In this short video, I'm going to share three easy to apply tips that will make
your podcast sound way better immediately. And! Two of the tips are free. Okay. Let's podcast.
Hey podski! Welcome to the Pod Sound School I'm Studio Steve. And on our channel,
we are obsessed with helping you to improve and go places with your podcast. So if that's
something you can vibe on, hit the subscribe button and stay in the Pod Sound School loop.
So you want your podcast to sound better, right?
Well, what exactly do you mean by better? What's wrong with the
sound of your podcast to begin with? Does it sound too quiet,
too loud? Muffled. Do your podcast voices sound like they're really far away. Does each one of
your episodes play at different volumes? Is your voice really harsh on the ears? Well, you're
likely watching this video because you either receive some negative feedback on your podcast.
Sound quality or when you compare your podcast to the network shows you feel really tiny podcasts,
sound like that. Don't worry. Tiny. Steve, after you watched this video,
you'll know everything you need to know to make your podcast sound way better.
Thanks, Jay. And Steve don't mention it. Okay, so let's start with tip number one.
Your recording space. So this one might seem obvious, but for so many of us,
we overlook this part completely when it comes to where you record your podcast
at no matter what microphone you're using, it's important that the room sounds nice.
And here's two main problems that you want to look out for in your room.
Number one. Reverb echo or room reflections. This is caused by hard surfaces, like wood floors,
walls, and ceilings, and 90 degree angles are particularly echo-y and reflective. So
don't podcast in a corner. If we are in a really reflective or reverberated room.
Our voice will sound like it's far away, quick solutions to this move to a less echo-y room.
Cover the hard surfaces. You can go cheap and hang up blankets or curtains,
or you can go the fancy and spendy route and get some acoustic foam.
I'll leave a link in the description below where you can find my suggestions for
acoustic foam. Another big problem to watch out for in your recording space is no worries.
The obvious noise would be like screaming, kids, barking, dogs,
traffic, loud, TV playing in the other room. But the less obvious noise that
many of us forget are the little annoying buzzes and hums like fluorescent lights,
air vents, fans, refrigerators, and computer buzz solutions. Move to a different room.
Don't podcast in your kitchen. Turn off any buzzing or humming electronics. You
can temporarily turn your cooling unit or heating unit off while you record. And as
far as the computer buzz, get some extension cords for your microphones
and audio interfaces and things so that your computer can stay farther away.
From your microphones. I actually have my computer completely outside of my recording room.
And before we move on to tip number two, I want to let you know that none of these tips
are going to cover podcast editing that's for a whole nother video altogether. And there are
a ton of things you can do after you record your podcast that will make your podcast audio shine.
I have a free podcast editing training that you can grab your seat for by clicking here.
Okay. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to tip number two. Okay. So microphone
technique, no matter what microphone you're using, even if it's the microphones on your phone,
there are things you can do to get the juiciest and most delicious sound out of your voice.
The first one is proximity. You want to get really nice and close to your microphone.
The closer you are to the microphone, the more of your tasty voice frequencies
you will get picked up. Also, when you get closer to a mic,
something called the proximity effect happens and the low frequencies of your voice get.
Boosted, this can make for a really nice beefy broadcast sounding voice. Let me illustrate
this real quick with the popular podcasting USB microphone, the Samsung Q2. So when away from the
microphone like this, I'm going to have to crank up my preamp or my gain to get the microphone
loud enough to pick up my voice, which in turn will pick up more of the room and more noise.
Also. I'm just going to sound like I'm farther away.
But listen to how the vocal quality improves. As I get slowly closer to the microphone
with every little increment of distance from the microphone, my vocal quality improves,
and I have to turn the preamp up less, which results in a better, more high quality sound.
And then when I get really close, Oh, and I'm actually lowering my voice. But when I
get really close that's when you hear the proximity effect and now you're getting a
more broadcast sounding voice. Just by how close I am to the microphone. You'll also want to train
yourself to stay in the sweet spot and don't move your voice very much and just stay right here.
Even when you turn to talk to your friend, don't turn with your whole head like this turn and tilt
that way your mouth stays in front of the microphone
and you just keep your voice, keep your lips and your mouth right in that sweet spot.
The other thing to have in mind with your microphone technique is avoiding plosives.
Plosives are nasty little pops or puffs of air that happened when we say words with peas in them
to avoid this, people will use pop filters, wind screens, and we will also approach the microphone
at an angle. Which allows the air to pass through. Let me also illustrate this with the Samsung Q2.
Okay. So like I mentioned, plosives are going to happen a lot more when you're
directly in front of the microphone, because puffs of air are going to hit the microphone.
People will use pop filters and put a pop filter in there, and that will help the puff of air.
Why don't I say. Peter Piper picked a pepper. Peter Piper picked a pepper. Peter
Piper picked a pepper. What you could even do is double up, put a windscreen on there,
go like that and double up like this. Peter Piper picked a pepper.
Peter Piper picked a pepper. Peter Piper picked a pepper. Okay. And then the other thing you can do
without even using either one of these, I would still at least use a poofy on this microphone.
But the other thing you could do is something called angle of approach or angle of attack.
And that's to bring the microphone into your mouth, an angle like this,
we'll do this angle here so that you can see now.
I have the air is going to pass by the microphone. Peter Piper picked a pepper and you can even kind
of angle it like this and just get a touch away from the, the microphone. And you're going to
get a better, your sweet spot is still right here and the microphone is still picking up the
sweet spot from your voice, but your air of the, those harsh peas is passing by the microphone.
So that's another technique that you can put to use. Okay. And finally, number three,
and this one can cost you some dollars. And that is to find the right microphone for your voice.
Every microphone is different. The microphones that are built into our smartphones are designed
to translate speech. They aren't designed to capture and create broadcast quality voices.
So the first thing to use at least is something better
than the microphone on your smartphone. The next step up is a USB microphone
and there are a few really good options for these and I'll leave those options
in the podcasters gear builder list. You'll find that link in the description box below.
Also, we have a video where we compare the most popular USB microphones,
and you can check that out right here. The step up from USB microphones are
XLR microphones. These microphones will need to be used with an audio interface.
An audio interface is really just a machine that you plug the microphone into.
And then you plug the machine into your computer. This is the approach used by professionals
and the quality of both your microphone and your audio interface will result in the quality of your
recordings. The good news here is that many professional podcasting setups are relatively
affordable, especially when compared to other creative endeavors like video production.
I'll also leave a link to my handy podcast or gear builders list below that will really help
you make sense. Of the top gear that professional podcasters are using and what's in your budget.
And as always, if you have any questions about gear or podcasting in general, don't hesitate
to reach out, leave a comment or question right here where you're watching this video.
And I will personally respond. And also, like I mentioned earlier,
I do have a free getting started editing in Reaper FM. It's a podcast. Editing solution.
That's my favorite for podcasters. You can grab your seat for that.
I'll also leave the link for that in the description box below.
Good luck pod doggy, and make sure to share your podcast URL with us here in the comments.
That way we can check out your show and I'll catch you in another podcasting video
microphone. Okay, here we go. Here we go. I got it. I got this. I'm fine.
A man's lost his mind. It's like the older I get,
the more, my head looks like a potato kick back, relax, have a YouTube video with me.
I don't know about the weird faces at the end. There was a little bit of psycho in this.