On this episode I talk about all the things from hardware to software you will need to record your podcast. If you have questions you would like answered pleaes go to podcastanswers.com/contact and let us know

Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where we help you create and start your podcast.

If you have never, ever, ever joined us before, we've been doing podcasting since 2007.

And so we are going to be just talking a little bit about podcasting and helping you get your

show started.

So without further ado, we are going to be talking today about how to record your podcast.

And yes, that includes mics and software and hardware and all sorts of things like that.

So let's go there.

So you want to start a podcast, you have an idea, and now it's time to actually get

out there with your content and create a show, create something that people are going to

listen to.

So how do you do that?

So you can, you first need a mic.

You can either use, if you're just starting out, probably the best thing is a USB mic

to your computer, because that's real simple.

You can just plug the mic right into your computer, open up a software like Audacity

or Audition or GarageBand.

Audacity and GarageBand are both free apps, Audacity is on either any platform, and GarageBand

is with the Mac only.

So if you have a Mac, definitely check out GarageBand.

It's how I did the first several of my episodes.

I'm now using Audition.

Audition has some more features and some more plugins that you can use to make better,

sweeter sound, but with that though, it is a paid program, and so it does take some money

to go in there.

So if you're just starting out and you don't know what you want, if you want to keep doing

this podcasting thing, I would definitely use something like Audacity or GarageBand.

Both of those can do that.

So you can open up and you can record right into either of those apps right there.

You can just push record in that, use your USB mic and record.

Now I know a lot of people, I would suggest against using your built-in laptop mic.

Do not do that.

That's going to sound like rubbish.

It's going to be bad.

So with that though, what I would do is get something, you can start out, if you're just

starting out, you can use a mic that's a simple, something simple and cheap like the ATR2100X

and that's both USB and XLR.

That's an Audio Technica ATR2100X and that's got both USB and XLR on it.

So that's really nice because if you're just starting out, you can go ahead and plug that

puppy in and record right to your computer.

But if you do graduate into something else, like something bigger, like a mixing board,

like I want to know the ones we'll be talking about later, you can use that same app on

that.

So that's one of the things that I would do is do something like that because if it has

XLR and USB, you know you're going to be good for the long future.

So that way if you upgrade something like you're to a roadcaster pro or whatever, you

can still use your ATR2100X because it has XLR and XLR if you're not aware of is that

round like mic cable that has the three pins in it.

It doesn't plug directly into your computer.

You'll need to use some sort of a hardware to get that into your computer.

Now I did mention that if you have a hardware device like the roadcaster, I like the roadcaster

because well it's kind of an all-in-one thing.

It's an all-in-one device.

It's going to cost you about $700 but it does allow you to plug mics right into the back

up to four mics.

So if you are doing a podcast with somebody else, that's really nice because you can have

mics for them instead of just your own single mic and the nice thing about that too is it

also has a SD card reader in it that you can plug right in and record right onto it and

be done.

When you're done, you hit stop and it's done.

You don't even need a computer but you can plug it into a computer and do things like

streaming or recording in your software program like I was talking about Audition or Audacity

or GarageBand.

So going back to the mics, you can get AT2020, that's a good mic too.

It's XLR only.

So I'm sorry.

Back to the ATR2100s, the USB and XLR ones, those are $79.

That'll run you about $79-ish.

So pretty easy, pretty cheap and the nice thing about that is it does have both XLR and USB

on it.

The AT2020s by Audio Technica are good too.

It's XLR only though and it's going to cost you about $100 so it's more money and XLR

only but you do get, it's a better sounding mic than the ATR2100s X's.

Now if you really want to spend some money, you can get this shirt MV7 and that's both

XLR and USB but that's going to run you about $250 to the United States US on that because

that's just a little bit more expensive of a mic but again, that's going to do some really

cool things, it has some nice processing on it that allows you to make your voice just

a little bit sweeter if you're using the XLR, I mean sorry, the USB.

So those are a couple good mic options for you to begin with again to recap that that's

going to be the ATR2100X's and that has both USB and XLR or AT2020s and those are XLR only

but it's going to sound a little bit better than the ATR2100s and then the Shure MV7 like

Mike Victor 7 has both XLR and USB on it and the nice thing about that is it does sound

really good, it's kind of compact and I would say the little brother to the mic that you're

used to seeing, the Shure SM7B, the SM7B is kind of a broadcast standard, lots of podcasters

use that, it's going to be XLR only but it's going to sound really, really sweet.

So the Shure MV7 is like, it's a little brother, it's kind of designed to be after the standard

SM7B but it is USB and XLR only.

So yeah, so those are the mics that I would definitely recommend and if you are going

to use something like the Rodecaster Pro is great, I love it because again, you can record

right on it, it has the sound pads right on it so you can put your theme music and things

right on it and not have to worry about it having all sorts of different hardware.

When I first started out I had a separate recorder that just had my, I had a little mixing board

and then I had a recorder that went out of that, a recorded stuff, I had a computer that

played music, I had all sorts of different things, if I wanted to bring in a caller I

had a whole separate device just for that but the Rodecaster Pro 2 brings that all into

one device, you can hook your phone Bluetooth to it and bring in callers, you can use apps

like Skype and anything else and bring in your co-hosts to it so your co-host doesn't

even need to be in the same room.

That's a great addition especially if you were going to be doing lots and lots of podcasting,

if you're going to stick with this thing and keep going, you are going to want something

like the Rodecaster because it's a great hardware solution for all in one hardware solution

for recording your podcast.

Now some tips that I would say when you are going to be recording your podcast is speak

into your microphone clearly and have headphones as you record so you get a good idea of the

volume level that you are coming through.

I know it's a little bit weird at first to hear your own voice when you're recording

but the reason we do that is so that we know what it sounds like when we're recording,

we know that our levels are going to be the same as our co-hosts levels and our music

levels are good instead of having it all separately.

Listen to yourself, speak clearly in your microphone.

Use a pop filter also on your microphone or a wind screen for your mic.

You don't want to hear the popping of the peas when you say things like Peter Piper

picked a peck of pickled peppers so hopefully that didn't blow your ears out but I'm using

a wind screen and so that should help with those, they're called plosives so use a pop

filter or a wind screen when you're recording your episode.

If you are recording with a co-host make sure your levels are really close to one other

and that they're not louder.

This goes back to listening to yourself and listening as you record because you don't

want to have, people have to turn you up really loud when you're talking and then blow their

eardrums out when your co-host speaks.

You want to make sure that your levels are really close in line with each other, again

that way you can keep everything sounding good, yeah, it's great.

So there's a couple different mindsets when it comes to recording.

You can either record live to drive like I do or edit later and the reason I like doing

live to drive, so in other words what I'm saying is I press record, I talk everything,

I play my music all at once, I don't, if I mess up, I just mess up, no big deal.

If I really mess up I can edit later but I don't ever plan on editing.

I kind of go with the mindset of doing it like I'm doing a radio talk show where I'm

going to talk and it's going to go out to whoever's listening and so I don't pretend

like I'm just myself recording.

For me when I do that and I know that I can edit later, I mess up lots and lots and lots

so what I do is I record live to drive, I hit start, I record, when I'm done I hit end

and then what I do is I go in and I trim the ends up just a little bit, I maybe run a filter

in my audio editing software that makes my sound just a little bit better and then I

save it but if you are planning on editing one of the great things that you can do is

if you do mess up you can always clap and create like a spike for easy editing later

so that way you know when you mess up or you can just stop and wait five seconds and then

start again and the reason for doing either one of those things where you stop and then

start again or clap is because when you're looking in your audio editor it's really easy

to see the spike above every other sound level or the pause and know that's where you need

to actually edit out instead of having to listen to your whole episode and figuring

out what to take out later you can just look real quickly see that those need to be fixed,

fix it and go on.

One thing that I would caution against when you're recording your episode is I would caution

against taking out all of your ums and your aahs and your filler words and the reason

I say that is because once you chop that up it's going to sound really unnatural if you

take all the pauses out all the ums and the aahs the best way to get rid of filler words

is to listen to your podcast episode when it's done they will bother you they will bother

you when you say ums and aahs and then what I've heard is the best way to do this is to

stick a sticky note on your monitor that says um a sticky note on your monitor that says

aah or whatever else your filler word is and that way you see it and you're training your

brain to not say those things.

So for me I listen back to all of my episodes after they're published I listen and I go

oh man I said like quite a bit in that episode and so I think about that next time I'm recording

my episode and so I don't say like quite as much.

Now when you are done recording your episode podcast episodes are delivered as mp3 file

format so you can save it an audio file as a hundred different things but what it needs

to have is it needs to have an mp3 format so you save it and you um then what you do

is use a tag editor an mp3 tag editor for me I use podcast chapters that's a mac app

and that adds my chapters as well as the podcast tags um and by tags I mean like your cover

art for your show um the title the episode name the description any other pertinent information

for your podcast now you you don't necessarily have to do that um most modern podcast apps

will play whatever is listed in your rss feed I mean show whatever is in your rss feed for

the title and description but some things like car players and older cars and things

like that don't necessarily play or show what's in the rss feed and so you're going to need

to save your mp3 and tag it with an mp3 tag editor uh there's a couple different ones

for windows but like I said I like podcast chapters for mac and then what you can do

is upload your podcast to your host so next week I'll talk a little bit more about what

to look for in a podcast host and different podcast host options that are out there because

uh there are definitely quite a bit of podcast hosts and I don't I don't I don't have a specific

one that I recommend I've used several different ones and I like different things about different

ones so next week I will talk a little bit about how to choose a podcast host for your

podcast but you upload it to your podcast host and then you go ahead and uh put all

your information on the website for the podcast you know we show a description title and uh

cover art if you have any and that will allow you to go ahead and get that podcast out to

the world now if this sounds like a lot of work to you and you don't understand what

I was talking about you don't know what an xLR mic is you don't know uh what exactly

a pot filter is you don't know how to tag your mp3's and you don't want to learn I'm

here for you too I do one-on-one consulting and work for podcasters and so I edit I create

shows I help record I help plan your episodes plan your shows so if you need any of that

help and you want to get started podcasting make sure to go to podcast answers dot com

slash contact and we can do a one-on-one consult with you and get you going with your podcast

also if you enjoyed this episode and you want to support this show a little bit make sure

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just overall helping us get money so that we can we can buy more services and try out

things and help you know how to podcast better so with that guys I look forward to seeing