Podcast Terms Explained: The Keys to Sounding Like a Pro

Your recording software is full of buttons that look harmless until you touch one and your audio suddenly sounds tiny, distorted, or wildly loud. We want to take that stress off the table by translating the most common audio podcasting terms into plain English so you can make confident decisions fast.

Today's episode is part of our mini series defining podcasting terminology. Check out last week's episode for more podcast terms defined: Podcast Terms Explained: General Podcasting Basics. 

If you have a question about producing an audio-first podcast, reach out to the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com. 

Keep podcasting!

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A

Cara Pacetti 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at BuzzSprout. I'm your host, Cara Pacetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. Last week, we kicked off a three-part series all about podcasting terminology. We started with some of the general terms you're likely to hear as a new podcaster, like RSS feed, listening directories, and more. But today, we're getting a little more technical. In my opinion, this is a fun episode. We're focusing on the terms you will likely hear when producing an audio first podcast. Terms like MP3, WAV, mono versus stereo, and gain versus volume. Basically, if you've ever looked at your recording software and thought, I don't know what any of these buttons mean, and frankly, I'm afraid to touch them, then this episode is for you. Let's break down some of the most common audio podcasting terms and more importantly, what you need to know about

The Differences Between An MP3 and Wav File

Cara Pacetti 1:04

them. Let's start with the terms you've probably heard before: MP3 and WAVE files. These are words to describe the file format of your audio files. And a file format is the way information is organized and stored in the file so that software can read and use it. The file formats are typically identified by their file extension. The extension is the letters after the dot in the file name. For example, if you're using a WAV file, you will see a .wav at the end. And if you're using MP3, you'll see a.mp3. The important thing to know is the difference between the two. MP3 files are compressed, which means they are much smaller than an uncompressed audio file, while the WAV files are left uncompressed. And our recommendation is actually to upload a WAV file and allow us to optimize the file in order to compress it to an MP3 for episode distribution. If all of that sounds really technical, then I think an analogy is helpful here. So I want you to think of packing for a surprise trip that you don't know the destination for. Your MP3 file is like a suitcase. You know, the one you had to sit on in order to zip it shut. And a wave file is like bringing your entire dresser full of clothes for this same trip. The compressed MP3 file, or your suitcase, makes traveling much more manageable than bringing your entire dresser. But because you don't know the destination, there's a chance you may not have everything you need. Using a WAVE file or bringing your entire dresser will allow you to have everything you need, but it's practically impossible to travel with. I want you to think about BuzzSprout, your podcast host, as your professional packer. The reason we recommend uploading a WAVE file is because you're basically bringing us your dresser and allowing us to pull out the best clothing items for your final destination. Once we've gathered all of the necessary information, we will pack all of it neatly into an MP3 file for distribution. Kind of like packing it all into a carry-on suitcase. Since Buzzsprout knows what the directories require for your audio files, let us compress those audio files for you so they're easily distributed to your listeners. MP3 files are great for podcasting because you don't want your listeners having to download a gigantic audio file every time they want to hear your latest episode.

Mono vs Stereo for Podcasts

Cara Pacetti 3:33

Next up, mono versus stereo. These may sound much more complicated than they actually are. Basically, mono means one audio channel, and stereo means two audio channels, left and right. Basically, this is the way that the sound from your audio file is getting delivered to your listeners. When you record a mono file, your microphone captures a single audio waveform. That same signal can then be played through both the left and right speakers or headphones at the same time. This means your listener hears the voice centered between the two speakers. Stereo is a little different. For example, if you're wearing headphones and listening to a stereo recording, different sounds can be sent to your left and right ears. This can create a sense of movement and space, like in an audio drama. You might hear a door opening in one ear followed by footsteps that move across to the other ear. That kind of effect is possible because the audio is in stereo. So why does this matter for podcasters? While a stereo file can create a wider, more immersive listening experience, it also creates a larger file. And you guessed it, larger files mean slower download times and will use up more of your listeners' storage. If you are producing a spoken word podcast with you as a solo host or maybe with guest interviews, a mono file works great. Again, the goal is to make it really easy for people to listen to your podcast. Save your listener some storage space and download time by keeping your files in mono, and you will be in great shape. Now that we've

LUFS, Gain & Volume Explained

Cara Pacetti 5:14

covered audio file types and formats, I want to focus on some of the terms that are specific to how your episodes sound. This is a term you may or may not have heard before. It's the word luffs, LUFS. And LUFS is a measurement used to describe perceived loudness. It stands for loudness units relative to full scale. It's a measurement of how loud audio sounds to the human ear over time, rather than just simply measuring the highest peak in your audio file. So luffs is not measuring how loud is this episode. Instead, it's trying to measure how loud the audio sounds to us as the listener. This matters because you don't want your listeners constantly reaching for the volume button. Imagine listening to one podcast where you're turning your volume all the way up, and then your next podcast starts playing automatically and practically blows your headphones off. Not exactly a relaxing experience. So, in order to provide the best listening experience, Apple actually provided some specifications that they recommend for this. The recommended LUF level is around negative 16 luffs. So this is something that you can update within your editing software, and it's the measurement that audio professionals use to help create a consistent listening experience. Just like LUFs, the next two terms are important when it comes to editing. And those terms are gain and volume. They both seem like they're just making something louder, right? Well, sort of. Gain controls the level of audio signal before or as it enters a system. So when you are recording, gain describes how much you're amplifying the microphone signal as it enters your computer or your audio interface. An example of this is if you are recording into your microphone and you're hearing all of the ambient noises and they sound really loud, there's a chance that the gain is turned all the way up. If you reduce that a little bit, it allows the microphone to capture the loudest sound and the closest sound, which is your voice. Volume, as most of us know, generally controls how loud the signal is after it has already been recorded or processed. So turning up the car stereo when listening to your favorite podcast, that is adjusting the volume. This is an easy way to think of it. Gain is about how much signal you're putting into the system, and volume is about how loudly you're playing that signal back to your listeners. So if you're recording and your gain is set way too high, turning the volume down after doesn't necessarily fix the underlying

Podcast Audio Terms Recap

Cara Pacetti 7:52

problem. And with that, let's do a quick audio terminology speed round. An MP3 file is a compressed audio format commonly used for podcast distribution. A WAV file is a larger, uncompressed audio file format. Mono is a recording with only one audio channel, and stereo is an audio recording with two channels. Luffs is a measurement related to perceived loudness. Gain controls the level of audio signal going into a system, and volume controls the level of audio going into your listeners' speakers. And now you officially know enough audio terminology to confidently nod when someone starts talking about luffs at a podcast conference. But there are so many more audio terms we could talk about. So if there's an audio term you've heard and thought, okay, but what does that actually mean? Send it our way using the Send Us Fan mail link in the show notes. I'd love to cover more audio terminology and explain how everything works. And this brings us to the final episode in our podcasting terminology series. We've covered the general terms you need to know, we've covered the audio terms, and next time we are turning the camera on. We're talking about video podcasting terminology. Because if you're making the jump from an audio podcast to a video podcast, there's a whole new vocabulary waiting for you. So join me for next week's episode of Podcasting QA, where we'll make video podcasting terms a little less intimidating. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.