Prepare Your Podcast Guests for success
Are you helping your podcast guests prepare to get the best audio quality possible on their side of the conversation?
Good audio quality can make or break your listener’s experience, which will make or break the success of your podcast. It’s our job, often as the wearers of many hats (host, producer, editor, marketer) to ensure that we have prepared our guests to get the best audio quality possible on their side of the conversation.
This video has a few simple practices that will help your podcast guests significantly improve the audio quality on their side of the conversation. We’re going to cover the kind of space where you need to record your podcast interview and how to sound like a pro even without a fancy external microphone.
How to Avoid Gross Mouth Noises
Let’s start with how to avoid that super gross mouth noise. Number one, hydrate drink a lot of water. Keep a glass of water sitting next to you. I recommend one with a top on it because sometimes even grownups need a sippy cup.
Avoid eating or drinking dairy on the day of your interview. But if you must eat a block of cheese and chase it with a gallon of milk, eat a green apple. They magically clean up that unwanted mouth noise.
Where to Record Your Podcast
Your recording environment will actually have more impact on your audio quality than your microphone. Great microphones do a phenomenal job of making bad recording spaces sound even worse.
The space where you record your interview needs to be quiet and “squishy.” Squishy is a very technical term. Record in areas with sound-absorbing materials like pillows. blankets, and carpet. Walk-in closets made fantastic podcast recording booths!
Avoid recording in rooms with hard bouncy surfaces, like hardwood floors, tile, cement, and big giant windows. Do not record in your kitchen or in the loo.
When You Don’t Have a Podcast Mic
if you don’t have an external microphone, don’t worry. You can still sound like a pro. DO NOT USE THE BUILT-IN MICROPHONE ON YOUR COMPUTER OR DEVICE.
Open up your junk drawer and grab your old school earbuds. You know, the ones with the microphone and the wire that plugged into your phone.
If you are recording, using your earbuds, hold the microphone out a little bit so it’s going to be closer to your mouth. That will also keep the microphone from scraping across long hair or clothes. Trying to get that scraping sound out of the recording is basically the red wine of audio production. Be mindful of where your microphone is placed.
DO NOT USE YOUR BLUETOOTH EARBUDS. They are a nightmare for a number of reasons that we aren’t even going to get into in this video.
more podcast prep tips
Check your wireless internet connection before you start recording. If at all possible, hardwire into your internet connection to help prevent any dropouts and freezes.
Get in the habit of showing up early so you can test everything out before it’s actually time to do the interview.
- Test your microphone.
- Check your headphones.
- Check your internet connection.
- Turn off all notifications and alarms on all of your devices.
- Be present.
- Smile – Listeners can hear the smile in your voice.
- Have fun!
