4 tools to start a podcast
Recording your own podcast can be a scary but rewarding hobby or job if done right.
As a video and audio editor, I’ve edited podcasts and video series with over 1K listeners per episode.
Here, we’re going to walk through four of the most important tools you’ll need to start your own podcast.
So without futher ado, let’s get started.
A pen pad
Before you start recording, you’ll need to have a firm grasp on your podcast’s hook.
And scribbling notes and notes in a pen pad is the perfect place to start.
A podcast is a series of audio episodes that will make up a series, possibly grouped together in seasons. Most are non-fiction in nature and include two or more speakers.
That means you need a good hook that can explain what your podcast is about. What’s the aim of your series? Are you trying to find something out and are inviting your listeners on the journey with you? Are you focusing on a theme (tech, finance, movies), with each episode looking at a different gadget / fund / movie?
When you can answer this, you’ll be able to start scribbling down ideas for episodes.
Consider your unique angle too. Perhaps you’re bringing comedy to finance. Perhaps you’re giving a farmer’s view to indoor plants. What makes your podcast unique, and why would listeners want to keep listening?
Additionally, don’t go in assuming you’ll record a new episode every week.
If you plan ahead, you can record a few episodes at once and once edited schedule it to release on a weekly or monthly basis.
A good microphone
Every videographer will tell you that audio is king. You could have the worst quality video, but you’d let it pass if the audio was crystal clear. If you watched a 4K video with awful sound, it’d be unbearable.
That’s for video, so for a podcast the audio is everything.
I can recommend the Blue Snowball microphone, as I’ve used it for multiple voiceover projects.
It’s a USB mic, so it’ll plug straight into your laptop and work right away.
The black circle I have attached to mine is called a “pop filter”, which will help reduce the impact of “P”s, “T”s and “F”s, which makes speech sound all that much clearer.
No / low - compression recordings
If your co-host or guest is joining you remotely, you’re probably considering using Zoom or Microsoft Teams to record a session, and grab the audio from that.
The problem is, the audio quality you’ll download is bad.
These video-calling apps compress your webcam video and audio to send the data seamlessly to everyone in the group.
That dip in quality is fine for a chat, but if you were to record the audio straight to your computer you’d get no compression, and be able to work with the original quality.
I recommend SquadCast as I’ve used it for both podcasting and video interviews.
Tools like SquadCast will record everyone’s webcam and audio locally to their own machine while also streaming it in a live video call like Zoom and Teams would.
After the call, it uploads and sends you the full quality WAV and MP4 so you have the original quality file to work with in the edit.
Editing software
I’ve been a video editor for almost a decade, and I can tell you that a good edit can take your episode from ‘ok’ to ‘WOW’.
I work with Adobe Premiere Pro, but you can also use Audition from Adobe too.
These tools will let you cut out all the '“um”, “aah”, “err”s and other filler words like “like”, “well”, and “you know”. You’ll also be able to use the EQ to adjust the quality of the audio, and the de-noise tool to reduce background sound.
Having worked as an editor for so long, I know there’s a lot more to an audio edit than just cutting out the unwanted bits.
Cutting out everything sounds strangely artificial, so there’s a fine balance between reducing pauses, repetition and filler words with keeping a naturally flowing conversation that reflects the style of the speaker.
If you’ve followed it all this far, then congratulations!
You’re seriously on your way to creating the next ‘Diary of a CEO’ or ‘Useless Hotline’.
If you’ve got a recording and need help with the edit, get in touch and I’d be happy to help.
