Podcasting

When recording a podcast there are several factors that must be considered. Primarily, the subject matter and whether you have something people will find interesting and speakers with skills to hold a logical discussion.

Once the primary factors have been addressed the recording process must be addressed. Firstly, a podcast is an audio recording, generally in the format of a discussion, that is made available on the internet for people to listen and download.

But how do you record and produce a podcast? Podcasts typically involve two or more people in a discussing a topic which is then recorded. This necessitates the use of a microphone for each person involved. The use of multiple microphones is so that each person’s speech in both volume and tone can be managed in the same way an artist singing is recorded and produced. The method for recording a podcast is indeed very similar to recording a group of people singing except for the microphone choices.

When recording singing vocals you generally use a condenser microphone in a studio environment. The reason for this is that you want to catch every nuance in the highest quality. Additionally, when singing you are notably louder than when talking so the background noise is less due to the overall volume of the singing. When it comes to speech, using a condenser microphone would require a properly setup studio to minimise the background noise. This is not to say you should not use a condenser microphone, but you must be aware that you will require the quieter room, phantom power for the microphones and the cost of a condenser is higher than a dynamic.

Dynamic microphones don’t require power and suit podcasts more due to the fact that they are less sensitive and this enables more locations for the recording to be utilised. In the consumer/prosumer market there are numerous USB microphones for podcasting. In the professional sector there are some very good examples of microphones for speech such as the Shure SM58, which is ideal for outdoor or mobile podcasts. The Shure SM7B and Electro Voice RE20 for indoors as they provide excellent definition. More affordable podcast microphones would include the Samson Meteor, Blue Snowball and Audio Technica AT-2020.

Once you have chosen your microphones, how will you record the audio? There are three main choices. Laptop or computer based recording, which will require an audio interface. Alternatively, a portable recorder such as the Zoom R8 for around $265 or the Tascam DP-006 for $135. You can use a stereo recorder on both computer based or portable but this will necessitate the use of a mixer to manage the audio levels. The downside of recording in stereo is that you cannot edit the audio at a later stage like you would with a multi track recording. The third method of recording a podcast is to use a professional recording studio. Whilst this will produce the best results, it comes at a price for both the venue and the engineer’s time.

During the recording process each person being recorded should have headphones. This is so they can hear themselves, the director and each other. The director may, from time to time need to speak to the panel members to advise of topics, time constraints or other matters so this makes the headphones an essential piece of equipment.

Armed with all this information you should be able to produce a professional sounding podcast that will stand out amongst the others, providing your panel members are up to the task.