Improving the Quality of Your Podcast Audio
- By Michael O'Flynn
- Published 11/19/2008
- Internet
- Unrated
Michael O'Flynn
More information on podcasting audio at http://www.recording-microphone.com/podcasting-audio.php. With lots more advice on recording and microphones at http://www.recording-microphone.com Michael O'Flynn has been a professional TV sound recordist for 20 years.
View all articles by Michael O'Flynn
The audio quality of some podcasts is dreadful, nowadays there’s no need for that to be the case since the equipment you require is of good quality and reasonably priced, all you need to do is to take care with a few operational aspects.
Things to do and to avoid.
Don’t use the built in microphone of your laptop computer, the reason for this is that although it might be of good quality it will pick up computer fan and hard drive noise and it limits you as to where you can put the microphone and still operate your computer effectively. Buy a decent microphone that you can plug into the computer and put in the best place.
If you have enough space in the room where you’re doing the recording use a microphone stand so that you don’t get handling noise on the microphone.
Buy a separate windshield that you can put a few inches in front of the microphone (the built in windshields rarely get rid of the worst blasts of air on the microphone). If you do have such artifacts then using some extreme bass cut just at those points in your software audio editor can help to make them less objectionable, but it’s best to avoid the problem in the first place.
Record in a quiet room and avoid places that have a lively acoustic (you can always add more reverberation later but it can’t be removed if it’s there on the original recording) i.e use a carpeted room with plenty of soft furnishings or hang up some duvets to soak up the reflectiveness of the room. If this isn’t possible then get close to the microphone and speak quietly into it (this reduces the likelihood of the room adding reverberation) also make sure you’ve used a windshield.
If you’re recording yourself use headphones to monitor your recording and turn down any speakers connected to your computer. Use a directional microphone and have it backed off from the computer to avoid cooling fan and hard-drive noises. You can only monitor with speakers if you’re recording someone else who’s located in another acoustically isolated room.
If you’re reading from a script then it would be a good idea to buy a music stand to put it on, this avoids paper rustling, especially as you change pages.
Set your recording level so that it goes into the red area only occasionally and avoid it being too quiet too.
If you are using a compressor/limiter in your pre-amplifier avoid excessive reduction of the dynamic range, since as with reverberation you can’t undo it. Use low compression ratios on the compressor and set the limiter at a high threshold just to prevent the loudest parts of your recording from distorting.
If you have any tone control (eq) on your preamplifier and you’re recording yourself then it’s best not to use it, use the eq built into your sound editor afterward when you can make a better judgment of sound quality, this is because you will hear yourself as others hear you when playing back the recording.
Microphone choice
There are no hard and fast rules about podcasting microphones since the frequency response of the human voice isn’t that great and you’re putting the microphone close to the person who’s speaking, so there are no fidelity (frequency response) or noise (hiss) issues to worry about.
The only aspect to consider is probably getting a cardioid microphone to avoid unwanted noise e.g. the computer, but if you have a quiet room and you’re recording several people around one microphone then an omni microphone would be better. It’s all down to your own set up and requirements.
The USB microphones that are now available will remove the need for a separate preamplifier but some will not have any means of direct monitoring built into them so you will hear a slight delay when monitoring via the computer.
Things to do and to avoid.
Don’t use the built in microphone of your laptop computer, the reason for this is that although it might be of good quality it will pick up computer fan and hard drive noise and it limits you as to where you can put the microphone and still operate your computer effectively. Buy a decent microphone that you can plug into the computer and put in the best place.
If you have enough space in the room where you’re doing the recording use a microphone stand so that you don’t get handling noise on the microphone.
Buy a separate windshield that you can put a few inches in front of the microphone (the built in windshields rarely get rid of the worst blasts of air on the microphone). If you do have such artifacts then using some extreme bass cut just at those points in your software audio editor can help to make them less objectionable, but it’s best to avoid the problem in the first place.
Record in a quiet room and avoid places that have a lively acoustic (you can always add more reverberation later but it can’t be removed if it’s there on the original recording) i.e use a carpeted room with plenty of soft furnishings or hang up some duvets to soak up the reflectiveness of the room. If this isn’t possible then get close to the microphone and speak quietly into it (this reduces the likelihood of the room adding reverberation) also make sure you’ve used a windshield.
If you’re recording yourself use headphones to monitor your recording and turn down any speakers connected to your computer. Use a directional microphone and have it backed off from the computer to avoid cooling fan and hard-drive noises. You can only monitor with speakers if you’re recording someone else who’s located in another acoustically isolated room.
If you’re reading from a script then it would be a good idea to buy a music stand to put it on, this avoids paper rustling, especially as you change pages.
Set your recording level so that it goes into the red area only occasionally and avoid it being too quiet too.
If you are using a compressor/limiter in your pre-amplifier avoid excessive reduction of the dynamic range, since as with reverberation you can’t undo it. Use low compression ratios on the compressor and set the limiter at a high threshold just to prevent the loudest parts of your recording from distorting.
If you have any tone control (eq) on your preamplifier and you’re recording yourself then it’s best not to use it, use the eq built into your sound editor afterward when you can make a better judgment of sound quality, this is because you will hear yourself as others hear you when playing back the recording.
Microphone choice
There are no hard and fast rules about podcasting microphones since the frequency response of the human voice isn’t that great and you’re putting the microphone close to the person who’s speaking, so there are no fidelity (frequency response) or noise (hiss) issues to worry about.
The only aspect to consider is probably getting a cardioid microphone to avoid unwanted noise e.g. the computer, but if you have a quiet room and you’re recording several people around one microphone then an omni microphone would be better. It’s all down to your own set up and requirements.
The USB microphones that are now available will remove the need for a separate preamplifier but some will not have any means of direct monitoring built into them so you will hear a slight delay when monitoring via the computer.