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Podcasts are cool.

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Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast, answering

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any podcasting questions along the way. That's right. Today, we are going to be doing that

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same thing. We are answering your podcast questions. And today we are going to be talking

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a little bit about improving your podcast audio quality all on a budget.

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Well, hey, guys, welcome back. If you've not been here for a little while, I've not been

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here for a little while. I took a break off at Christmas time, but it is so, so, so good

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to be back. It is, you know, in fact, one of those things that I just yeah, I'm actually

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really loving being back and being yeah, just being being here and being with you because

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it's been like I said, a while I've missed hanging out with you. I've missed being a

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part of your life, but I am back doing a few things now. I've got lots of content planned

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for this next year, so I can't wait to get into that and some really cool things coming

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up in the next few few weeks. Some things that I'm doing to improve my content and improve

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my scalability with you as well as my communication with you. So I can't wait to share more about

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that later. But first, today we are going to be talking just a little bit about how

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to improve your audio quality all well on a budget because I know not everybody does

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this for money. Lots of people do podcasting just because they love doing podcasting. And

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podcasting too. So that means that you can't always count on the fact that you have lots

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of money that is disposable to you for this. So what are we talking about today? There's

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a few things that we can do to improve our audio quality all on a budget.

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First thing is, is you can change your recording environment. So if you're recording in your

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kitchen, if you're recording anywhere where there's lots and lots of noise, it's a big

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room, it's maybe got hardwood, you're going to have a lot of audio reflections and refractions

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and you're going to hear that in your show. So what can you do to actually improve that

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quality of your of your audio quality? What you can do is you can record in a small carpeted

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room or closet to reduce the echo.

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I've heard a lot of people going into their closet that's in the room.

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And the reason for that is because there's a lot of clothes

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that are in there that that will take those sound waves

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and will actually make them so that they're not going to bounce

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back and forth and back and forth on on.

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And you're going to hear that in your recording.

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So, again, recording a small room, carpeted room or even a closet,

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because it has lots of clothes in there.

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And then you can use also use blankets and pillows and foam panels

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to dampen your sound reflections also.

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So if you're let's say you're maybe not going to record in a closet,

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but you can get pillows that are next to you on your bed

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if you're recording on your bed or somewhere, just that the audio

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is not going to go away from you as you talk

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and then bounce off of something hard and come back.

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That you can hear that a lot of times if you're listening into it,

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a podcast that is recorded in a larger room, you can tell that it's recorded

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in a larger room because you're going to have all of those sound refractions.

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So then avoid also rooms with hard surfaces like tiles or hardwood.

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You know, my my my living room is is a large room.

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It's carpeted, but the kitchen is is hardwood.

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And so what that's going to do is that's going to make it

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so that your sound bounces back and it's not going to be great.

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The next thing that you can do is make sure that you are using great microphone technique.

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If you're watching me on Instagram or YouTube right now, you will see one of the things

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that I am doing is I am really close to my microphone.

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In fact, I am like almost on top of it.

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I like to say if you could lick it like an ice cream cone, you're probably close enough.

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And so stay six to eight inches from your microphone for a consistent sound, because

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if you come back and you're back here and then you come forward like this,

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you're going to have a different sound to your voice.

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So say six to eight inches from your microphone for a consistent sound.

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Again, now, if you're on video, that is going to make it a little bit harder

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because your mic, your mouth is going to be

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in the way.

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And so you probably not going to want to to do that.

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But that also is comes.

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My next point is speak across the microphone rather than directly into it.

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So again, if you're watching me on YouTube or Instagram or whatever right now,

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you can see that I am moving.

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I'm talking.

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I have it placed just to the right of my mouth and I'm talking kind of across it,

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not right into it, because that also does a couple of things

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that helps get rid of the plosives that pop pop pop pop sound

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that you're going to hear as well as a pop filter.

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So pop filters also also help.

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But speaking across to your mic as opposed to directly in it

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is also going to help that to be able to keep that from sounding

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bad and harsh audio.

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But again, use a pop filter, speak across the mic

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rather than right directly on it.

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Those things are going to help make your you have consistent sound

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and just an overall better, better sound for your podcast.

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The next thing is just to use of affordable equipment that you can use.

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You can upgrade your your your your stuff pretty affordably.

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You can get a USB microphone like an audio Technica ATR 2100 X or a Samsung Q2U.

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Those are great off.

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Those are great mics for a relatively cheap price.

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And because they are USB, you can just use them,

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especially if you're just a solo podcaster where you're just recording your own audio.

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Now, it gets more complicated again.

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If you're going to be talking with somebody, if you're going to have

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guests on your show that are in person, the USB microphones

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are going to make it a little bit harder to to use.

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You can on some mics kind of do some more than just one.

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But most of the time, you're going to have some more problems

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when you are using a USB mic,

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if you're going to do that for more than just the solo shows.

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So that's one of the things that you're going to want to take into consideration.

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So if you are a solo podcaster, you can use

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USB microphones, and that's really easy.

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Now, for just a little bit more than the Samsung

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Q2 you or the ATR 2100 X, you can get a road pod mic USB.

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And the thing I like about that is because with those mics,

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you have the ability to have a USB.

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So if you're going to be just plugging into your USB on your computer,

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then that works great.

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Or you can also have that and plug that into an XLR

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if you have a bigger something else like a road, a roadcaster

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or some other audio mixer, you can use that in in those.

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And then you can you can use those.

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So for just a little bit more, you can get the road pod mic,

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and that's a great mic to use.

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Another thing to help get your audio quality better and your gear

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to be affordable, you can use affordable things.

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Use your headphones while recording to to monitor your audio quality.

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Now that gets a little bit hard if you're trying to plug it into your laptop

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and listen to your own sound on that, just because there's going to be

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some latency coming back from your headphones

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and it's going to sound a little bit weird.

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But if you if you have something like the Rode Pod mic,

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it has a headphone jack right in the back and you can directly hardware

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monitor that audio.

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And that's a great thing because you can you can listen to your own audio quality,

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your own audio sound.

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And now, again, people a lot of times say, Hey, Andy, do I have to wear headphones?

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Well, well, podcasting.

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I would say yes, because and you can get something like I have right now,

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I have a headphone and I don't have the in this setup in this studio.

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I don't have the big canned headphones.

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I just have a simple

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little simple headphone.

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It's why it is wired.

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You can't see it's coming down the back of my neck, but I am listening to myself

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as well as the audio that I'm playing in the background,

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because the way that I record, I do record having what I call live to tape.

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In other words, I am playing all of the audio sounds.

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I am playing all of the the mics, anything that I'm doing live.

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I play as I record and then I'm done when I'm done.

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I don't have to add those tracks in later.

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So for me, I do wear headphones.

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And again, you get used to the sound of your voice.

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So the reason you do that is because that way you can hear yourself

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in your headphones to know if if you are the same volume

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as maybe if you do have a guest or your sound or whatever.

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So that is one of the reasons that you do wear headphones.

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Now, some other things that you can do for upgrades and make your sound better

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is you can use some free software solutions to like Audacity or GarageBand.

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Those are great for editing and also noise reduction.

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Those both of those tools have some some tools in them for for reducing noise,

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as well as just, you know, plain simple editing.

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But what you can do is put a compressor and a normalizer on your audio levels,

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especially if you're having multiple guests, but even even on your own,

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you want to have some compression and some normalization to your audio.

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What that does is the compression takes the high sound

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and the low sound and kind of squishes them.

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So it makes a more consistent sound.

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So that way, when you're talking low,

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it's the same as if you're talking really loud.

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And so it doesn't it doesn't have like it's not hard on your listeners ears

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to when you're when you have some compression on your audio.

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So that's one of the things that you're going to want to do for your audio

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is use something like GarageBand or Audacity.

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Those are both free options.

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I use Adobe Audition, but I like it

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because it has some more advanced features in it.

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But if you're on a budget, you can use something like Audacity

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or like GarageBand because both of those things are free.

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They come. You can get them really easily for your computers.

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GarageBand is going to be for your Mac.

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Audacity is for either.

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And then again, you do some compression to that

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and it makes the sound sound a whole lot better.

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You're going to also want to reduce your background noise

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with some built in filters.

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You'll want to play with those.

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There's not really a good hard, fast setting that I like to use.

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Every time that I start editing somebody,

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a client of mine's podcast, I use a different.

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I try to get that sound better, so I use some different tools in that

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to make that sound good.

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So you just have to play around with that.

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But there are definitely some tools in your and filters in your your

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your digital audio workstation that you're going to have

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be able to make your sound sound better.

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Another thing that I like to use is a is a noise gate on my on my phone

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or not my phone, my microphone.

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There you go, because what that does is if you listen,

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I'm going to stop talking for a second, but I'm going to make some noise

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with my sound with my mouth.

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I rubbed my hands together and you only heard that very last little bit as it got too loud.

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And the reason for that is it's a noise gate.

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And what that does is it closes the mic off once the input gets so low.

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So if I stop talking, my mic is essentially muted until that noise level gets loud enough

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that it opens that gate.

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And the reason you want to do that is because what that does is that allows your your any

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background noise to be kind of cut out.

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Now, if you are in a loud, noisy environment where there's an air conditioning, the noise

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gate is going to sound weird because it's going to cut off and maybe open a little bit

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or you'll still hear that.

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And as you stop talking, that sound is going to go away.

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So you want to do some simple fixes for your audio, like turning off fans and AC and appliances

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while recording, just because even with the noise gate, that is going to sound a little

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bit weird in the background.

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So again, you're going to want to probably not be doing those to have those sounds on

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when you're recording.

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But again, it's really super simple.

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I mean, if you're recording for, let's say, 30 minutes, having the air conditioner off

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for 30 minutes or the fan off for 30 minutes, it may get hot in your room, but it's going

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to make your audio sound a lot better.

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The other thing you can do to help reduce noise is record during quieter times of the

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day.

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If you know that your family, say you have a family of four little kids.

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I love kids. I love having my kids.

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I've got kids that range from 20 all the way down to 10.

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And so when they're home, the house is rambunctious.

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There is lots of things going on during the house, in the house,

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when when the kids are home.

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So if I'm going to be recording at home, I'm going to want to take that time

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when they're at school or away or in bed

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because that allows the house to be quieter.

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and less likely that those random noises are going to make it into my podcast.

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You want to make your podcast sound professional.

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You're going to want to make it sound like there's not people in the next room

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to get into a quiet place, get into a small room with lots of carpet and

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clothes or things that are going to absorb your sound and also make sure you

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turn off your fans, your AC, record during quiet times.

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And then the last thing that's going to be tip for you is.

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Put your phone on airplane mode to avoid interference.

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So that's not only.

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For for dings and buzzes and things like that, because, you know,

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even if I have my phone and my phone is sitting next to me right now, but.

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If my if somebody texts me.

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My phone is going to vibrate on the table,

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and you're probably going to hear that because it's sitting close

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still my microphone arm and it's going to take that that. Buzz.

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And it's going to get into my microphone.

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But the other thing, too, is that the radio interference, too.

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So it's not doesn't happen nearly as much as it used to.

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But back in the day, I can remember you could almost anticipate

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when a phone call was going to come in if you were using your computer

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because the speakers would get like a buzz on them right before the phone rang.

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And so there's that radio interference also.

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So put your phone in airplane mode to avoid your distractions,

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to avoid also any radio interference that may come in,

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as well as just getting distracted, because I know that for me,

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if my phone buzzes, I'm going to try and look down on it.

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I'm going to lose my train of thought and it's not going to work well.

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So those are some simple things that you can do right now

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to help improve your audio quality.

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all on a budget. You don't need lots of expensive equipment.

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Yes. As you move up in quality in your podcast,

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you're going to probably want to get better equipment,

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but you can start with what you have right now.

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And improve your audio quality right now.

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So, guys, thank you so much for joining me. Welcome back.

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It's a new year. Twenty twenty six.

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I'm happy to help you provide content for your show

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to help you improve your podcasting. But you know what, guys, if you need help, if you have questions

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from me, I am available for one on one consulting. You just go to podcastanswers.com/contact

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and fill out that form and you will get directly in my inbox and we can work one on one. I can help

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you start your show. I can help you grow your show. I can edit your show for you.

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We can do it. We can make you a master of podcasts.

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Have a great week, guys, and keep podcasting.