Recording tips for better podcast audio and video

Pick the right room

The room matters more than the microphone. Hard, empty rooms bounce sound around and make everyone sound far away.

• Small and soft beats big and bare. A bedroom or an office with carpet, curtains, a couch and bookshelves sounds far better than a kitchen or a boardroom.
• Turn off what hums. Air conditioning, fans, fridges and bar heaters are easy to stop hearing, and hard to edit out.
• Silence the phones, and put them on aeroplane mode if they sit near a microphone. Close the door and the windows.
• Clap once. If you hear a ring after it, add soft things to the room or find another one.

Microphones

• One microphone for each person. A shared mic in the middle of the table picks up the room more than the people.
• Dynamic microphones (the kind most podcast studios use) pick up the voice in front of them and ignore much of the room, which suits ordinary rooms.
• Get close: about a fist's width from the mouth, and keep that distance. Speak across the top of the microphone rather than straight into it to soften pops.
• Avoid laptop and webcam microphones. A wired lapel mic or a USB microphone is a big step up for little money.
• Don't tap the table, click pens or wear jangly jewellery. Microphones hear all of it.

Levels

Too quiet can be lifted. Too loud is distorted for good, so err on the quiet side.

• Have each person talk at their normal volume and set their level so it peaks around -12 dB, and never reaches the red.
• Record at 48 kHz, 24-bit WAV if your recorder lets you choose.
• Record 30 seconds, then listen back on headphones before you start properly. It's the best minute you'll spend.
• Leave the recorder's effects off. We'd rather add processing in the edit than remove it.

Remote guests

• Use a platform that records each person locally, like Riverside, Zencastr, SquadCast or Descript. It records on each person's own computer, so a patchy connection doesn't spoil the audio.
• In Zoom, turn on a separate audio file for each participant before you start.
• Everyone wears headphones, so the other voices don't leak back into their microphone as an echo.
• Plug into the router with a cable if you can, and close other apps and browser tabs.
• Let the upload finish before anyone closes the window. Leaving early is the most common way to lose a guest's track.

Video: light and framing

• Face the light. A window in front of you, or slightly to one side, is the best light there is. A window behind you turns you into a silhouette.
• Avoid overhead lights alone, which put shadows under the eyes. A soft lamp in front helps.
• Camera at eye level, framed from the chest up with a little space above the head. Stack books under a laptop if you need to.
• Leave room at the sides. We cut vertical reels from the landscape shot, so keep each person roughly in the middle of their own frame.
• A tidy background with some depth looks better than a flat wall right behind you. A plant, a shelf or a lamp is plenty.

Camera settings

• Landscape, 1080p or 4K. 4K keeps reels sharp after they're cropped to vertical.
• The same frame rate on every camera, 25 frames per second in Australia.
• Lock focus and exposure so the picture doesn't pulse when someone leans in or a cloud passes. On a phone, press and hold on the face.
• Check batteries and storage, and whether your camera stops after a set time. Some do, and it's easy to miss.
• Start with one loud clap on camera so we can line up every camera and microphone.

Before you press record

• Phones silent, door shut, hums off.
• A microphone for each person, a fist's width away.
• Levels peaking around -12 dB, and a 30-second test played back.
• Headphones on for remote guests, and each person recording locally.
• Cameras at eye level, facing the light, focus and exposure locked.
• Recording on every device, then one clap.

Done? Here's how to send us your recording files. Or skip the setup altogether and record in ourBurleigh Heads studio.