Podcast listeners will often quickly tire of podcasts with low quality audio. While audio quality can be enhanced through careful editing, editing is dramatically simpler when background noise is minimized. The task of editing is simpler, though, when you start with high quality audio that does not contain extraneous noise that overlaps the timing and the frequency range of the spoken voices you are recording. So, one of the first decisions you should make is where you will record your podcast.

Where should you record?

An ideal recording location would have sound dampening materials applied to all walls and would be located in a quiet area with low levels of noise from human or vehicle traffic. If you are recording on your campus, check to see if any podcast (or other audio) recording spaces are available on your campus. (Our campus provides such resources for students in selected broadcasting programs, but these are not generally available to others.)

In practice, though, you will probably not have access to an ideal space available (unless you have access to the funds needed to create one). The next-best solution is to find a recording location that has low levels of ambient noise from foot traffic, toilets flushing, coffee grinders and blenders, noisy HVAC ducts, refrigerators, etc. (we had all of these features for our first 6 months of operation, and still deal with HVAC sound issues in our current location). The room in which you record should also have features that dampen echo. Small rooms with glass walls and smooth reflective surfaces on all walls (such as our current recording location on our campus and Rebecca’s home recording environment) should be avoided since they can generate a lot of echo.

Recording remote guests

If you are including remote guests on your podcasts (and most podcasts eventually will do so, you should include instructions encouraging them to find a quiet place in their home or office that is not near busy highways. Cluttered rooms provide better acoustics than rooms with bare walls and floors since the clutter can help reduce echo. Periodically, we’ve asked our guests to move to a different room where there is less echo or one that is further away from a busy highway or train tracks.