At the time of writing, we are about eight weeks into UK lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus. Loads of people have decided to start their own podcasts because they are a simple way of creating content that can easily be shared with lots of people.

Podcasts are straightforward to make and need relatively little kit (did you know you can record one on your phone?) but can be tricky to make the audio sound good.

Over the past eight years or so I have worked with a lot of talented audio producers and sound engineers, so I thought I’d get their take on basic tips to make your podcast really shine:

This is something to consider before you start recording. Make sure that all contributors (whether you’re recording together or remotely on Zoom/Skype) have good audio levels and there aren’t any distracting background noises. This will make the editing process significantly easier.

When you’re editing out any ‘erms’, breaths and pauses, make sure you don’t go too mad otherwise the audio will sound robotic, disjointed and won’t make a lot of sense.

As long as you can get your point across, you shouldn’t be afraid to cut out some of the unnecessary parts of the conversation. Listeners have a short attention span as there are so many podcasts out here, so it’s always best to be succinct. 

If you’re using software like Audacity, Adobe Audition or Hindenberg to edit your podcast, make sure that you use the normalise function once you have finished editing. This ensures that the levels across the audio have the same amount of gain (sound) throughout.

Before you export your final file, double check that all of the levels are the same so that the listener doesn’t need to alter their volume when a different person speaks.

If you’re not recording in person, you may decide to do it remotely using something like Zoom or Skype. When recording this way, the sound quality can sometimes be compromised as it will go through the processor of your remote recording software before you can do anything else with it. Using the wet/dry function will alter this and make it sound way more professional.

If you’ve got a few different interviews, sound effects and commentary to weave into your podcast episode, it is absolutely vital to name your tracks and folders within the edit so you don’t miss anything important.

If you can, give yourself an hour or two away from the edit. This will help ensure that you feel refreshed when you listen back, thus allowing you to spot any mistakes. If you try to do it all at once, you may miss things that could have been easily rectified.

Once you’ve got everything ready and you’re happy with the final file, ask yourself; ‘does it actually make sense’?

A handy tip is to get someone to listen to the episode before you publish it and get their thoughts. Much like having fresh ears, this person will come to the audio with no expectations of what they’re about to hear so they should be able to give you a fresh perspective.

And finally, one from me:

Before you upload the audio into your editing software, make sure you have saved copies of the raw (original, unedited) audio just incase you need to go back to it. On TV shoots and audio records, we always take three back ups of the material to fall back on, should something go wrong with the version we’re using to edit.

I tend to make folders for each copy e.g. ‘back up raw audio 1’ and so on. That way I know that if I ever need to refer back to the source audio I have multiple copies in the bank.

These tips are all simple things that you can do in order to make your podcast stand out from the crowd. What do you think? I’d love to hear if these tips have helped you in any way.

Podcast makers – is there anything we’ve missed?