When people hear about audio engineers, the first thing that comes to mind is people who tweak and mix sounds and music behind complicated consoles and machines. A lot of people associate audio engineers with music production and recording studios, but people forget that the success behind a podcast also lies behind an audio engineer.
What is an Audio Engineer?
According to Career Explorer, an Audio Engineer or Sound Engineer is someone who works with the mechanics of recording, mixing, and reproducing sound. Audio engineers are not similar to sound producers and performers because they deal with the more technical and mechanical aspects of music and sound.
What does an Audio Engineer do?
Being an audio engineer doesn’t mean you only do one thing. There are various tasks that an audio engineer can do depending on the field they’re in. However, the basic idea of audio engineering is being able to get sound from one place to another. In shows and different media, we get to hear things beautifully and in high quality because of audio engineers.
When listening to podcast shows, it’s easy to tell which ones have done their homework and learned how to produce their shows to quality. If you’re a podcaster struggling to churn out great-sounding shows, you can hire an audio engineer, or improve your recordings with simple hacks.
Why does my podcast sound bad?
People who are new to podcasting usually ask this question. There are two probable causes of a bad-sounding show:
- Recording in a room with poor acoustics
- Using low-quality microphone or equipment
If you want to sound good, it’s important to get good quality equipment and a soundproofed room. Remember that quality doesn’t always mean expensive.
Use a Decent Microphone
When it comes to recording equipment, quality is key to a good podcast, but quality doesn’t have to mean breaking bank. A good microphone will help you sound professional in your podcast.
Find the best Acoustic Place in your Room
One of the known secrets of podcast production lies in the location you’re recording in. Is the room big, or is it so small that the sound produces nasal reverberation? The bigger a room, the better. Make sure to also put your mic farther from the wall to avoid reverb.
Carpets, rugs, and curtains also help lower the reverb in high frequencies, and a sofa in the room acts like a bass trap.
People put absorbent foams, but putting too many may kill the brightness of your voice.
How to Make the most of Your Microphone
To produce a high-quality, warm, and deep-sounding voice, try to prop up your mic a bit closer to your mouth. Test and record until you get that warm and radio-style sound.
When recording with guests, providing separate mics and recording separate tracks will make it easier for you to edit the whole show with more ease, and the recording will sound much cleaner.
Choose the Ideal Music
When choosing the music for your podcast show, remember that you’re picking something that will help your audience identify with your show and engage the listener depending on the matter of the podcast. Try to match the music tracks according to the podcast and the theme of the show. Remember, music also creates your identity and personal brand for your podcasts.
Most of the time, podcasts hook listeners in with catchy or entertaining music. Start the show with a musical intro followed by the presentation, playing background music very subtly to avoid losing the clarity of words. At the end of the podcast, playing outro music after signing off.
There are many music libraries you can access to purchase royalty-free tracks. You can consult a podcast audio engineer to find the ideal music tracks for your show.
Audio Engineer Tips for Your Podcast
Once you’ve recorded and have picked music for your show, it’s time to edit the podcast. Here’s how it goes:
- Cleaning and normalizing (giving the same volume to all the clips), getting rid of long pauses and spaces.
- Removing repetitions, the “ahhh, mmmm” that don’t contribute to the show.
- After cleaning and aligning everything, process the voices by applying equalization and subtle compression. The goal is to make your voices sound warm and deep. Check and edit as you see fit. Plugins are available in the market, which helps with tweaking the voices to become warmer and sweeter in the ears.
- Placing the intro, background, and outro music after editing the whole will make it easier to do reworks if necessary.
- Render the podcast using the correct loudness. Compression isn’t necessary. A loudness meter like Youlean Loudness Meter can help determine whether the show is too loud or just right.
- After editing your podcast, export it in Mp3, 320kps and it will be ready to upload to your platform.
Hosting a podcast show can already be work enough. A show comprises of different things that need to be written, considered, and work on, but audio engineering a podcast is a different ball game that might interest you. There are several schools and websites that offer the basics should you ever consider growing this as a part of your skillset. Alternatively, audio engineers are available for hire if you need to outsource this for your podcast production.
Looking for the right kind of people to hire for your show should be a thorough process and something to be thought of properly. If you want to know more, Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Click here for your free 30-minute consultation.
