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Podcast Editing Tips: What to Fix and What to Leave
•Buzzsprout
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On this episode, we're answering a listener’s question about over-editing and sharing a clear path to a professional, natural sound that doesn’t consume your week. We cover what to cut, what to keep, and how to know when to stop.
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at Buzz Sprout. I'm your host, Cara Passetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. Today we're answering a fan mail question that we'd recently received. And the question reads: I spend hours editing out every pause and um, and I feel like my episode still doesn't sound professional. Am I over-editing? And how do I know when to stop? I'd like to first start by reassuring you that this is a very normal realization and question. In fact, when I started editing episodes for Podcasting Q&A just last year, it's a lesson that I had to learn the hard way. And of course, I had to figure out a solution moving forward. So, first, I want to start with what actually makes an episode sound professional. What a lot of podcasters might think is that episodes only sound professional if they have no pauses, no filler words, no breaths, and of course, no imperfections. And while some may think that sounds professional, me personally, I think it sounds like AI. It sounds fake. And while you want the audio to sound polished, of course, there is a natural cadence when it comes to speaking that you just don't want to eliminate. There are natural inflections when you get excited about something or when you get sad. We can hear it in your voice. And so since most of podcasting is audio, you want to make sure you are not editing out those natural inflection points. In reality, a professional sounding episode is not perfect. You want to pay attention to the volume of your episode. So is the volume consistent throughout the duration of the episode? Is the voice of your guest or you as the host, is it clear and easy to understand? Are there any distracting noises that might be pulling away the attention of your listeners? So whether it be the air conditioning kicking on or maybe a truck driving by. And last but certainly not least, you want the host of the podcast to sound like they're comfortable. So when we have our finished episode and we're in post-production and we are ready to start editing, I
think what a lot of podcasters don't recognize is actually the hidden cost of over-editing your episodes. One thing that most people don't talk about enough is that over-editing doesn't just affect your audio. It can affect your overall energy as a creator. Let's face it, if our goal here is to keep podcasting, but we are spending hours on in making nitpicky tiny edits, Podfade is going to take us out way quicker than expected. Typically, when episodes are being over-edited, the task feels super heavy, scheduled release dates get delayed. And instead of looking forward to your next recording session, you're actually dreading it because you know you are going to spend hours in post-production editing your episode. Those are some key signs to let you know this is too much. You are spending too much time in the editing software and maybe need to reel it back just a little bit. And what's ironic is that too much editing can actually make your podcast harder to listen to. Choppy cuts and unnatural pacing, missing breaths can actually be a distraction for the listener, and they can actually pull your listeners out of the conversation faster than a couple of filler words would.
So, what should we be editing and what should we really leave as is? So here's a couple of takeaways for you today. Some of the things that I definitely recommend editing are long silences that break up the natural cadence of speaking, repeated filler words in a row. So when someone is speaking and then they throw in a um, uh, I think, and then move on to their next point, you could probably take out a couple of those that can become very distracting. Major tangents that go nowhere, distracting background noise, like we talked about earlier, and volume inconsistencies. One thing that kind of goes along with the major tangents here is if you are listening back to your episode and you notice that your guest answered your question, and then as a natural response, you repeated that answer. It's something that we do in conversation a lot. It's very common to repeat what somebody has said to you. You're kind of affirming that you heard what they said. But in podcasting, when listeners are tuning in to an episode, what it sounds like is that you literally repeated the same thing twice. I recommend when you are editing your episodes, look out for that. Look for ways to shorten the episode and to take out anything that was repeated but didn't need to be. Now that we've gone through some of the edits that I definitely recommend tackling, what can you leave as is? So, what can help you from over-editing your episode? So natural pauses. It's very normal as someone is speaking to pause and catch their breath. And so leave those in there. It helps the cadence of the overall episode. Occasional ums or ahs. If someone is speaking and they add the word um to the opening of their next sentence, and when you try to cut that um out inside of your editing software and it becomes very choppy and very obvious, just leave it. It's not worth removing the um to draw attention to a hard edit. The um is fine. I recommend leaving it in those cases. Breaths that are not distracting or are not part of a long pause. So you will notice in podcasting as somebody is speaking, you might hear a subtle in the middle of their speaking. Leave that. That's part of speaking. That's totally fine as long as it's not distracting. And then a small stumble that sounds human, again, it kind of goes along the lines with is it connected to the next sentence? And if you cut it, is it going to sound like you cut it? Just leave it. It's a natural part of speaking. We fumble on our words when we're talking in real life. If we fumble on our words during a podcast episode, that is okay. And your listeners won't unsubscribe because of it, I promise. So, a pro tip for knowing when to stop editing. After your main edit, after your large cuts, listen to the episode one time, the whole time through, without touching anything. And ask yourself, or ask a friend, if you know you're a little critical as you're getting started. Is my episode easy to follow? Is there anything that pulls my attention away from the message? And would this bother me if this weren't my voice? Those are some of the questions you can ask, and that will really save you some time. I mentioned in the beginning that I had to learn the hard way. Um, we actually did an episode here, and it was my first interview with a guest, and I spent hours editing this episode. And the problem was I was trying to cut breaths, I was trying to cut noises, I was trying to cut filler words that I was cutting it so close that it almost was more painful to listen to than had I just left some of the natural breaks in there. And so I was exhausting myself, um, it was a lot to take on. And I learned, okay, I'm going to have to reel it back because there's no way I can keep up this pace. And actually, the end result isn't really that great. And so once I focused on those key factors that I mentioned earlier and I left everything else that was natural as is, editing became fun. The episodes were so much easier to listen to. It sounds like I'm a real person or that my guest is a real person. It can be done. I'm speaking from experience. Don't over-edit like I did and have to learn the hard way. In addition to making the edits inside of your editing software, including cutting out breaths, cutting out filler words, cutting out content that doesn't need
to be there. Another aspect of having your episode sound professional is the audio levels. Now, there are some brilliant audio engineers out there that know exactly the settings to use inside of an editing software. And so they can do that with ease. Some of us that are just starting podcasting or maybe don't have that background, it can be very difficult. And so I do want to let you all know that magic mastering is a feature that is inside of BuzzSprout. I've done an episode on it before, but it's an automated feature that all you have to do is upload your audio file with the feature enabled. And we will actually do that hard work for you. We will level out that audio volume to the best practices for spoken word. When your audio is done being mastered, it will sound crisp and clear. We refer to Magic Mastering as the Instagram filter for your audio. So if you want to give that a try, just check that out inside of your BuzzSprout account. You can find it by going to Episodes, Magic Mastering. And of course, if you have questions, please reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team. You can reach us by emailing support at buzzsprout.com. If there's a question that you'd like to see answered on a future Podcasting Q&A episode, just click to send us a text link in the show notes. Your question will be sent in as fan mail just like this one was, and I'd be happy to answer it on a future episode. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.
