This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.
I pay my respects to Elders past and present.
Transcripts
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Got dreams of being a professional podcaster, but have no idea what you're doing. This is impossible. That's about to change.
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A new kind of school.
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Welcome to the PodSchool podcast.
Rachel Corbett:
Hello, welcome to the show. Today I'm answering a question from Al, who has asked what is the best way to soundproof a room without spending a lot.
I'm going to say something controversial here. As a bit of an audio purist, use AI I will give you some better soundproofing tips than that.
But honestly, soundproofing, if you do not have a dedicated space, a if you're going to do it really properly and you go into soundproof a room, often the most expensive part of the entire exercise. So properly soundproofing a room will cost a lot of money. What you can potentially do if you have a dedicated space is use a lot of soft furnishings.
So basically the. The enemy of audio and the thing that will create things like echo, reverb. All of the things that you don't want in your recording is hard surfaces.
So ideally you want to put a rug down on the floor. You want to have curtains on the windows, if you can.
You might see in some people's studios that they have the acoustic panels on some parts of the walls. You sometimes don't need to cover the entire wall. You can kind of have some panels behind you or to the sides. Depends on what your room.
And that can help to reduce some of the noise.
But the reality is that if you are trying to do this in your house and you are using whatever space is available, particularly if you are doing video and you require a background that doesn't look like crap, then you're in a bit of a pickle sometimes because you might just be setting things up in your lounge room and then packing everything down. And you can't attach a couch acoustic panels to the wall, and you need to work with what you've got.
So while I would definitely recommend anything, you know, even if you're recording near a couch or you've got a rug on the floor or any of those kind of things, those things can really help. Anything soft that can absorb the sound will really help.
But if push comes to shove and you are in a real pickle and you have to record somewhere because the background's the best for the video, Adobe enhance, shove the audio into that thing afterwards. Don't go nuts with the processing. But honestly, I use that now because I've had to start to think about where I'm recording.
Previously in my past life, I would get some Couch, cushions off the couch.
And I would set up a little mini audio booth around my microphone and I would sit on the floor and I'd stick my head in the audio booth and that's how I would record. And now because you have to see me, because we can't possibly listen without seeing people now.
Now I'm like, okay, well I, I gotta be out in my lounge room and I have an open plan kitchen now. I have a rug underneath me, I have the couch near me as well. I've got the blinds drawn. I've done everything that I can within this space.
But then I put it into Adobe Enhance and I put some light processing on it. And if you've listened to previous episodes you will know a lot. I do not like this one touch processing where you're like, okay.
Especially if you don't know what you're listening for because it's really easy to go heavy on it and it makes your voice sound robotic. And honestly I think sometimes a lot of people who use this a lot, I've heard some people go, oh, it sounds really good.
And then I'll listen to the audio. And I think that sounds really processed you. It's almost like once you've heard it a lot you start to forget what normal audio sounds like.
So I think it's really important that you don't go too heavy handed on this stuff because you still want it to sound like I'm sitting here in a room right next to you, not coming at you through some computer software. But that can help.
And that sometimes is what you need to do if you do not have an environment at home where you can be sticking acoustic panels to the wall and doing it properly. So if you want to be doing it cheaply, that is probably the way to go.
I would say do as much as you can where you're recording because the more you have to fix, the more processing that's required, the more potential you have to kind of rip out the warmth in your voice and make it sound robotic. So you want to do everything that you can in the moment to record.
So you don't want set up in your toilet and then go, oh, I can hear myself bouncing back off the walls. But I'm sure Adobe Enhance will fix this. Like be mindful of where you're recording.
But as long as you don't need a huge amount of processing, putting it into a tool like that can really help. And it can mean that you can record somewhere. If you need to have your background that you might not have recorded before. So really our.
Not my usual level of advice, but I'm a realist. You know, it's. It's interesting for me because I. I sort of skate these two lines.
I run a network where I have staff and studios and video editors and podcast producers and all of the tools that are at our disposal to make great quality content.
On the other hand, I have my two independent at home shows that I do because I love them, and one's associated with my business, one's a passion project for. I like to still do the making. But the reality of that, I'm not in the studio with a staff of people that can do all this kind of stuff for me.
So it's really about fitting this into my life and what are the tools that I can use to make this easier. That is still going to make things sound professional and look professional, but he's also not going to break me in the process.
And I think when you're thinking about setting your own studio up at home, most of us do not have the space and the money and the time to do that kind of stuff. So it is fine to do the best with what you've got. And the key is to just look for stuff that's soft, that sound can absorb into whatever that is.
Might be a doona, might be pillows, might be cushions, might be a couch, might be curtains. And avoid things that are reflective like tiles, hardwood floors, all those kind of things.
And then use a little AI to help you polish what you can't fix in the moment. There's my advice. Hopefully that's helped and taken some of the pressure off, you know, you on Amazon looking at what do I need to buy?
And they're all ugly. They're all ugly. Those acoustic panels, it's like, can we get some that we can put in the background? That's just a nice backdrop.
Even the ones that are supposed to be nice, I'm like, these aren't nice. Anywho, that's for another time. Thank you so much for listening.
If you've got a question, you can always submit it in the via the link in the description of this episode.
And you'll also find all the details of how you can work with me there, including my online podcasting course, Pod School, which can help you go step by step through the entire process so you don't have to do it alone. I'll see you next week.
