Andrea from the Italy: Inside Out podcast asks, "How do I get good audio from my guests when all they have is their laptop microphone?"
TL;DR
It's very common to have podcast guests (especially long-distance podcast guests) that don't have any recording equipment or podcast experience. And while you don't expect their audio to sound like it was recorded in a sound studio, you don't want to it to sound like it was recorded in a cave either.
In this episode, we'll share three tricks that you can use with your guests to get really good audio recordings.
Our long distance software recommendations:
Record your podcasting question at Speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout to be featured on a future episode.
Review Podcasting Q&A in Podchaser to let us know what you think of the show.
Andrea from the Italy: Inside Out podcast asks, "How do I get good audio from my guests when all they have is their laptop microphone?"
TL;DR
It's very common to have podcast guests (especially long-distance podcast guests) that don't have any recording equipment or podcast experience. And while you don't expect their audio to sound like it was recorded in a sound studio, you don't want to it to sound like it was recorded in a cave either.
In this episode, we'll share three tricks that you can use with your guests to get really good audio recordings.
Our long distance software recommendations:
Record your podcasting question at Speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout to be featured on a future episode.
Review Podcasting Q&A in Podchaser to let us know what you think of the show.
In today's episode, you'll learn how to get the best audio quality possible from your guests, even if they don't own a microphone. Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, where you learn the best tips and strategies to launch grow and monetize your show. This week's question comes from Andrea.
Andrea:My name is Andrea Aldrich, my podcast is Italy inside out. All my guests are remote mostly in another country. So how do I instruct them to best set themselves up when all they have is basically their computer microphone to use? Are there any other helpful hints that I can tell them? Thank you.
Travis:Thank you for your question, Andrea. First of all, you are not alone in this conundrum. podcasters everywhere as we have shifted to long distance podcast recordings are running into this situation where you have a great guest lineup for your podcast. But they don't know anything about recording audio. And worse than that they don't even own a microphone that they could use other than the one on their laptop. So what do you suppose to do? Well, in this episode, I'll walk you through some practical tips that you can offer your guests to get the best audio quality possible. Tip number one is to encourage your guests to find a good recording environment. If all they have to work with is their laptop microphone, this is going to be your next order of business, get them in a well treated room. That's going to reduce echo. If they're trying to record in the kitchen or in their living room. And you're just getting sound waves bouncing all over the place and back into the microphone, there is no way to save that recording. So you want to either send them to their walk in closet, or have them sit on their mattress on their bed. Under the comforter. Yes, I'm serious. Whatever it takes to get a really clean, Echo free recording will do wonders for your audio quality. In fact, earlier this year, when we were recording Podcasting Q&A, remotely jolanda was recording all of her episodes in her walking closet. It's really funny watching this back on video, but her audio actually sounded just as good as it does here in this professionally treated Sound Studio. So walking closets are the real deal, you really can't go wrong with a walk in closet. But if your guest doesn't have access to one of those, then have them sit on their bed under the Comforter recently Albin and I did an interview with one of the marketing specialists for the scripts. And she only had access to the microphone that came with her bluetooth headphones. And so she sat on her bed under a comforter. And we recorded the interview and it sounded spectacular. The second tip is to ask your guest, if they don't indeed have a microphone laying around the house, they might think that you mean something like what I'm recording into right now this shirt, SM seven B. But there are so many devices that they can have laying around their house that have microphones built into them that are going to be better than the microphone built into their laptop. So some classic examples would be Apple earbuds, those free little ear pod things that come with every single iPhone, those have a directional microphone built into them, that's actually pretty good. And so if they are Apple user, or they know someone who has an iPhone, there's a chance they can get a pair of those free headphones, and use that instead of their laptop microphone. But really, any bluetooth headset, headphones. Anything that has a directional microphone that is designed to pick up sound pretty close to the person's mouth is going to give you a better audio recording than their laptop. Tip number three is actually a tip for you as a podcaster, you want to be mindful the software that you're using to record your long distance podcast interviews. If you're using Skype, or Google meets or Hangouts, whatever they're calling it nowadays, or zoom, none of those platforms were created or designed to capture high quality podcast audio. So if you can invest in software like squad cast, or riverside.fm, they're gonna capture really crisp, high quality audio that you can drop right into your podcast episode, no problem. And each of those platforms will run you about $20 a month to get that really high quality audio. But if that's outside of your budget, and you need something a little more bootstraps, there is another solution. It's free. But it just requires a little more technical know how and it's called a double Ender. So all this means is you and your guests are each going to record your podcast audio locally, just like you would if you're doing a solo podcast, so you can have your guests download audacity or open up GarageBand on the computer and start recording their microphone while you do the same on your end. Then after you're done, they can export their file and send it to you via Dropbox or Google Drive. And then you use that for your podcast episode. It makes it sound like you're recording in the same room, even though you could be hundreds of miles apart. So if you're on a budget, and you're willing to go through the steps with your guests to kind of get that set up. In addition to using zoom or Skype or Google meet in order to conduct the interview, then a double Ender can be a great solution for getting really stellar audio quality from your guest. And if you can get the full trifecta of having your guests record locally in GarageBand, or audacity, recorded in their walking closet and use something like Apple earbuds, you'll never have to worry about audio quality ever again. Well, thank you so much for sending us your question, Andrea. If you have a question you'd like us to answer in a future episode of the show, just go to speakpipe.com/Buzzspr ut or click the link in the sho notes below and leave us a br ef audio message. You can fin Podcasting Q&A in both video a d audio formats. So if you pre er watching videos, make sure yo subscribe to the Buzzspr ut YouTube channel where we drop new videos every single week al about podcasting and podcast related goodness. Or if you're n audio junkie, you can find Po casting Q&A in your favorit podcast listening app. Well th t's it for today. Thanks for lis ening and as always, keep po casting