s far longer… And it stores fourteen hours of recordings internally, so you really don’t have to worry about running out of recording space!
We have a bunch of these in our inventory… They’re a must-have for any video or audio project we work on. It’s simply the best way to record someone for an on-camera interview, and whenever we need to record or transmit any sound in a pinch the DJI Mic is right there to help.
This is probably the absolute minimum starting point to record a podcast that sounds professional. You can pull this out of your pocket, press a button, and get audio good enough for any project. Plus, since it’s designed to be used outdoors and rejects wind noise well, you can record anywhere you get the inspiration! If you have multiple speakers, you just have to pass the mic back and forth to get the best sound… Or buy multiples, if it’s in the budget.
The downside is that this isn’t really the intended use for this microphone. It’s meant to be worn, not held, so if you’re passing it between your hosts you may find that the audio isn’t as rock-solid as when it’s clipped to you. And while the recording time and battery life are great, it’s still possible to be left high and dry with a dead battery right when inspiration strikes.
Here’s where we can step things up. Also in the case here is a Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface and a Shure SM58 microphone. These are both available for about a hundred dollars apiece. With these and a laptop or desktop computer, you’re off to the races. Just like the DJI Mic, this gear gives you professional-grade sound quality with few headaches, but you gain more control and a mic that’s meant to be passed around and used in any conditions. There are cheaper mics and interfaces out there, but with this setup you don’t sacrifice any quality or usability.
Take it from us… No matter the size of the job, we always take audio into our computers with a Focusrite interface… and we always hand performers an SM58 to speak into! It’s a great combination.
If you want an even better microphone for speech, upgrade to a Sennheiser MD46. This is our handheld mic of choice for our own podcasts, as well as for our mobile commentators on broadcasts. It’s just a little bit clearer for speech, whereas the SM58 is more tuned for singing and recording instruments. And if you still want to stay mobile, drop the computer and interface and go for a Zoom PodTrak P4, just like we talked about in the last blog post—that can take in four microphones and runs either on wall power or batteries.
No matter how many people you want to have on your new podcast, don’t be afraid to just start out with one microphone. It takes a little diligence so nobody talks out of turn, but you’ll still sound just fine. And it’s easier to work with a single audio track when you’re starting out! But as you grow and learn more, your first priority should be to get every speaker a microphone of their own so everyone can talk when they want to. Just make sure everyone has the same microphone, so nobody sounds strange in comparison!
RECORDING, EDITING, AND PUBLISHING: TIPS AND TRICKS
So you’ve got your hardware to start out and you’re sitting down to make your first episode. What next? Let’s run through a lightning round of pointers.
- Don’t be afraid to hold your microphone close to your mouth. Too many people let the mic sit at their chest, and their recording fills up with ambient noise instead of their voice.
- Always listen to the recording while you’re recording! Everything we mentioned above can have a pair of headphones plugged into it. And listening to the audio feed helps you ensure the audio quality is up to snuff. Some things can’t be fixed after the fact!
- Even if it’s a spur-of-the-moment kind of show, it helps to have some ideas written down on what to talk about. You might hit a lull out of nowhere and need a topic to get you going again.
- You don’t need a fancy editing suite to turn your recording into a finished podcast episode. GarageBand on Apple devices and Audacity on PC work perfectly and are easy to learn. Just learn the tools to set and balance the volume, and maybe how to remove noise, and you should be good to go.
- Generally, less is more for editing audio. If you recorded well, you’ll need very little processing. It’s easy to try and “enhance” your sound too hard and end up with something that just sounds unnatural!
- People listen to podcasts on a ton of different services, and uploading to each one individually is a pain. A service like Buzzsprout is $12 a month. In addition to giving you a website where your podcast lives, it also automatically uploads to every podcasting host under the sun! It’s well worth every penny to avoid the headaches, and we use it and recommend it with everyone.
- There’s no need to include the show name in your episode titles when you’re publishing. Every service will have the show name easily visible, so including it in the title often just means the episode title gets cut off.
Make sense? Good! Now let’s see how you can amp up your capabilities to make an even better show.
REMOTE RECORDING WITH RIVERSIDE
What if you want to bring in a guest or a host who’s out of town? For years, this meant you had to sacrifice audio quality by bringing in someone’s audio through Skype or even a phone call. Nowadays, there’s a better solution. Services like Riverside are essentially a combined videoconferencing and recording platform. Everyone can talk to each other live through the website or app, but the recordings are made locally. So there’s no loss in quality by sending audio over the Internet.
It then automatically uploads everyone’s contributions so you can edit and publish the episode as if all your hosts were in the same room. It’s as easy as it gets! In fact, some podcasters just record everything in Riverside for its ease of use… Whether they’re all remote, all in the same place, or any combination of the two.
Now, this isn’t for free. To get good use of Riverside, you need to pay at least $15 a month. But just like with publishing through Buzzsprout, you really get what you pay for in terms of convenience. It can certainly save you from $15 worth of headaches every month! We don’t look anywhere else when it comes to recording remote guests. In fact, the majority of our podcasts for our clients are recorded through the service, even when they’re in our studio!
PUSHING IT TO THE LIMIT
By this point, you’ve got a rhythm going with your episodes, you know how to record and edit and distribute your show, and you can even pull in guests. The more you grow, the more you can elevate your production with better gear and more features. Rather than describing all of your different options, let’s have a look at our “pulling out the stops” setup to see all of the ways you can add to your production.
- We have up to four mics going into a dedicated mixer with a team member listening in to adjust sound on the fly, without having to worry about also participating in the recording.
- Each microphone has a stand to leave the hosts’ hands free, as well as an external pop filter to prevent any big spikes in the audio.
- The feed from that mixer goes into a laptop running Riverside… Both for easy recording and to allow remote guests to come in on a moment’s notice.
- The mixer has sound effects and music built-in, so that we can play a show’s intro and outro or transitions live to save time in the edit.
- We also have a dedicated desk and chairs in the studio for recording. Any old space works fine, but sitting down in the “recording space” helps you get into the right mindset.
- Our studio has a greenscreen that the hosts sit in front of, and we always have a camera standing up to record the podcast—video podcasts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but filming the podcast lets you grab highlights and fun moments to share on social media. Short video clips are a lot more engaging than trying to promote an hour-long show!
- We’ve upgraded our audio-editing software from Garageband to Logic—though they work nearly the same, the extra effects and tools in Logic let us make some magic with sound.
It looks like a ton of extra stuff in comparison to the “one microphone out in the field” from the start of this post—and it is! But we built this studio out piece by piece, just getting new things whenever we ran into the limit of some piece of hardware. As you’re making each episode, just keep in mind what things are bothering you or feel like they’re holding you back. Upgrade the things that give you headaches, and piece by piece you’ll end up with a killer setup!
But of course, don’t let the allure of new gear distract you or hold you back. As we said at the start, the most important thing is to record and get new episodes out there—“perfect” is the enemy of “done.” The podcast with ten episodes on starter gear is way better than the high-tech podcast with only one episode! What you should focus on is being comfortable with your gear, being comfortable with talking at length even if nobody’s around, and improving your skills at editing.
The more refinement you can put in on the gear you’ve got, the better your podcast will be, and your listeners will respond to it. Before too long, you’ll be a podcasting pro!