On this episode I tackle some of the little things you can do to have great sound quality.

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Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast,

answering any podcasting questions along the way.

That's right guys, today is a whole new day and we are going to be talking about

how to get good quality sound from your show today.

Last week we talked a little bit about should you put your show on YouTube and we were talking with Doc Rock about that.

And just how, yes, you should put your show on YouTube and not how to put your show on YouTube,

but essentially how to use Ecamm to do that because Ecamm is one of the best tools out there for video and recording video.

And so we talked about that if you'd not check that out, go ahead and do that right now because it was a pretty amazing show.

And also if you have not checked out our social media profiles yet, you can follow us on all of the places at Podcast Answers or Twitter,

or Axis Podcast Answers 1 because I couldn't get Podcast Answers, but that's besides the point.

So guys, welcome back. We're going to be talking today a little bit about getting good quality audio for your show.

People can deal with a little bit sketchy video that you may not have the highest quality video out there and that's okay,

but people will put up with it. But if you have crappy audio, if you have audio that sounds like you're in an echo chamber,

it sounds like you're recording on a tin can.

People are not going to listen to that very long. If you have things going on in the background,

if you, if you, things get distracting, audio distracts a whole lot more than video.

So I'm going to talk today a little bit about some of the tips that you can use to get good quality audio.

First and foremost, start with a good quality microphone. Now, it doesn't need to be a microphone that is $400 or $1,000.

Yes, those sound good and those sound amazing. And I love having one in one of my podcasts.

I get to use this, the Shure SM7B and that is an amazing, that is an amazing microphone.

It sounds amazing, but with something as simple as a $100 microphone, you can make it sound just about as good with some, some tweaks.

So that's what I would say. Start with a good quality microphone. Now, what do I mean by a good quality microphone?

Sure, the Shure SM7B kind of the gold standard there. If you go to any radio station or almost any radio station or, you know, a lot of professional podcasts,

the Shure SM7B, it's that iconic look. It's like completely rounded. It's got the longer kind of microphone windscreen on it.

It's just, it's iconic. You see it, you know what it is. That's a great microphone.

But again, it's a $400 microphone or over $400. And so, and it takes special equipment to use it.

So when we're talking about microphones, we have two different quality or two different categories here.

We have the XLR, which are the round mic with the three pins in them that you're going to have to have something a little bit more.

I'm going to use the word professional to take that into your computer to get recording your audio.

And the reason for that is because it the way it uses the way it does the files.

So you kind of need to have and not the files, the reason the way that it brings it in.

So you will need to have something like some sort of a interface. You can't just plug that microphone right into your computer.

However, so in that category, there, there is, I would say, sure SM7B is a good quality microphone.

And then you, but you can get something like the SM58, which is a good Shure microphone also,

which is the typical one that you see like in churches when people are singing with a wired microphone.

It's just the standard microphone look. It's actually what I have on the video right now, what I'm using right now in this, this episode.

And that one is a good quality microphone to you can get it good.

And then you can use some sort of USB ones also.

The road pod mic is a good USB mic, sure makes an SM,

SM, it makes a microphone that looks like the SM7B, MV7, there we go.

This is the Shure MV7 and that microphone is a pretty good one too.

And it uses USB and so you can plug it in directly to your computer and not have to have a hardware interface to interface that.

So good quality microphones and microphone techniques are, are highly critical when it comes to things like getting a good sound.

So I would say be right on top of your microphone. You know, I'm, I'm pretty much eating my microphone here.

And then you can just speak off access a little bit so your peas don't pop when you say them.

The other good thing too, another good way to get good quality content, audio content is recorded in quiet environment to minimize the background noise.

Now today it is an icy day out and so it's a no school day, it's a weather day for my kids and they are home.

But most of the time you're not going to hear them in the background because when I'm not talking, I have a noise gate set on my RODECaster Pro.

What that means is you don't hear them when I'm quiet, it shuts the mic off.

Now when I'm talking, I still need to overpower their sound and their downstairs and for the most part you won't be able to hear them unless they get loud and start fighting with each other, which, you know, they may their brothers and sisters, so they may, but.

So recording a quiet environment to minimize the background noise and that also includes things like fans and air conditioners and computer noises because those will get picked up on your mic.

And those are, those are will be distracting when you're, when you're doing things on your mic.

So what you need to do is be in a quiet environment the best you can, you know, treat it, you know, don't be in a big room.

That's going to get really echoey.

The next thing is optimizing your recording levels to avoid distortion too.

So you don't, you don't want to just bring them all the way up the top because if you get to the top to the zero and you're recording thing, it's going to peak when it turns red.

It's not good as digital clipping and it's going to sound like junk because it's going to sound too loud.

It's going to have clipping and it just won't sound good on the opposite.

You don't want your voice to be way down here like this because people won't be able to hear it if you have it down like that.

So you need to record it at a decent level.

So for me, I'm recording at about negative 12 decibels is where I hit when I'm talking and that is usually pretty good for this.

It is loud enough and it allows you to hear me in a good, in a good way and it's not too loud.

The next thing is you may need to edit your audio for clarity and consistency.

Now that being said, most of the times I don't edit my podcasts.

I go in and I when I'm done recording, I hit stop.

I bring them in and I just tweak their levels just a little bit.

But I don't do any clipping, you know, cutting the things down for clarity and consistency because I usually know what I'm talking about and I usually get it down.

But again, if you have a guest on, you may need to cut that down in terms so your audio quality doesn't necessarily just your how you sound, but it's the content also.

You can use noise reduction tools if needed.

So there's if you are in a loud and noisy environment, one of the tools that I would suggest using is a thing called crisp.ai.

It's K-R-I-S-P and what it does is it allows you to use some AI to take the background out and have a cleaner sound.

So if there are distracting noises like cars or fans or whatever going on, it tries to cut those out.

So again, you are going to notice that quality a little bit because it is going to affect the final version and the final way it sounds.

However, that being said, it might be less distracting if you're, if you have something barking or air conditioner noise to hear the your audio sound a little bit dampened.

Then if you don't use that and you have them, you know, something going on in the background.

So you might need to use some noise reduction tools and you can do that in post also.

So if you have a, if you have a completely dirty file, a one that's not very clean, crisp.ai is good.

Also, Adobe has a podcast studio that you can run some files through and it cleans them up and that works pretty good.

Now, the other thing you may need to do is invest in some audio editing software.

So yes, there are free softwares out there.

You know, audacity is a great one if you're just starting and you don't know if this is something you want to do.

Use audacity, get out there, you know, use audacity to put your product out there and get out there and do just put your podcast out there.

But if you decide that you want to do this a lot and you're starting to get into it,

consider investing in some audio editing software.

I use Adobe Audition for my podcast and that allows me to, I do some, you know, some editing.

Like I said, I trim the ends off.

I do some things like, I do some things like boosting some levels if they're too quiet.

I record in a multi-track environment, which means that my microphone is not, I get a file for my microphone.

I get a file for my sound files.

I get a file for any guests that I have all separately tracks.

And so if for some reason I'm in the middle of talking to a guest and they start, you know, they're talking and I'm not.

And my dog starts barking.

I can mute my track and that doesn't affect what you're hearing because you're hearing the guest talk and you don't hear me or my track.

So that's one of the things that I would say is a really good thing to do is if you can record in multi-track and the Roadcaster Pro does a great job at that.

The Roadcaster Pro allows you to record all of your different tracks separately.

And so that way you can edit those later.

And if you need to dump out, you know, a track when someone has coffee or has a cough fit or whatever, you can do that.

And no one else is going to know at all because you just, you were able to do that.

Again, you can do that in any audio editing software, but the paid ones are definitely going to be better.

And so I like Adobe Audition for that.

And the very last final thing that I would say for getting good audio quality is test, adjust, test, adjust, test, adjust your settings before recording to find your optimal setup.

You know, it each room is different.

Each mic is different.

Each person's voice is different.

And so you might need to test and then figure out, oh, this isn't working.

I don't like that.

Adjust that, test it and adjust it.

Listen to it yourself without having your, you know, with a critical ear.

Again, you want to be able to put your content out there and get it out there and go, but you also want it to sound good.

So if you would you go, would I listen to this?

You know, I know it's mine, but if I ran across this on the internet on a podcast app, would I listen to it?

Is it something that I would listen to?

And so that's one of the things that you can do to help get your podcast even better.

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