Boffin Media - media training by media professionals

The Boffin Media guide to podcasting

There is a lot on the web about the more technical aspects of podcasting but we felt there is little in the way of helpful advice on making them sound good. We hope you find the information below useful, it is based on material we were asked to write for schools. We plan to add some images to the text in future (to make it look a bit nicer) and maybe run it over several pages.

Feel free to print it out or link to it on your own web pages. Good luck!

What you need to make a podcast:

We record all our interviews, and links between interviews, on a portable MP3 recorder. Although we use a professional recorder (costing around £300), there are much cheaper recorders (£50-£100) that will do a pretty good job. You might also consider older technology such as minidisc recorders which produce good quality recordings (and are fairly cheap).


MP3 files are ‘compressed’ audio – that means the sound has been squeezed to make the file smaller. The more compressed the file, the more sound is lost. A lower sampling rate (such as 48k) will take up less memory but be very low audio quality. We record our interviews at 320 kbps – which means 320 thousand ‘bits’ per second. Each ‘bit’ is a single piece of digital information. For most recording somewhere around 128k will probably be fine. Generally, if it sounds okay to you then don’t worry too much about the technical stuff.

Better recorders will also record WAV files – these files are completely uncompressed. However, they take up a lot of memory and frankly, to most ears, a high quality MP3 is just as good.

You could record straight onto a laptop or PC but this reduces your options for where you can record.

Most recorders set the recording level automatically; more advanced ones allow you to set the recording level manually. In most instances, the automatic level is fine, it’s only when there’s very loud background noise that you’ll experience any problems but these can be overcome by using the microphone (see tips below).

Microphone: This can make or break a podcast. If your microphone is poor, it will sound like you’re recording down a phoneline. You will also get hiss, pops, and crackles as well as bumps if you move it. This doesn’t mean you have to buy the most expensive microphone but £50 invested in a hand-held microphone is more than worthwhile. Different microphones are used for different things – get one that can cope with speech and music and that you can hold a reasonable distance from your mouth. You don’t want to be touching it with your lips when you’re interviewing someone.

Headphones: To listen to what you’re recording. When you edit, you might find it easier to listen back through loudspeakers. Don’t waste your money on expensive headphones; reasonably cheap ones are perfectly good.

A computer with editing equipment and software. Most professionals edit their audio on PCs. With MP3 recorders you can transfer your audio to computer via a USB lead. With minidisc recorders etc. you will need to use an audio lead from the output socket (or headphone socket) on the recorder to the audio input on the back of your computer.

There is plenty of audio editing software available. Schools might want to consider purchasing professional software which can be used for all sorts of other applications (recording and editing drama, music, discussions etc.). We use adobe audition.

Otherwise many podcasters use freely available ‘open source’ editing software such as ‘Audacity’.

Don’t be intimidated by learning new software, most editing software is pretty intuitive and works in the same way as cutting and pasting text. Editing can also be great fun.

If you’re planning to make podcasts on a regular basis, it’s worth investing in a decent computer soundcard. These don’t cost much more than a normal soundcard but include a larger range of input/output sockets and give your production a much more ‘professional’ sound.

How we make a podcast documentary –

1- We decided how we were going to cover the topic and drew up a list of possible interviewees and locations.

2- We recorded all our interviews on location.

3- We listened back to the interviews and made notes of which bits we wanted to use.

4- Only then did we start to edit the sections of interview. The first stage is to break it down into rough chunks or ‘clips’. Then, after a rough edit, go through each one to remove any repetition or long ‘errs’ or ‘umms’. Sometimes you can edit a clip only to decide that you don’t want to use it anyway. The script was written as we went along, making sure that the links between sections of interview made sense. Then we finished off the script and recorded the remaining links.

5-Finally we assembled the whole lot together. This part is probably most fun and involves fiddling around with the mixing between different parts. Better editing software allows you to mix audio together, so a sound effect ‘dips’ down while a interview clip starts. If you’re using music, this is also the stage where you can add any background music tracks. Mixing takes a bit of practice but you can normally hear when it’s wrong.

6- Once you’ve got your final mix you need to save it as an MP3 file and publish it on a website (alternatively, you could also burn it onto CD). This is something that we’re not going to go into here but there is plenty of information on posting podcasts available on the web.

Note – if you’re using commercial music and intend to publish your finished product you will need a licence.

Programme making tips

All these come with practice. The great thing about podcasting is that almost every stage of the process is fun.

Story

Decide who you are planning to broadcast to and the style you’re going to use. Also, choose a length and try to stick to it: podcasts can be as short as 3 minutes – the same length as a music track.
Don’t be too ambitious, start with a simple podcast which won’t take up more time than you have.
Think of interesting topics and work out how to do them in an interesting way.
Podcasts which are very chatty are fine as long as the people doing the chatting are funny and/or interesting.
Podcasts that are personal can also be interesting – those that give an insight into issues at school, for example.

Recording tips

Consider recording on location – there is a lot of interesting stuff to record.
Recording outside also ‘lifts’ the sound of podcasts. Think of ‘sounds’ that are relevant to your interviews.
Use a decent microphone and hold it firmly so you don’t get bumps and clanks. Experiment so you learn how far away you need to hold the microphone from the subject for different situations.
In a very noisy environment, hold the microphone very close to the mouth; this should cut out the background noise.
Record each interview as a separate file – it’ll make sorting it out later much easier.
If you’re interviewing people, feel familiar with the recording equipment and give the impression you know what you’re doing. Giving the impression of confidence is one of the key skills of a reporter.
Check you’ve recorded what you think you have. From bitter experience we’ve learnt that it’s always wise to play bits of the interview back before you leave.

Interviewing and presenting tips

Ask obvious questions – what are you doing? How are you doing it? Why are you doing it?
Listen to what your interviewee is saying and react accordingly, although it’s sometimes useful to have a list of questions, try not to stick to them too rigidly.
It’s easy to say this, and hard to do, but try to be yourself. Just because you’re presenting a radio programme doesn’t mean you should turn into someone else. However, you do need to make your words sound clear.
Be careful of libelling people – a podcast is covered by the same laws as everything else. Making unfounded comments about a company or individual and publishing them on the web can land you in a lot of trouble.

Editing

Before you do anything - back up (save somewhere else) your interviews. Also make sure you keep saving your files as you go along.
Edit the interviews and clips you want to use first before you attempt to edit the whole programme.
Don’t over-edit – cutting out too many pauses will make it sound unnatural.

Further help

There is plenty of help available on the web for making podcasts, most of it covers the technical aspects of podcasting and publishing your podcast.

Radio 1 has a podcasting guide with a good explanation of RSS feeds: