How to Record a Podcast

Hi there! You haven’t heard from me in a while, so I wanted to fill you in with some changes happening to The Pod Farm.

When I started The Pod Farm, it was kind of a punt. I didn't know if podcast editing was a thing I could do for work, and The Pod Farm was purely a passion project. But as it has evolved and become a real business, I've felt like there are ways I can better serve my clients and attract new ones. So I’ve decided it’s time to put those things into practice, and there are a few reasons why now was the right time.

For one, most of my clients now fall into a few categories - health & wellness, spirituality, education. This wasn't intentional, but as lots of my clients are through recommendation, it's just turned out that way.

Also, earlier this year my Instagram account was deactivated so The Pod Farm's social media presence has disappeared, which seemed like an opportunity for something new.

And finally, The Pod Farm was an experiment at first, and it was a messy one. There's a confusion of branding, starts and restarts, too many facets to the business etc.

Basically, I'm seeing the new year as a time to start fresh with everything I've learned along the way...

The first stage of this change will just be a reskinning of The Pod Farm you all know - there's a new name, more gender-neutral branding, new website etc., but the day to day operation will be the same.

You'll still send me podcasts and get them back a few days later, same as always.

This new brand will hopefully attract more clients in the specific categories I've mentioned above, and create a stronger identity for the type of client I work with.

Further down the line, I hope to use this identity to attract advertisers for the podcasts I work with, and perhaps even operate as a podcast network.

But first, a facelift...

As we enter the final few months of the year, I've been thinking about those people who might want to start a new podcast with the new year. The audio from this episode is taken from several episodes I released last year about starting a new podcast in 2021 and I hope it will be helpful to anyone looking to start their podcast in January.

This is a bi-weekly podcast. I release an episode every other week, without breaks between seasons. This format works for me, and I’m able to record episodes in advance when I need to, or record them week to week when I need to, and still fit in podcasting around my editing work. But I’m in a fortunate position. Podcasting is my job - not just recording one, but working with clients to record thiers, editing, consultation etc.

But to those people who have other jobs, to whom podcasting is a side hustle or hobby, or who have multiple other facets of their business to run, I don't recommend recording in this consistent pattern. I recommend recording and releasing a podcast in seasons...

I took some time off this summer and went away. I still had some work to do so I took my laptop, a stand, and a bluetooth keyboard and mouse - a super light and compact mobile office setup I've put together over the years. I pre-recorded my podcasts so I didn’t need to take any recording gear with me, but it did get me thinking… What’s the best setup for recording a podcast away from home? What is a compact and portable setup that can fit in a bag or suitcase?

So now that we’ve looked at some of the reasons people struggle to keep their podcasts going - let’s talk about how we can address it. 

I want to be really clear off the bat, that there is such a thing as doing too much, and no amount of tips or tricks or hacks will give you more hours in the day. I want you to have a sustainable and consistent lifestyle, not just a podcast, and if trying to produce this podcast is affecting your work or deteriorating your quality of life - even after implementing these strategies - then perhaps it’s time to think about how much you’re doing. But for the majority of people, with a few tweaks and adjustments, podcasting can enhance their current business or life situation in a meaningful and positive way.

I'm taking some time off this summer, so this audio is taken from the private podcast feed I released earlier this month.

In the last episode I spoke about just some of the many benefits of podcasting, but if that’s all true, why isn’t everyone doing it? What are the downsides? What’s the catch? 

Well sometimes it does seem like everyone is doing it. Especially during last years (and this years) lockdowns, more people than ever were trying their hand at podcasting. The number of podcasts has more than tripled in a year, from 700,000 in the final quarter of 2019 to 2.2m at the end of 2020 and obviously rising since then. But most of these shows don’t last. So what’s happening?

I'm taking some time off this summer, so this audio is taken from the private podcast feed I released earlier this month.

Whether you’re a business, an individual, a freelancer or whatever - someone who's trying to get a message across to people - podcasting is a powerful way to do this. It’s great for connecting to people, it’s great for generating interest, and it’s great for selling. Whatever your reason is for starting a podcast, there are benefits to be found, and advantages that this type of media has over others. 

I'm taking some time off this summer, so this audio is taken from the private podcast feed I released earlier this month. 

I’m still enrolling people on my podcast summer camp for the next couple of days. 

This 6 week program takes people through every step of starting a podcast and gives them a strong base to build from. Over the 6 weeks, participants will have live coaching calls with me where we set clear goals and progress markers for the podcast, and discuss any challenges and issues that come up. I will also edit the first 6/8/10 episodes of this new podcast (depending on the length) so you can focus on learning how to get the recording right and building an audience first. Participants will have full access to my podcasting course completely free, and each week during the 6 weeks there will be check-ins and resources emailed out. I’ll also provide feedback on recordings and together we can work out how to improve the quality of these recordings. 

By the end of our time together, I aim to have participants comfortable with the podcasting process, with a practice that suits their schedule and a direction going forward.

Many people start their podcasts with the intention of it becoming an income stream, only to get disheartened when creating that income isn’t as quick or simple as it initially seemed. Huge income generating podcasts are still the exception, but many, many podcasters are able to supplement their incomes, or even live off the profits of their moderately sized podcasts, and there are a number of ways to do this, some of which we’ll cover today...

Premium content, paid content, paywalled content, whatever you want to call it - bonus content that your audience pays for on top of your free content is a great way to start monetising your podcast, and with the advent of Apple and Spotify's subscription options, and third party companies like Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee, it's easier than ever to set up. But how do you know if it's time to start creating premium content? And how do you know if it's right for your audience?

Airplanes, loud motorcycles, wind, birds, sirens and construction work - these are just some of the sounds that might pop up to ruin a recording taken outside. But by choosing the right type of microphone and positioning it correctly, using the right accessories, and paying attention to the right things, we can overcome most of these problems, and that’s what we’re going to talk about in this episode...

I used this exercise in the webinar the other day, and I find it a really useful tool for generating loads of episode ideas quickly. It’s pretty simple, but super effective for generating content that is valuable and relevant to your audience. You’ll need a pen and paper, or writing application of some kind...

Great editing is imperceptible, it should be subtle, seamless, and shouldn't distract the listener from being absorbed in the content. If you can't tell what's been edited, you're doing something right. So to help you achieve these stealthy edits too, this episode will look at some of the common mistakes people make when editing a podcast, and how we can avoid them.

To this day, the most downloaded episode and the most visited article on the website, are the ones comparing Audacity and GarageBand - and that makes sense. One of the biggest draws of starting a podcast is that it has a low point of entry and can be done with very little budget, or even for free. Both Audacity and GarageBand are free programmes, and are how the majority of podcasts are edited today. Audacity is the go-to choice for PC users at the start of their podcasting journey, and GarageBand is the go-to for Mac users.

But neither of these are the industry standard for audio editing, and there are other options - Adobe Audition and Logic Pro X. Plus, there have been some updates since I wrote the last piece, so I thought it was time to revisit podcast editors, and start round two of the battle of the audio editors...

Most content creators will at some point bump into the restrictions of copyright law. That may be YouTube removing a reaction video due to a copyright infringement, or in the case of podcasting, trying to find some music for your podcast that is free and legal to use. 

There is lots of misleading information out there about copyright laws, so listen to this episode to help you navigate it and make sure that you are using appropriate, legal music that looks out for artists...

Understanding your analytics is an effective way to improve your podcast’s reach, and build a loyal and engaged audience. Your analytics data provides you with a window into your audience’s behaviour and how they interact with your content. By understanding which topics get the most downloads, when listeners tune out of your episode and the demographics of those listeners, you can optimise and refine your content. 

Listen to this episode to learn all about analytics data, and how it can inform your podcasting practice...

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

The most important piece of advice for recording a clear and professional sounding podcast: get your audio sounding as good as possible before you press record. Post-production editing and effects are great for enhancing already great audio, but they are limited when it comes to repairing bad audio. The best way to ensure a top-quality recording is to nail your set-up and record with proper technique. And an aspect of this technique is microphone placement. Listen to this episode for tips on how to get your mic placement right.

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

Recording an interview on Zoom has become an important aspect of podcasting. Not only have worldwide restrictions on travel and meetings meant that it’s much easier and safer to record interviews remotely, but Zoom is also free and has a built-in recorder. However, there are a few sound issues that people report with recording Zoom calls - noisy fans, poor signal quality, sound cutting out when the other person speaks.

Listen to this episode to hear some tips and settings to get the best quality from your Zoom recordings and avoid these annoying mistakes.

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

There are lots of options available when discussing the best budget podcasting equipment for beginners, but for me there’s one clear winner - Samson. In this episode, we’ll discuss some of the best budget equipment for podcast beginners that Samson has to offer.

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

In this episode I talk about transcripts for podcast episodes, and how we can make our podcasts more accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. I look at some of the options out there, and some experiences I have had with transcribing podcast episodes.

This episode doesn't provide any definitive answers on how to make our podcasts more accessible, but it's a topic that's been on my mind ever since I started working in podcasting and producing a transcript last week spurred me on to start the conversation.

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

We hope you're all keeping well and staying sane out there! Continuing as normal is very hard right now but recording your podcasts shouldn't be. Tune into the episode to hear all about our recommendations for programs you can use to record podcast interviews remotely.

For the next 8 weeks I'm going to be delivering the course, so I'm taking a break from the podcast. During that time, I'll be posting 8 of the most popular episodes from 2020 for anyone who's new around here, or as a refresher to everyone else. I'll be back with new content very soon!

Welcome to the very first episode of 'How to Record a Podcast' from The Pod Farm. In our inaugural show we're going to be looking at two of the most popular free audio editors - Audacity and Garageband - and comparing the two to help you decide which program is best suited for your needs.

It’s definitely true that an unedited podcast can be perfectly fine in the right circumstances, but that's the key – under the right circumstances. Interview shows that emphasise pure, unfiltered thought and conversation, benefit from a rawness and lack of editing. The impurities inherent in natural conversation – the ‘ummms’, ‘errrrs’, pauses and hesitations don’t feel out of place.

However, for other types of show, too much hesitation and 'umm'ing can put the listener off.

Want to take your first steps launching your new podcast this week? The Pod Farm can help! 

Listen to this episode for a behind the scenes tour of PODCAST FROM SCRATCH. This new course is a complete guide to starting a podcast - covering everything from equipment and planning, to editing and marketing. PLUS - learn all about the bonuses you'll get for signing up.

I'm really proud of this course - and I can't wait for you to join me in starting your new podcast!

What’s stopping you from starting your podcast? There could be a number of reasons, especially in the world we are living in today, that you don’t feel able to start a podcast and they are all valid things to think. If you haven’t recorded audio before, it can seem like a complicated and expensive endeavour, and any glance at the audio-phile corners of the internet will affirm that belief.

But I’ve been helping people start podcasts for a number of years now, and I just don’t find most of these beliefs are true. Sure, you can spend lots of time, money and expertise on your podcast, but if you’re just starting out, you don’t have to. Listen to this episode to find out more, and get invited to a special live event debunking these myths...

Starting a podcast is a simple process, but there’s so much conflicting information and differing opinions on how to go about it. So, to make things a bit clearer, this episode will outline my roadmap for starting a podcast in 7 easy steps.

Starting a podcast is a simple process, but it requires some planning before you get started. Like most things, going in with a plan is a great way to avoid pitfalls, save time in the long run and ensure longevity. In this episode I’ve broken the pre-recording planning process into three easy to remember sections...

Like I said last week, starting a podcast is a challenge. It takes time, resources, motivation and commitment. You may have to spend money buying the equipment or for a hosting service, and the ways to monetise your podcast and make that investment back aren’t immediately obvious or open to beginners. That’s how it is with podcasting. It’s easy to learn, and hard to maintain. But a good way to maintain your podcast is to know what lays ahead, and what to expect as you begin releasing a podcast. Listen to this episode to find out what to expect when starting a podcast in 2021...

Starting a podcast is challenge. It takes time, resources, motivation, commitment and a whole bunch of other fleeting virtues that many of us (myself included) find difficult to hold on to. There are costs to buying the equipment and hosting, with no guarantee of a return on your investment. But don't let that put you off! All these hurdles only serve to make podcasting more rewarding when you do it, and the process is much easier than you might think. Listen to this episode to find out if it's time to start a podcast.

This episode is the first in a series looking at starting a podcast in 2021, leading up to the launch of our new podcasting course in January - stay tuned for updates!

Even if you don’t know the word, you’ve seen an audiogram before. Audiograms are a way to share audio content on visual platforms like Instagram and Twitter, and are usually made up of an image or video, a waveform and captions. They are a great way for sharing clips from your podcast, and they are super easy to put together! Listen to this episode to find out how to make them, and how they can level up your podcast promotion game.

When I was writing the episodes about audio interfaces last week and the week before, I kept coming across the term gain - and it got me thinking about a question a client asked me a couple of weeks ago. That was - what's the difference between gain and volume? Listen to this episode to find out.

In short – no. USB microphones take care of most of the reasons you would buy an audio interface. By their very nature of connecting to your computer via USB, they obviously have an analogue-digital converter built-in. Some of them, like the Blue Yeti, have gain knobs and most have headphone line-outs for monitoring. If you want to keep your set-up cheap and simple, a good quality USB mic is all you need.

There are, however, a number of reasons you might need to star using an audio interface… Listen to this episode to find out what they are.

A common piece of equipment you will see referenced in forums and blogs as you learn about podcasting is the audio interface. These devices are generally small and square, the ports for ¼” jack and XLR leads, as well as line-outs for headphones and studio monitors. They may have one input; they may have 16 or more – and you’re probably aware that they connect audio equipment to your computer.

But what do they do exactly? Listen to this episode to find out...

There are few things so instantly pleasing to my eyes as a great podcast thumbnail. Clear to read and instantly evocative of the spirit of the show, a good thumbnail stands out in a sea of small tiled images and is easily remembered. The thumbnail is often overlooked as we plan a new podcast, but it could be one of the simplest ways to grow an organic audience of active listeners. Listen to this episode for some pointers for how to design the perfect podcast thumbnail.

The most important piece of advice for recording a clear and professional sounding podcast: get your audio sounding as good as possible before you press record. Post-production editing and effects are great for enhancing already great audio, but they are limited when it comes to repairing bad audio. The best way to ensure a top-quality recording is to nail your set-up and record with proper technique. And an aspect of this technique is microphone placement. Listen to this episode for tips on how to get your mic placement right.

In the second of this two-parter, we look at some of the specific equipment used for acoustic treatment and also give an example of a simple and cost-effective set-up to get you started.

Equipment is only one side of the podcasting dice - another is how we set it up. In this episode we will look at the basics of 'acoustic treatment', and how to achieve the best sounding recording in your space for free.

Recording an interview on Zoom has become an important aspect of podcasting. Not only have worldwide restrictions on travel and meetings meant that it’s much easier and safer to record interviews remotely, but Zoom is also free and has a built-in recorder. However, there are a few sound issues that people report with recording Zoom calls - noisy fans, poor signal quality, sound cutting out when the other person speaks.

Listen to this episode to hear some tips and settings to get the best quality from your Zoom recordings and avoid these annoying mistakes.

In this episode, I look at three really useful features that make editing podcasts a breeze on Logic Pro X, and may make upgrading from Garageband worth your consideration: strip silence, select right of region and the selection tool.

There are lots of options available when discussing the best budget podcasting equipment for beginners, but for me there’s one clear winner - Samson. In this episode, we’ll discuss some of the best budget equipment for podcast beginners that Samson has to offer.

In the second episode of this two-parter, we look at some of the most popular models of open, closed and semi-open backed headphones.

In the first of two episodes, we'll talk about the different types of headphones - open back, closed back and semi-open back - and look at the pros, cons and uses of each style.

This week I found myself without a computer - a big problem for a podcast editing business - but that doesn't mean I had to stop releasing content. This episode was recorded using Anchor's built-in podcast recording/editing features, and discusses that process. 

We're four weeks through our current cohort of podcasts on the eight week launch programme and that means it's time to get another handful of lucky podcasters-to-be lined up. Have a listen to this episode to get an idea of what this programme entails and how you can get involved.

Last week I donned a face mask and ventured out into the wilderness. I was helping a client with their new podcasting set-up, a set-up that is designed to be mobile, simple and able to withstand the outdoors - and a set-up that also had to adhere to social distancing restrictions. Learn about that set-up in this episode.

In this episode I share a tip I was recently given by a client - a tip that not only safeguards against forgetting to press record, but also against the glitchy connection of a bad Zoom call. That is recording yourself, or asking your guest to record themselves on a voice notes app on their phone and sending the file to you afterwards. It's a super simple solution that solves an annoying problem with remote podcasts.

There’s a reason keyboard shortcuts are named as such. Nearly all functions in an editing program can be executed with a simple combination of keys, and by practicing and utilising the shortcuts on this list, you can achieve a god-like level of speed and productivity while editing!