94: How to Get Good Sound for Your Podcast, Part 6: Talk Through Audio Gear with Your Guests and Co-Hosts Before You Start Recording

Good sound quality isn't the only thing you need to be successful in podcasting, but bad audio quality will cost you listeners. It only takes a few minutes to talk to your guest or co-hosts about their recording setup, but it can help you identify and prevent potential audio issues.

The good news is that you don't have to spend a lot of money or have an expensive studio to record quality audio. You just need to know a few things about recording audio, and follow the tips and the recording checklist I'm sharing in this episode.

This is part 6 of a 7 part series about how to make sure your podcast sounds good. You can listen to the other episodes at podcastingwithaaron.com, or watch the video on Youtube here.

Today's podcasting tips:

1. Talk to your guests and/or co-hosts about their audio recording setup before you start recording

It only takes a few minutes to talk to your guest or co-hosts about their recording setup, but it can help you identify potential audio issues and prevent them. I'd recommend doing this a week or at least a couple days before the recording. For example, maybe your guest didn't know that they need to wear headphones or use some kind of microphone.

2. Be prepared to provide gear recommendations

Not everyone knows what kind of gear they need to sound good on a podcast, so keep a list of affordable recommendations handy! I have my podcast gear recommendations listed on the kit.co website, so I can share it with anyone who asks.

(Pretty much anything is better than a built-in computer microphone.)

3. Podcasting with a co-host? Make sure you're on the same page about gear and audio quality

If you're starting a podcast with a co-host, talk to them about investing in a good recording setup. If you're recording from different locations, you'll both need a microphone and headphones. If you're recording in the same room, buy an audio interface and a couple of microphones as well as headphones.

It's always a good idea to record a couple practice episodes to make sure you can dial in your settings and record audio that sounds good. You want your first episode to sound good!

4. Podcast Recording Checklist for Guests or Co-Hosts

1. Wear headphones or earbuds while recording.
2. Double check that the correct audio input device is selected in your recording software.
3. If possible, find a quiet room to record in.
4. Turn off fans, AC units, heaters,or anything else that creates noise in your room.
5. Disable system notifications and/or set your phone to silent (Airplane Mode works best).
6. Put any pets in a place where they won't make noise or disturb you while you're recording.
7. Quit or pause Dropbox, Google Drive, Backblaze, or any other file syncing or bandwidth-heavy tasks before the call.

Recap:

Talk to your guest or co-host about their recording setup in advance.

Give them recommendations: Record in a quiet room, use a microphone, wear headphones, set cell phone to airplane mode.

If you're starting a podcast with a co-host, ask them to invest in a microphone and record a couple practice episodes to make sure you can record audio that sounds good.

Follow the podcast recording checklist and sharing it with your guests and co-hosts.

Talk to your guests and co-hosts about audio quality! You don't have to make a huge deal about it, but it does make a difference in the success of your show.

That's all for this week's episode. Next week will be the final topic in this series, I'll be talking about learning the basics of audio editing, mixing and mastering.

Thanks for listening

If you have any feedback or questions, visit my website at podcastingwithaaron.com. I've got links to the social media accounts and my email address there. I'm back on Twitter and Instagram as aarondowdtx, so you can follow me there and ask questions if you'd like.

Connect with me here:

• website: podcastingwithaaron.com
• twitter
• instagram
• linkedin
• music: kolton moore & the clever few
• music: the band laredo

Ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify are always appreciated as well.

Till next time, happy podcasting.

Aaron Dowd

September 28, 2022

If you only need to record your own voice, or maybe a couple people in the same room, you won't have a hard time ending up with a podcast that sounds good.

However, if you want to record interviews or episodes with guests or co-hosts that are in different locations, getting good sound becomes harder. You won't have any control over which microphones the other people are using, if they use good mic technique, if they know how to set input gain levels correctly, what kind of room or location they're recording in, and so on.

It's always a good idea to have a conversation about someone's recording setup before you sit down for an interview or start a new podcast with a friend who lives in a different place, and that's something I'll be talking more about in the next episode.

But the the software you use to record the interview or conversation is going to play a big role in whether or not you end up with audio that sounds good.

You have three options for recording audio for a podcast:

1. Talk with your guests or co-hosts using a chat app like Zoom or Skype, and have everyone record audio locally on their computer or phone, then put the audio files together afterwards for editing. This is easy enough for shows with the same co-hosts every time, but not always an option if you're doing interviews with new people every week. Your guests might not be willing or able to record an audio file to a computer or phone.

2. Use the recording functionality from a chat app like Zoom or Anchor, where you end up with a single audio file that has everyone's voice in it. This is easy, but often causes issues with sound quality (more on that in a moment). This was very common in years past because there weren't any good apps that made it easy to talk to and record multiple people at the same time and get an individual audio track for each person.

3. Use an app specifically made for podcast recording, like Squadcast or Zencastr. This is the best option for most people in my opinion, as these apps allow you to talk to multiple people and will also record an audio file for each person on the call that you can put together and work on in your audio editing software later.

The pros and cons of recording everyone to a single track

Pros:

• It can be simpler, easier
• Less friction or work for your guest(s)
• Editing is less complicated (this isn't always a good thing, though)

Cons:

• Less control over editing and mixing
• You can't adjust the volume levels for each speaker without doing lots of editing to move them to their own tracks

The pros and cons of recording a track for every person

Pros:

• Far more control and flexability
• You can edit out more
• You can adjust any person's gain level (how loud they are)
• You can do unique audio processing on each track if you need to

Cons:

• It's a little more time consuming and complicated to edit three audio tracks at the same time instead of one
• If you do want to do processing for each voice, you'll need to know about EQ, compression, noise removal, and limiting (although I'd recommend learning about those things anyways if you're going to be editing your podcast)
• Good software costs money ($20/month for Squadcast, plus whatever software you use for multi-track audio editing, Logic Pro or Audition)

So which should you choose?

I believe Squadcast is currently the best and easiest way to record conversations remotely. It's not free, but it's worth the cost.

If you disagree or if you have a different solution you like (there are many remote chat and recording options, like Zencastr, Cleanfeed, Zoom Pro, and so on), leave a comment on the YouTube video and let the other listeners know, or send me an email, aaron@thepodcastdude.com.

Thanks for watching or listening, be sure to subscribe if you'd like to get future episodes as I publish them. If you're finding this show useful, please tell a friend about it or leave me a rating and review in Apple Podcasts.

You can find more at podcastingwithaaron.com.

Next time I'll be talking about what you should discuss with your guests and co-hosts before you start recording.

Till then, be well and happy podcasting.

Aaron

Last episode I talked about mic technique and how to set gain levels. This week I'm going to talk about how the room you're recording in might affect the quality of your sound.

The most important thing is to pay attention to how you sound in your room.

The room you're recording in is probably only going to cause problems if there are a lot of hard surfaces that reflect your voice back enough to make it hard to understand what you're saying. If you hear an echo in your recording that bothers you, figure out how to address it.

Example: When I started recording podcasts back in 2013, I was recording in my “office”, which was just a small dining room with a standing desk in it.

It was a small room with almost no furniture in it, so there was a fair amount of echo in my recordings. I tried to compensate for this by bringing in some big couch cushions. That helped a little, but I ended up moving my desk and recording set up to my bedroom and building some sound absorbing panels to help reduce the echo more.

The ideal room for recording will be a room with quite a bit of soft stuff in it. Furniture like chairs, couches and bookshelves can all help absorb and break apart sound waves so you don't hear as much echo. This is why bedrooms can actually be ideal rooms for recordings. You've got a bed and a closet, and probably a carpet; all things that can help absorb sound.

Important Things to Remember:

• The room you're recording in is only a problem if there are a lot of hard surfaces that reflect your voice back enough to make it hard to understand what you're saying.
• The most important thing is to pay attention to how you sound. If you hear an echo that bothers you, figure out how to address it.
• The solution to this is to add more soft surfaces or things to absorb some of that sound: Blankets, pillows, couch cushions, clothes from your closet, foam sound absorbing panels, carpets, etc.
• Just a reminder: Eliminate potential distracting background noises before you hit record. Turn off fans, AC, or heaters, and set your phone to airplane mode, put your pets in a different room, etc.
• It’s possible to improve sound quality a little bit with post production, but it's pretty hard to remove echo from a recording in a way that sounds natural. It’s better to fix the problems before you start recording.
• Finally, don't stress too much about your room. If you follow the tips I shared last week about mic technique and setting gain levels correctly for your recording, you probably sound good.

Recommend Reading:

• How podcasts powered through the pandemic—and what comes next - Chartable
• Room Echo and Background Noise: Sound Proofing and Absorption for Podcasters

Thanks for watching or listening to this week's episode. If you have questions, please leave a comment on my YouTube channel or send me an email, aaron@thepodcastdude.com

If you like this episode, please give it a thumbs-up on YouTube or leave me a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and be sure to subscribe to get future episodes for free and as soon as they come out.

You can find more episodes and other cool stuff at podcastingwithaaron.com.

Next week I'll be talking about why you should record an audio track for each person that's going to be on your podcast, and some easy ways to do that.

Till then, have a great week, and happy podcasting.

Aaron

Last week I talked about how to connect your microphone and headphones and make sure you're ready to start recording.

This week I'm going to walk you through the basics of microphone technique and how to set the input gain levels (or recording levels) so you can sound good anytime you want to record some audio.

Just a heads up: If you're listening to this episode in a podcast app, I'd recommend switching over to the YouTube video, as I believe it's easier to understand mic technique and input gain levels if you can see what I'm doing and talking about.

Watch the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/hn09tFzJ0PQ

1. Mic Technique

Gotta be close to the mic (but not too close).

Make sure the right side of the mic is pointed at you.

You don't have to speak directly at or into the mic. Try putting off to the side a bit (still keep it pointed at your mouth).

For most mics, the closer you are, the more bass the mic will record. (This is called the proximity effect, if you want to do some research on it.) So if you have a naturally loud, low, bassy voice, you might want to keep the mic a little further away. In most cases, keeping your mouth 3-6 inches away from the mic should probably work great for you.

This is also something you'll want to play around with. Make some practice recordings to hear how you sound at different distances from the mic.

2. Setting Input Gain Levels

Most USB microphones and audio interfaces have input gain knobs or sliders that allow you to control the strength of the signal your microphone is picking up.

The goal is to get a recording that is loud enough but not too loud.

The best way to do this is to position the mic close to you and start talking like you'll be talking on your podcast. Then watch the input gain meters in your recording software and adjust the gain knob or slider on your mic or interface until the peaks of the signal are getting up to about 75% of the way to the top of your meter (or the red zone in most software gain meters).

(If the gain meter in your software is vertical, that's the top, if it's horizontal, like in GarageBand, that's the right side.)

Here's another way to think about it: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being way too quiet, and 10 being too loud, you want your signal to average around 6 or 8. So not always hitting that top limit of 10, but probably somewhere about 5.

If you find your recording is a little too quiet after you're done recording, you do have the option to add more gain to increase the level of your audio track later.

Important Things to Remember

You don't have to speak directly into the mic. You can talk past it. As long as it's close enough to your mouth, you'll still sound good.

Make test recordings to see how you sound! Try recording just to play around with mic technique and input gain levels. This will help you get comfortable with how your gear works, and how your voice sounds at different distances from the mic and at different gain levels.

Recommend Reading:

Gain Staging Like a Pro from Sweetwater

Podcasts and Capital from Justin Jackson

Thanks for watching or listening to this weeks episode. If you have questions, please leave a comment on my YouTube channel or send me an email, aaron@thepodcastdude.com

If you like this episode, please give it a thumbs-up on YouTube or leave me a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and be sure to subscribe to get future episodes for free and as soon as they come out.

You can find more episodes and other cool stuff at podcastingwithaaron.com or aarondowd.com.

Next week I'll be talking about how the room you're recording in can affect how you sound, and I'll share a few tips about how to fix a few common issues related to that.

Till then, have a great week, and happy podcasting.

Aaron

Watch the video version of this episode here.

Welcome back to another episode of Podcasting with Aaron.

I hope you're having a good week so far. I know I certainly have. This past week has been one of the better weeks in recent memory. Possibly the best week since 2016, actually.

Last week I talked about the importance of getting good sound for your podcast. I talked about why good sound matters, what it means when something sounds good, and why you should get yourself that nice podcast microphone you've been looking at.

This week I want to talk about something that might seem basic to you if you've been podcasting for a while. I want to talk about connecting your microphone and headphones, and making sure you have your microphone (or audio interface if you're using one) set as the input source for whatever recording software you're using.

I remember the first time I bought a microphone and a little audio interface. I probably spent close to an hour trying to figure out how to record an audio file because I didn't know that I was supposed to set the audio interface as the input source for the recording software I was using, and then also that I needed to select the channel my mic was plugged into (channel 1) as the audio source for the audio track in the program.

You'd be surprised at how many podcasts are recorded where someone forgets to set their good microphone as the input source, and ends up with a recording that was made with the built-in microphone on their desktop computer. Which makes them sound far away and thin and not good.

And the goal here is to sound good.

The Essentials: Connecting Your Microphone and Headphones

Step 1: Is everything plugged in and turned on?

USB Microphones

If you're using a USB microphone: Is it plugged into your computer? Yes? Good.

Now, which program are you going to use for recording? You need to make sure your microphone is set as the audio input source for that program. Usually you select your audio input source in the settings, or the preferences area of the software.

If you're having a hard time finding how to set your mic as the input source for your recording software, do a quick search on Google or YouTube.

Next: Does your USB microphone have a headphone port on it? (A place to plug in your headphones.)

If so, plug your headphones into that. This is a good idea because it will allow you to hear what you sound like in real time. You'll hear people refer to this as "monitoring yourself".

You'll also need to choose the audio output source for whatever recording software you're using. Essentially, where should the audio from your computer go? 

If you're interviewing someone, and your headphones are plugged into your USB mic, you don't want the audio from your computer going to your computer speakers. You want it to go to your USB microphone.

Quick recap:

Make sure your recording software is using the right mic before you start recording, and also that your software or computer is sending audio to the right place.

It's pretty easy once you've gone through this a couple times, but I've seen many podcasters struggle with this set up when they're first getting starting, and also it's important to get in the habit of double-checking your input and output settings before you start interviewing someone or recording an episode.

XLR Microphones + Audio Interface

If you bought an XLR microphone and an audio interface (like I'm using here), the set up process is going to be similar, but there's a few additional things to keep in mind.

Step 1: Plug your microphone or microphones into your audio interface using an XLR microphone cable.

Next, plug the audio interface into your computer. Your interface should have come with a right cable for your computer, but it's possible you might need an adapter.

Like if the cable for your audio interface is a USB-C cable, and your computer only has USB-A ports and no USB-C ports, then you'll need to buy a USB-C to USB-A adapter. Make sense? Google has answers for you if you're not sure what kind of adapter you need.

Quick note here: If you're using a Windows computer, I've heard that sometimes you have to update the driver for an audio interface before your computer will "see" and be able to use the interface.

A driver is just a little bit of software that tells your computer how to work with a piece of hardware like an audio interface. So if you open up your recording software and you don't see the option to select your audio interface as the input or output source for audio, you might need to download and install an updated driver for your interface.

Ok, so now you've got your mic or mics plugged into your audio interface, and the interface plugged into your computer.

Now: I'd recommend plugging your headphones into the headphone port on your interface. Also, you might need an adapter for your headphones, as a lot of audio interfaces have big 1/4" headphone ports, and normal headphone jacks are smaller, 1/8" or 3.5 mm.

Let's recap one more time. You've got your mic and your headphones connected to your audio interface, your audio interface connected to your computer. Great.

Now open up your recording software, and set the audio interface as the input and output source for your audio. You will also want to set the audio interface as the output source for your computer's audio. Make sense? The recording software should send audio to your interface where your headphones are plugged in, and your computer should send audio to your interface too.

With any luck, you'll hear everything you should be hearing through your headphones, and no sound will be coming out of your computer speakers.

One other important thing to know here.

If you're recording multiple tracks with multiple microphones:

If you have multiple microphones plugged into your audio interface and you want to record each microphone to it's own track in your recording program (as you should), you'll need to set the audio interface as the input source for the software, but also choose which channel (microphone, essentially) should be the audio source for each track.

So let's say you have two microphones plugged into your audio interface, channel 1, channel 2. Make sure you have two tracks created in your recording software, and select channel 1 as the audio source for track 1, channel 2 as the audio source for track 2.

Got it?

I hope that all makes sense, and I hope this walk-through helps you understand how these different pieces of audio hardware and recording software work together.

If you have questions: Please leave a comment on my YouTube channel.

If you like this episode, please give it a thumbs-up on YouTube or leave me a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and be sure to subscribe to get future episodes for free and as soon as they come out.

You can find more episodes and other cool stuff at podcastingwithaaron.com or aarondowd.com.

Thanks for watching or listening, and I'll be back next week with more podcasting tips and tricks. I'm going to be talking about setting input gain levels and good microphone technique.

Till then, have a great week, and happy podcasting.

Aaron

I've been obsessed with things that sound good for as long as I could remember. I've always loved music and the effect it has on my body and brain, so I got interested in the process of creating and capturing sound when I was young.

The first podcasts I started listening to back in 2008/2009 were professionally produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by folks who had been working in radio for a long time. So they sounded really good.

Then I started listening to some shows produced by normal folks, what you'd call independent podcasters. I liked the content just as much, but I noticed that the sound quality was usually a lot lower, and sometimes so bad it made me stop listening to the show.

So I started wondering, can you make a podcast that sounds good even if you don't have a lot of money to spend? Is it possible?

I figured out that there were a few key things that made a big difference. So I'm going to make a series of episodes where I share what I've learned about audio recording and sound quality, and how to make a podcast that sounds good.

Q: Does it really matter how good you sound?

Yes! The quality of an audio recording affects how trustworthy and credible listeners think you are.

As a podcast host, you want people to be able to hear you clearly and understand you. If they have a hard time hearing and understanding you, they're not going to stick around for very long. The same goes for any co-hosts or guests you have on your show as well.

There's a research article by Eryn Newman and Norbert Shwartz from the University of Southern California published in 2018 that demonstrates the importance of good sound quality.

The articles references a study in which two groups of people were shown a video of a scientific talk and asked to rate the credibility and trustworthiness of the presenters.

The first group got a version of the video with high quality audio.

The second group got a version of the video with low quality audio.

When the video was difficult to hear, viewers thought the talk was worse, the speaker less intelligent and less likeable and the research less important.

“As soon as we reduced the audio quality, all of a sudden, the scientists and their research lost credibility.” - Eryn Newman

The quality of audio influences whether you believe what you hear - news.usc.edu

It's important to learn how to record and publish audio that sounds good.

Q: When you say something sounds good, what does that mean?

I use to talk a lot about sounding good, but I never really broke it down in a way that was easy to understand.

I know because I got a 2 star review in Apple Podcasts last year from Red84604.

Red wrote:

I can appreciate that the podcast dude is a musician. So am I. But his obsession with audio quality made me look for another podcast to reach me how to podcast. Even if I came to this podcast exclusively for advice about audio, it wouldn’t be useful for that because, from the very beginning, his advice assumes that the listener already knows a whole lot about the subject (more than I know and I actually was a professional musician for a while). I couldn’t follow it. And he went on for episode after episode. I want to produce a podcast with great audio. But even after listening to several episodes I am still not sure how to do that because his advice was so technical. And his snobbery on the topic was off-putting. Sorry.

That's fair criticism. So really, you can thank Red for this whole 7 part series I'm about to make and share with you.

When I say a podcast sounds good, it means each voice that you hear in the episode is clear and easy to understand, and not difficult to listen to because of distracting background noise or other factors that make it hard to hear and understand someone who is speaking.

Let's break that down even further.

Clear and easy to understand means:

* You've got a microphone that works well for recording a human voice, and you're relatively close to that microphone when you're speaking.

* Your voice doesn't sound muffled, or far away, or distorted in any way.

* The volume level of your recording is loud enough, but not too loud.

* That volume level doesn't change dramatically during the recording. It's consistent, or gets louder when you get speak louder, and quieter when you speak quieter.

* Your audio recording is free of distracting background noise (hums, buzzes, pops, beeps, echos, reverb that makes it hard to understand you, etc).

* The volume level of your voice is roughly the same as the other voices in the recording (if there are other voices).

There's other things that can enhance the quality and impact of an episode, like sound design, music, pacing, and so on, but I want to stay focused on the basics for now.

Q: So how do you get this good sound quality?

I believe there are 7 important things to know and keep in mind when recording audio if you want your show to sound good.

I'll be covering each one in detail over the coming episodes, but this week, I want to talk about why you should invest in a nice microphone.

Step 1. Invest in a nice microphone

Your microphone is the single most important part of sounding good. It's a solid investment if you plan to start a podcast, or if you have the kind of job (or want the kind of job) where you'll be talking to people a lot from your home.

The good news is you don't need an expensive mic to sound good. Even a $60 USB microphone like the ATR 2100 or Samsung Q2U will work just fine.

What doesn't usually work fine is trying to share a single microphone between multiple people, or using bluetooth headsets, or using the built-in microphone on your laptop or desktop computer.

(These microphones will technically work, but I've heard plenty of recordings made with bluetooth headsets and built-in computer mics that didn't sound very good, so I don't recommend using them.)

I've got a full list of the gear I recommend at https://kit.co/PodcastingwithAaron, so let's take a look.

A few key things to keep in mind:

* If you'll mostly just be recording by yourself or talking to other people over the internet, a single USB mic will work fine.

* If you plan to record multiple people in the same room, you'll need multiple mics (get XLR mics ) and a way to record them all to the same device or computer (via an audio interface) at the same time. Don't try to share a single mic.

* I didn't mention it in the episode, but I don't like listening to phone calls (cell phone or land line), so I don't recommend trying to record them. But there are tutorials online if you're really set on it.

* Lav mics: Great if you want to do video presentations and don't want to have to stand in one place like I do here. But if you're mostly going to be talking to other people or staying in place, a regular mic like the ones I recommended will probably be a better option.

Recap:

* Sound quality, sounding good, matters. It affects how much people will believe and trust you.

* A good microphone is a solid investment, especially now, and especially if you plan to spend a lot of time talking to people over the internet.

* As a podcast host, you want people to be able to hear you clearly and understand you. If they have a hard time hearing and understanding you, they're not going to stick around for very long. The same goes for any co-hosts or guests you have on your show as well.

In the next episode, I'll be talking about the importance of learning how to set input gain levels and always checking your audio settings before you start recordings.

As always, thanks for watching and/or listening! Reviews in Apple Podcasts are always appreciated, and you can find more at podcastingwithaaron.com or aarondowd.com.

Till next time, be well and happy podcasting.

Aaron

Hey friends! I told you in a previous episode that I was going to release new episodes on Saturdays, but it's a Monday. So I'm sorry about that. I know inconsistency is lame.

I'm going through a weird time right now when it comes to my show. The events of last week got me thinking about the pros and cons of social media, which got me to start thinking about all the time I was giving away for free, doing things that make money for other people.

I spent most of Saturday writing and recording a video about how to get good sound for your podcast, but I didn't get to finish editing it because I ran out of time (I had something else important to do).

Then I started thinking about how I didn't want to keep spending my weekends producing free podcast episodes and videos. So I wrote a farewell episode to tell you that I'm going to stop doing new episodes, but I decided to sleep on it and give it a little more time to think it over.

So then I wrote this episode to share what I'm thinking about now.

It boils down to this: I'm tired of doing unpaid work. Working for free.

I want to make really good tutorials for podcasters, but I don't want to give them away for free. I want to sell them. I want to make money with this.

But I already have a full time job, and I have a lot of other things I want to do too. So I guess I'm currently just bad at planning and scheduling?

I know many of you are thankful for this show and that it's helpful, and I get that and am thankful for it, but I keep writing these long podcast episodes and putting a bunch of hours into producing them, and then feeling bad about it because I'm giving it all away for free instead of working on stuff I could be selling.

So obviously I need to work on products I can sell. Ebooks, guides, classes, online courses, whatever. I need to figure that out, but I don't know how long that's going to take, and if I can also continue making podcast episodes at the same time.

So I want to ask you. What do you think I should do?

Should I put the show on hold until I have a few products I can put up for sale? Should I just not commit to a regular schedule and make episodes whenever I feel inspired?

What I don't want to do is keep spending most of my weekends working on free podcast episodes.

Let me know what you think. Like I said, I'm still thinking about this and trying to figure it out.

In the meantime, thanks to Ktulu72 and dasteini for the 5 star reviews on Apple Podcasts. I really appreciate it.

Let me know if you have any advice or suggestions for me in the YouTube comments or email me aaron@thepodcastdude.com.

Thanks as always for listening, and until next time: Happy Podcasting.

Aaron Dowd

January 11, 2021

P.S. Here's that blog post about social media I mentioned.

My goal for this episode is to give you a big picture roadmap for how to start a podcast. You give me 30 minutes of your time, I'll tell you everything I know about starting a podcast.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide that covers everything you’ll need to know (that would take awhile longer and I'd like to keep this pretty short), but my hope is that it gives you enough information to help you start making progress on starting your own podcast.

If you’re listening to this in a podcast app, I’d recommend pausing it and switching over to my YouTube video. I’ll be showing some screenshots and other visual aids that I think you’ll find helpful. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/4zfglqqHHtA

I also plan to publish a more detailed version of this episode as an affordable downloadable PDF and video and checklist, so I’ll include a link to that in the episode notes as well whenever it’s ready.

A Few Pieces of Advice Before We Get Started:

Anyone Can Start a Podcast

Anyone can start a podcast! Yes, even you!

To do it well does cost some money and a fair amount of time and effort, but it’s not extremely expensive, and you don't need anyone's permission to do it.

The hardest part (from what I've seen) is growing an audience and getting people to listen to your podcast and share it with other people.

Try to make a show that other people will find valuable and interesting

A common mistake I see a lot of people make is starting a show where they just talk about whatever random subject they feel like talking about.

It can be fun to do that for awhile, but it’ll be hard to convince strangers to listen to you unless you're already known for something.

Everyone has an opinion, and most strangers probably aren't going to be interested in hearing yours. To stand out, you’ll need to figure out how to provide something valuable, useful, or interesting to them.

Aim to make your show entertaining, educational, or inspirational. If you can make it be all three, even better.

If you don’t feel like you have anything important or interesting to say, it’s ok to put off podcasting for awhile. Focus instead of becoming an interesting, experienced person who can talk about a topic or tell stories in a way that makes people notice and pay attention.

Don't give up when the going gets tough.

You’re going to encounter road blocks and get stuck sometimes.

There are answers to every question out there on the internet in blog posts, YouTube videos, books, podcasts, etc.

Be patient and learn to enjoy the process of learning. Don’t get frustrated if you can’t accomplish a task right away.

Podcasting is a marathon, not a sprint.

Success comes to those who stick with it for a long time, so don’t give up if you don’t achieve all your goals right away. Stay focused, keep working, keep iterating and getting better.

If you have questions, please feel free to send them to me, or you can find more information out there on the internet if you search.

The Ultimate Goal: End up with an awesome podcast you love

My goal with this episode and show is to help you end up with a podcast you’re proud of and that other people love, listen to, and share with their friends.

One of the best ways to do this is to learn from other people who have already created podcasts that people love. This is why I recommend checking out the top shows in Apple Podcasts and Spotify for inspiration. Pay close attention to their podcast cover artwork and their show descriptions. Look for shows that are similar to the show you want to make. Learn from them, get inspired by them.

4 Key Parts to Podcasting

There are four main parts of making a great podcast. They are:

 1. Planning & Pre-Production 

2. Recording & Production 

3. Editing & Post-Production 

4. Launching & Promoting

Let's go through each of these steps in more detail.

1: Pre-Production / Planning the Show

The Goal: Come up a title, theme, short description, branding/visual style, and format for your show, and choose a time in your schedule to work on it.

The first step is to decide:

1. What your show is going to be called (the title)
2. What it's going to be about (the theme)
3. What your branding or visual style is going to be (the look of your artwork)
4. What the format is going to be (Interviews? Fiction / Story telling?)
5. When you're going to work on it (In the mornings before work? In the evenings after work? Weekends?)

The Title: Check Apple Podcasts and social media to make sure the title you want isn’t already taken.

The Theme/Format: Will you do interviews? Chat with a friend about a new topic every week? Tell a story in a narrative style? Do something weird and bizarre? There’s no rules here, so you have freedom to create the kind of show that you want. I’m guessing you have a few ideas based on shows you already listen to and enjoy. Make a show you’d love to listen to, and have fun!

The Branding/Visual Style: Eventually you’ll need to create or hire someone to create cover art for your show. Your podcast cover art needs to be a square image, 3000x3000 pixels, a JPG or PNG file format.

The Schedule: Decide what your recording and publishing schedule will be. Can you produce and publish new episodes every week? Every two weeks? Want to record a season of 12 episodes all at once and then release them? You’ll want to block off some time on your calendar to work on producing new episodes, but also time to promote your show and episodes and invest in your existing listeners and also on getting new listeners. (Podcasting can take a lot of time, so give yourself more time than you expect when you're just starting out.)

Don’t worry about getting it perfect right away!

Don’t worry about getting everything perfect, just make a plan and keep making progress. You can always change things later if you decide you really need to.

For more information about planning a show, check out:

• So You Want to Start a Podcast
• How to Write a Podcast Description That Attracts New Listeners
• How to Design Stunning Podcast Cover Art That Stands Out

2: Recording & Production

The goal: Get some recording gear and plan and record some episodes.

Recording Gear

There are ways to make a podcast using only your smartphone, or you could spend thousands of dollars on professional microphones, cameras, and accessories. There are good options for pretty much every budget.

I recommend starting off with gear on the cheaper or affordable side, and then upgrading later if you decide the extra sound quality or utility is worth it to you. You want to avoid spending $2000 on gear only to decide a few months later that podcasting isn’t for you.

Questions to consider:

• What is your budget?
• What gear do you need for the format you’ve chosen?
• How serious are you about podcasting?

I keep a list of my favorite gear at kit.co/podcastingwithaaron. (Those are affiliate links, so I get a small cut of the sale if you buy something using the link on that site).

Recording and Editing Software/Apps

There’s software and apps for recording and editing audio (Garageband, Audacity, Reaper, Logic Pro, Audition), and also software and apps for recording interviews (Squadcast, Zoom, Zencastr, Descript, Cleanfeed, etc).

I prefer the paid software, but there are plenty of people who record and publish using free software.

For best results, you’ll want to get an individual audio track for each person that’s on the podcast. This is why I like and use Squadcast.

You don’t want to start off with one single audio track that has everyone’s voice on it, it makes editing and balancing the volume levels of each voice much harder.

Practice recording to get comfortable with your gear and software before you start trying to record episodes that you plan to publish.

I recommend doing at least couple of test/practice episodes that you don’t plan to publish, just so you can learn how to use your gear and the software without pressure to get everything right. This is especially important if you plan to do interviews.

Creating Episodes

For each episode, you'll need:

1. An episode title/theme
2. A short description of the episode (What is the episode about? Why should someone listen to it?)
3. An outline for the episode (What are you going to talk about in the episode?)
4. Episode notes or a script (You can write this before, or after. It can be as short or long as you like)
5. Episode artwork (optional, but can be a nice touch)

At the very least, you’ll need to have a title for the episode, how you’re going to start the episode, what you’re going to talk about, and then how you’re going to end the episode.

Create / gather all this information, and then start recording! Be sure to save your recording when you're done.

3: Editing & Post-Production

The goal: Edit your episodes and get them ready for publishing, and choose a hosting platform for your show.

Editing a Podcast Episode

Editing a podcast episode is definitely a topic that deserves it’s own episode or video, but the goal is to get all the audio files for the episode together, and then cut out anything you don’t want in the episode. Add music, sound effects, whatever else you want.

I definitely encourage creativity with editing, but be aware that many new podcasters I’ve talked to find editing to be the hardest and most time consuming part of podcasting.

If you’re just starting out, you might want to keep it simple. Only edit out really noticeable/terrible mistakes, and try to get the volume levels of the audio tracks roughly the same (this is known as mixing).

Editing and mixing can take years to master or get good at, so be patient with yourself while you learn! Watching YouTube videos of other people editing will help.

Once you’re done editing your episode, export an MP3 audio file. This is what you’ll upload to your podcast hosting platform.

Choose a Podcasting Hosting Platform for Your Show

You don’t actually upload episodes to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or the other podcast apps people use to listen to podcasts. Instead, you’ll sign up for an account on a podcast hosting platform that will provide you with an easy interface for adding information about your show and episode to an RSS feed.

The RSS feed is essentially a text document that is hosted and updated by your podcast hosting platform. It will contain all of the information about your show, as well as links to where your episode audio files are hosted.

You’ll give the URL or link for your show’s RSS feed to Apple, Spotify, and the other podcast apps and directories. That’s how you get your show listed there.

Once those apps/directories have the link to your show’s RSS feed, they’ll get any updates or new episodes you publish in your podcast hosting platform automatically.

Which hosting platform should I use for my podcast?

There’s plenty of options for podcast hosting platforms: Anchor, Simplecast, Buzzsprout, Transistor, Captivate, Fireside, and Megaphone, just to name a few. 

The podcast hosting platforms also provide you with a website for your show (important) and analytics so you can see things like how many downloads and plays your episodes get, where your listeners are, and which devices they’re listening on.

Remember: You can always move your show to a different hosting platform any time you want. 

4: Launching & Promoting

The goal: Launch your podcast and start promoting it.

Getting Ready to Launch Your Show

At this point, you should have your show title, show description, and artwork, and at least one episode ready to be published (I'd recommend having 2-3 full episodes ready to publish before you officially launch).

Create a Short Teaser Trailer Episode for Your Show

I also recommend writing and recording a teaser trailer episode. This is where you introduce yourself and the show, talk a little bit about it and who it’s for, why you’re making it, etc.

I recommend making this trailer shorter than 2 minutes (but you can make it longer if you want).

Getting Your Show into Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Other Podcast Apps

Once you've added the information about your show into your podcast hosting platform, and added your trailer or first episode, they’ll provide you with the link/URL to your show’s RSS feed.

You’ll submit the URL/link to your show’s RSS feed to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and the other podcast apps.

Some will take a few days to review and approve your show, some will approve and publish it pretty much right away or within a few hours.

There’s a great help article from Simplecast that has links and instructions about how to submit a show’s RSS feed to every major podcast app or directory.

Visit How to Publish Your Podcast on the Popular Podcast Apps.

Publish Your Trailer Episode First, Then Your Full Episodes Later

I recommend publishing your trailer episode first, then submitting your RSS feed to Apple and the other places, then publishing your first few real episodes a week or two later.

This gives you time to make sure your show is everywhere you want it to be before you publish full episodes, and having a trailer out allows you to begin promoting your show and getting people to subscribe to it before you publish the full episodes.

Start Promoting Your Show

At this point, you’ll want to create social media accounts for your show if you don’t already have some you plan to use.

You don’t have to be on every social media platform: Focus on the ones where your target audience are the most active.

Tell your friends, family, social media followers, etc.

If you know of any magazines or blogs or publications that might be interested in featuring your show, reach out to them as well.

Basically, you gotta get the word out and convince people to listen to your show.

For more information about promoting a new podcast, check out:

• Buffer: We Didn’t Know How to Promote a Podcast. So Here’s All We Learned
• Podcast Marketing: 50 podcasters share the tactics they used to grow their shows
• Hack Your Way to 10,000 Podcast Downloads with These 15 Tips
• Want to know what worked for a real podcast (Darknet Diaries)? Check out this post.

There's tons of other articles online about promoting and marketing a podcast, so plan to spend a few hours reading tips. Mostly it comes down to creating something people will want to listen to, and then convincing them to give you a chance. Easier said than done!

What's Next?

By now you should know just about everything you need to know to get started, but I have a few more tips to share before you go.

• Keep creating and publishing new episodes. Keep improving.
• Experiment. Have fun.
• There are hundreds of helpful articles, tutorials, videos, books, and online courses about everything related to podcasting and growing an audience. Google search is your friend here!
• If there’s something you’d like to learn more about, put your question in a search box and start reading or watching.
• Ask questions if you need help or if you get stuck.

Connect with Me

I’m going to keep making episodes about podcasting, and I’m happy to answer questions. Leave them in the comment section on my YouTube videos , or email me at coldwaraaron@gmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter, i'm @aarondowdtx.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck with your show, and happy podcasting!

Aaron Dowd

Granbury, Texas

December 20, 2020(Last updated September 28, 2022)

Why are you procrastinating?

This is an important question, and is worth considering, reflecting on, and writing about.

It could be a few different things.

You've decided that something else is more important.

What are you doing (or what should you be doing) that's more important than your podcast?

Maybe a podcast isn't what you're supposed to be focusing on right now.

That's ok! You can come back to podcasting later.

I'd suggest prioritizing sleep and rest, exercise, time with family and friends, and time addressing any major issues or distractions in your life before you invest time in podcasting. Basically, get your shit together first before spending time and energy on a podcast.

Make sure you are in a good place mentally and physically. It's very hard to create and share something with the world if you're overwhelmed, stressed out, exhausted, or distracted. Not impossible, but difficult.

The main reasons I procrastinated on podcasting:

1. I prioritized the wrong things

2. I was burned out

3. I was scared that what I was making wasn't good enough

Maybe you don't know what you need to do next.

Write a to-do list with action steps. Make it as detailed as possible, but give yourself a 20 minute time limit.

Maybe you do know what you need to do next, but you haven't decided when you're going to do it.

Once you know what the next steps are, you need to decide when you're going to work on them.

I found it helpful to pair actions together until they become a habit. This is commonly called Habit Stacking.

For example, everyday after I wake up, I do yoga for at least 20 minutes. After yoga, I make coffee. As soon as coffee is done, I walk the dogs.

Having those three actions linked together like that has made it extremely easy to do them every day. I've only skipped this morning routine one or two days in the past 4 months (Thanksgiving and the day after) thanks to habit stacking.

Do something like this with your podcast production and make it easier on yourself to make podcasting a habit. For another example, after I've done recording and publishing this episode, I'll be going on a long bike ride. After the bike ride, I'll watch the latest episode of the Mandalorian with a friend.

Habit Stacking. It works.

You decided when you're going to do it, but then did something else that felt more important.

There's two questions I think are the most important questions to consider when it comes to making a podcast.

What do you hope to get out of the podcast?

What do you hope the listeners will get out of it?

If you don't have a clear and concise and compelling answer to both of these questions, it's going to be very easy for you to make something else a priority.

Remember, your brain doesn't want you to do work. You're only going to invest the energy if you know the work is important and that it will result in some kind of reward.

Get clear on why you're making a podcast instead of doing something else.

Maybe you tried, didn't like the results, then gave up.

It's easy to talk about or think about having a podcast. It's safer than actually making one and putting it out into the world.

Making a podcast will cost you time and money and effort. Our brains try to do as little work as possible, and podcasting is work, so your brain will try to keep you from expending the energy.

You also might struggle with the voice in your head that's doubting your ability to succeed.

”What if no one likes it?” the voice asks. ”What if no one listens? What if you're no good? What if you waste your time? What if people make fun of you? What if you make a mistake or say something that's incorrect?”

It's easy to let these fears keep you from making a podcast.

Forget about making it perfect.

Focus on making it, doing the best you can now, and improving as you go.

I promise you that you probably have much higher expectations for your work than anyone else does.

Set realistic expectations. What can you actually accomplish today, or this week?

How much time can you invest in the show on a daily or weekly basis?

If you're working a full time job and have a family to take care of, you'll need to be very focused and honest about how much time and effort you can invest in the show every week.

Maybe you can only devote 2 hours to recording and publishing the show once a week on Saturdays. What can you finish in two hours?

The Goal should be to finish and publish something.

(Or just finish and not publish. That's ok too.)

Recap:

Get clear on why you want to make a podcast. Talk to someone you trust about why you want to podcast.

Ask yourself if a podcast is really what you want or need to be spending time and energy on right now. Make sure you're taking care of yourself so you can create something to share with others.

Make a list of things you need to learn, and things you need to do.

Get clear on when you're going to make a podcast. Block off time on your calendar to work on it. You'll need to make a commitment to show up and do the work.

Get clear on how much time you can devote to making a podcast.

Don't try to make it perfect. Finished, not perfect.

It's good to set big goals, but be honest and realistic about what you can accomplish and finish right now.

Helpful Resources:

So You Want to Start a Podcast? (Slide Deck)

What Does It Cost to Make a Podcast?

Finished, Not Perfect

Habit Stacking

Q&A

Q from Matt G (Food Under Fire podcast):

I've been having a lot of fun with my show. I have dedicated myself to getting better and better with every part of the process. Yet, I still feel like there is a lot to be improved.

For example, the thing that's driving me the craziest right now is volume. It always seems kinda off to my ears? It sounds one way on Logic, but then I upload it, and the dynamics seem off (my voice is too quiet/loud, same with music).

What part of the process would rectify that? Better mixing?

While equipment does play in a role in getting good sound quality, from what you've told me about yours (Shure SM58s mics into a Zoom H6), I think better mixing and mastering should be what you focus on learning.

If you're doing the best you can in the recording stage (good mic technique, setting input gain levels correctly, etc), then the mixing and mastering stage is where you'll fix any issues and polish up the sound.

I'd recommend investing time learning about noise removal, compression, limiting, and using a loudness meter. I have a video introduction to these topics called How to Process Podcast Vocals in Logic Pro X that should help you get started.

Fixing the "music being too loud" issue is easier than you might think. If the music sounds too loud to you, turn it down. (Watch a tutorial video about automation if you're not already familiar with it, and trust your ears.)

Try downloading an MP3 file of a podcast that you think sounds really good, and then start comparing your finished MP3 files against it. It'll take time and experimentation for sure, but you'll get better with practice and effort.

Good luck Matt, and thanks for the question!

News / Recommendations

IAB Measurement Guideline Updates

From Pacific Content: content.com/14-podcast-predictions-for-2021-from-industry-leaders-60e2b63f477e">14 Podcast Predictions for 2021 from Industry Leaders

Connect with me:

podcastingwithaaron.com. Links to social accounts and more there.

Email aaron@thepodcastdude.com or visit if you have questions you'd like me to answer on the show.

Hey friend! Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you're having a good day wherever you are.

If this is your first time hearing or seeing me, welcome! I'm glad you're here! My name is Aaron Dowd and I'm here to help you learn about podcasting and connect you with other great podcasters in the podcasting community.

If it's been awhile since you heard from me, I'm sorry I've been absent for so long, but thanks for giving me another chance!

If you've been following for more than a couple years, you know I used to host a podcast and YouTube channel called The Podcast Dude. I'm renaming and relaunching that show and calling it Podcasting With Aaron.

My Two Goals for This Show

First, to share everything I've learned about podcasting so far.

I've been making podcasts and helping people make podcasts for about 8 years now. I don't know everything, but I'd like to share what I have learned, and hopefully it will be helpful to you. Let's learn together!

Second, I want to introduce you to other podcast producers and people working in the podcasting.

I know that it's hard to do things alone, and finding other people who share your enthusiasm for podcasting can be challenging.

Fortunately there's an amazing community of people who are passionate about podcasting, and I think we should all be friends. I want to help facilitate those friendships and make introductions through this show.

New Episodes Every Saturday

That's right: New episodes every Saturday! I know how important it is to have something to look forward to, and a weekly cadence is what I'm committing to.

The format for the show will be simple, to prevent me from overthinking it and procrastinating.

I'm going to record a video for YouTube first, and export the audio from the video to publish in my podcast RSS feed.

I think you'll enjoy the video version the most, but I understand if you like listening in your podcast app better.

I'll try to make sure the audio-only version is just as good as the video version, and include links to anything I show in the video in the podcast show notes.

I'll have a few different segments that I'll be doing regularly:

• Q&A, where I answer your questions
• Tips & tricks, where I talk about a specific topic related to podcasting
• Interviews, where I talk to podcasters and people making useful things for podcasters
• Recommendations, where I talk about things I think you should know about or check out (news, videos, blog posts, gear, etc)
• Personal updates, just to give you a peek into my life and what I've been up to

I'll aim for 15 minute episodes, and try to keep them under 30 minutes unless I'm doing an interview (sometimes it's nice to let those go a little longer). I'll bring an outline and notes, but I'll try not to script it too much.

I'll make sure to have the next week's topic ready and share it at the end of every episode.

What I Need From You:

I do have a favor to ask: Please leave a comment in YouTube or a review in Apple Podcasts and tell me about yourself and your show.

I'd like to know how you found me, how long you've been listening or watching, and what your podcast is about, and if you have any questions or things you're currently struggling with related to podcasting.

This helps me get to know you a little better which will help me make this show better, but it will also help other people connect with you as well.

And if you have any feedback, suggestions, or encouragement you'd like to share, I'd love to hear those too.

The website for this show is podcastingwithaaron.com, that's where you can find links to my social media accounts and other resources and stuff related to me and this show.

If you have a question you'd like me to answer on the show, record a voice memo and email it to aaron@thepodcastdude.com.

Dedications

I'd like to dedicate this show to a few people.

To Sofia, for always inspiring me to get better, and to my nephew Silas: I hope this show inspires you to start your own helpful YouTube channel or podcast someday.

And finally, I dedicate this show to you (you reading, watching, or listening). Thank you for joining me and following along. Podcasting is definitely more fun with friends, so I'm thankful you're here.

Recommendations

There's a YouTube channel and a podcast that both inspired me to get back into making videos and podcasts. 

The YouTube channel is Yoga with Adriene, and the podcast is Deep Questions with Cal Newport.

I'm not exaggerating when I say they changed my life this year. They're both made by incredible people and absolutely worth your time.

Next Week on Podcasting with Aaron:

Next week's topic will be How to Stop Procrastinating and Make a Podcast. This was a question from Chris B. on Twitter, and a topic I have YEARS of experience with. 

If you've been procrastinating on starting a podcast or making new episodes, leave me a comment or send me a message and tell me about it so I can talk about it in next week's episode.

Happy podcasting, and I'll see you next week!

Aaron Dowd Granbury, Texas December 5, 2020