Three Easy Ways to Make Your Podcast Sound More Professional

What makes a podcast sound professional, and how do you know yours is hitting the mark? The surprising answer is that professional-sounding audio is often the audio nobody notices. When listeners are able to focus on your message instead of your mic, your room, or your edits, that is when you've really won! 

Resource Mentioned:

• Creating Studio-Quality Sound at Home
• Magic Mastering

If you have questions or you'd like us to review one of your episodes, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com 

Keep podcasting!

Transcript

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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. Recently, I've been reviewing podcasts that have been sent into the support inbox and offering my feedback. One of the questions I received was inspiration for this episode. The podcaster's question says, What actually makes a podcast sound professional? And how do I know if mine is good enough? The interesting thing is when you're listening to a polished podcast, you probably aren't thinking about the microphone they're using, the room they're recording in, or how much editing went into the episode. And that's actually the point. A professional sounding podcast isn't necessarily about having the fanciest equipment or a huge production team. It's about creating an experience where your listener can focus on what you're saying instead of how you're saying it. So today we're going to answer the question by breaking down three things that can make a noticeable difference in how your podcast sounds clear audio, consistent sound, and intentional editing. By the end of this episode, you'll have a better idea of what you can do to make your own podcast sound more professional.

Clear Audio Without Distractions

Cara Pacetti 1:23

The first thing that makes a podcast sound professional is probably the most important. You want to make sure your listener can clearly hear and understand you. This sounds simple, but there's a lot that goes into it. Think about background noise, echo, mouth sounds, keyboard clicks, maybe dogs barking in the background and air conditioning kicks on, and even the sound of you moving in your chair all compete with your voice. Research on speech perception shows that when the acoustic environment makes speech harder to hear, your listeners actually have to put in work to understand what you're saying, and the overall listener experience suffers. In other words, to make your podcast sound professional, you'll want to avoid making your listener work to understand you. Instead of aiming to purchase the latest and greatest podcasting mic, focus on controlling the space around you. I did a Podcasting Q&A episode on this where we break down exactly how to create studio quality audio from right within your home. So I'll go ahead and link that in the show notes if you want to check that out. At the end of the day, your listener doesn't expect your podcast to sound like a professionally produced radio program. They just need to be able to hear you clearly without constantly thinking about the sound. So ask yourself these questions when you begin editing your episode. Can I hear every word I'm saying clearly? Is there distracting background noise present? Does the room sound echoey? And is the microphone picking up every little movement as I'm recording? If the answer is yes to any of these, those are the areas that you'll want to address first for

Consistent Levels Across Every Track

Cara Pacetti 3:09

your audio. The second thing that makes a podcast sound professional is consistency. And this is especially important if you have multiple guests on your podcast. Have you ever listened to an interview where one person sounds like they're sitting right next to the host and then the other person sounds like they're calling in from three rooms away? That can be super distracting. Professional sounding audio is always consistent. So to avoid any kind of inconsistencies in your tracks, I recommend running a test recording of your audio before you officially start recording the episode. You should be able to hear your guests' audio, and if it sounds quiet, you can actually have them adjust the gain on their recording device and bring their volume up a bit to match yours. Addressing this before you start recording is going to make your life much easier down the road. Once you have all of the tracks recorded and uploaded into your editing software, you'll want to make sure you're adjusting the overall loudness of all of the tracks you're including in your episode. The overall loudness of your podcast should be around negative 16 lufts with a plus or minus one decibel tolerance. This standard is actually provided by Apple Podcasts, and it's the recommendation for all spoken word podcasts. And if all of this sounds super complicated and you're hosted here on BuzzSprout, let us do this heavy lifting for you. I recommend trying out our Magic Mastering feature. With Magic Mastering enabled, we will automatically level your audio and bring up your overall audio levels to the best practices for spoken word. The goal here is to keep your audio levels consistent throughout the entire recording. The host and guest audio tracks should be at the same level as your intro and outro. If you decide to add mid-roll content later down the road, make sure the transition from mid-roll back into the conversation is smooth and the volume of the mid-roll content is relative to your episode audio. A professional episode feels almost effortless to listen to because the listener isn't forced to constantly adjust their volume. And this is one of the things that listeners may never consciously compliment you on. They're not going to send you fan mail saying, Kara, I really appreciate the consistency of your volume this week, but they will notice when something sounds off or even jarring. And it may even result in losing what could have been an otherwise loyal listener. That's why consistent audio levels are one of those behind-the-scene details that contribute to make your podcast sound more professional.

Intentional Editing Keeps You Sounding Human

Cara Pacetti 5:44

And finally, the third way to make your podcast sound professional is through intentional editing. And I want to emphasize the word intentional, because professional editing doesn't mean you remove every pause and it definitely doesn't mean you're cutting out every moment of personality to sound more like a robot. Instead, good editing helps the episode move naturally. This means that your delivery matters, but so does what happens in between your words. For example, you don't need to leave 15 seconds of silence in the middle of an episode because you were gathering your thoughts. From a listener's perspective, they may think something's wrong with their playback. Your listeners also don't need to hear you shuffle papers, bump your microphone, or restart the same sentence three times. Those are wonderful things to go ahead and edit out. When you're cleaning up your audio, I want you to pay attention to the pauses or human elements that should stay and that add value to your episodes. A short pause before an important statement can create emphasis. A natural laugh can make a conversation feel human. And a little breathing room between topics can help your listener to follow along. That's why I like to think of editing as more of guiding the listener and not hiding the host's imperfections. You're removing distractions while allowing your personality to shine, and this takes intentionality. So let's put all three together. If you're wondering whether your podcast sounds professional, ask yourself these three questions. Number one, is it clear? Can my listener understand what I'm saying without fighting through background noise or distracting sounds? Number two, is it consistent? Are my audio tracks playing at similar levels? Or does my listener have to constantly adjust the volume? And number three, is it intentional? Am I editing an episode in a way that allows it to feel human, or am I trying to cut out every little mistake that I hear on my track? If you can answer yes to those three questions, you're already doing a lot of what makes a podcast sound professional. Professional podcasts start with good recording habits and thoughtful production decisions. If you've been wondering whether your podcast sounds professional, I hope this gives you a few practical things to listen for. Today's question was sent directly to our podcaster success team, and you can send in your questions too by emailing support at buzzsprout.com or by clicking the Send Us Fan mail link in the show notes. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.