How I make podcasts sound less bad
If you don’t care about my life story or my hardware setup, scroll down to where I start talking about mastering audio.
I’m big into audio and video—videography, setting up studios, mastering audio, editing, and camera work. I’ve been doing this professionally for about 15 years now.
It all started when I was 12, making anime music videos using bootleg Dragon Ball Z episodes my cousin mailed me on CDs. I spent a lot of my childhood making dumb movies on a camcorder I got for Christmas. This was before YouTube even existed.
After college, I worked in radio as a news anchor and journalist for a statewide network. I was once a podcaster for a small-time agriculture publication and helped a state wildlife agency build out a social media strategy that relied heavily on video and radio content. Later, I moved into marketing, where I produced two more podcasts for a crypto foundation and made education and promotional videos for them. Right now, I’m working on a new podcast for the hunting and fishing community.
Now that I’ve told you my life story, let’s talk about how I clean up audio in post for my podcasts. This is the process I’ve refined over the years to make things sound as good as possible, as efficiently as possible.
Equipment I Use
Microphones – I use Shure SM7B and Electro-Voice RE20 mics.
Personally, I prefer the Electro-Voice RE20 because of its dynamic range. NPR uses them for everything. I used them when I worked in radio. Some bands even use them for recording bass drums. It’s hard to sound bad on this mic. The Shure SM7B is a great mic too. It’s more forgiving since you don’t have to speak directly into it, but you’ll need to boost its input.
Mixer – I use the RØDECaster Pro, which makes everything easier. Before, I had to use an audio interface like a Scarlett Pro paired with a mixer, or a mixer with a native USB out to connect to Adobe Audition. The RØDECaster Pro records all of your tracks separately, as well as a combined version, onto an SD card. It can output to a computer as well. It has four headphone outputs, four mic inputs, and presets for common industry mics like the RE20 and SM7B. It simplifies everything compared to my old setup.
Cameras – I use three Sony Alpha 6400s, all connected to a Blackmagic ATEM Mini, which is hooked up to a computer. I record all the cameras individually on separate SD cards and also capture the ATEM’s output into OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while switching cameras live. This makes editing in post much faster.
Lighting – I’ll get into that at a later date. Check back later.
My audio editing workflow
Once everything is recorded, I layer all the video tracks and the combined mix from the RØDECaster Pro onto an Adobe Premiere timeline and synchronize the audio so all of my scenes match up.
I then export my RØDECaster Pro mix into Adobe Audition to adjust volume levels, add compression, and eliminate ambient noise so the audio sounds crisp and clear.
The first step is applying a Multiband Compressor set to the default “Broadcast” preset. This adds a level of compression and an overall presence to the track.
Then, I increase the volume of the entire track until the lowest peaks of the sound waves are sitting just below -3dB. I run a Hard Limiter on the entire track, set to -3dB, which ensures everyone’s volume is mostly on the same level.
This particular session looked a little rough because I had four people in the studio that day, and two were using different mics.
Afterward, I use a noise reduction plugin I bought for about $30 from Waves.com. So far t’s the best tool I’ve found for eliminating ambient noise.
Once that’s done, I save and exit Adobe Audition, and the file updates automatically in Premiere.
Back in Premiere, I mute or remove the other audio tracks so that only the cleaned-up track remains.
Then, I transcribe the podcast using Premiere’s built-in transcription tool. The host always starts the same way "You're listening to...” and ends the same way "See you outdoors", so I just search for those phrases to find the beginning and end of the podcast quickly and trim accordingly.
Those are all the secrets I’m revealing today. Until next time.