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

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

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

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show started.

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

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

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So let's go there.

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

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

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listen to.

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So how do you do that?

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So you can, you first need a mic.

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

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to your computer, because that's real simple.

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

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or Audition or GarageBand.

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

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is with the Mac only.

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

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

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I'm now using Audition.

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

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

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to go in there.

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

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

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Both of those can do that.

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

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

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

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Do not do that.

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That's going to sound like rubbish.

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It's going to be bad.

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

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

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and that's both USB and XLR.

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

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

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puppy in and record right to your computer.

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

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

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that.

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

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

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

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

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

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It doesn't plug directly into your computer.

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

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

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

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It's an all-in-one device.

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

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up to four mics.

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

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

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

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be done.

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

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

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

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or GarageBand.

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

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It's XLR only.

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So I'm sorry.

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

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That'll run you about $79-ish.

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

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on it.

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The AT2020s by Audio Technica are good too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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SM7B but it is USB and XLR only.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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even need to be in the same room.

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

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

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

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for recording your podcast.

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

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

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volume level that you are coming through.

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

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

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

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levels are good instead of having it all separately.

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Listen to yourself, speak clearly in your microphone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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and that they're not louder.

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

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

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eardrums out when your co-host speaks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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like I'm just myself recording.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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fix it and go on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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brain to not say those things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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that you go to podcast answers dot com slash buy me a coffee that will allow you to support

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us either with a one-time donation or a recurring monthly donation and for those people that

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do that I get episodes out early you also get some behind the scenes stuff as well as

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

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

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you next week and hope that you have a great week.