You may be hosting an interview or have been asked to join an online recording as a guest. But before you jump in, there are certain things you should check to give yourself the best chance of achieving a good, clear audio recording from your home.
There are now a number of ways to record remotely and an ever increasing number of services that enable people to dial in and record from the comfort of their own home (or office, cafe, car etc...). These include Cleanfeed, Riverside, Squadcast and Zencastr. Which is best really depends on what you need, and there are many reviews online exploring the hows and whys of each service. In this blog I wanted to look at some of the other things that may affect your recording experience when you are part of a remote podcast recording session, because while the software you use is a factor, there are many other factors that can easily disrupt or ruin a recording session if you are not prepared.
In writing this I am making a a few presumptions, the main one being that you are not an audio expert and you may not have specialist equipment such as a pro external microphone and preamp for use when guesting on podcast interviews. This is because the vast majority of folk who may contribute to a podcast or radio show as a guest are asked to do so because of their interesting views and knowledge in a specialist area, not so they can run a recoding session. That said, it can be useful to have a decent quality microphone (and know how to use it), but this is just one part of a bigger picture.
The following points will act as an effective check list worth familiarising yourself with in preparation for any remote recording session.
Location check
• When the recording is from home, request that other members of the household refrain from using broadband heavy platforms for the duration of the recording, e.g. online gaming / streaming / downloads / Netflix. This will allow more bandwidth for the conversation to flow and lessen the chance of internet gremlins stopping play prematurely.
• Try to dial into the recording in a room that has soft furnishings; sofa, curtains, cushions etc, and avoid using spaces with lots of hard surfaces e.g. kitchen areas or small sparse box rooms with flat walls and hard floors, as they all reflect sound and can make the recording sound echoey, distant and unnatural (if your recording is not being filmed, then building a little cushion/duvet den to set your mic up in can really help!)
Equipment check
Do you have the minimum equipment and does it work?
• Laptop / computer - to dial in to the call from.
• Headphones - ideally wired. In ear or over ear are ok. **Headphones are essential for recording for any remote interview when sound is important**
• Microphone - can be built into headphones (e.g. apple headphones) or better quality e.g. USB wired 'podcast' microphone. Test this and become familiar with which bit to speak into (you would think this is obvious but it catches so many people out!) and how to position the mic so it sounds pretty good (i.e. sounds like you!).
• Good internet connection - ideally plug directly into your internet router for a more robust connection, or position your device/computer within close range of the router for more robust wifi signal.
Unwanted noise check
You want to minimise external unwanted sounds in the recording, so it is your voice being heard (and not the keen gardener next door or their excitable barking dog!).
• Listen to your recording space; if you can hear any mechanical noises (e.g. vehicles, lawn mower, TV/radio) or loud natural noise (rain, wind etc), try to reduce these by closing windows or doors, or having a quiet word with any noisy culprits. It is also worth checking for squeaky chairs/wobbly creaky tables.
• Ensure all mobile devices are set to silent / airplane mode (no one wants to hear that repetitive *bing* mid-record!)
• Ensure desktop apps (e.g. Outlook) are disabled too, to prevent notifications pinging through your computer.
Pre-recording checks
• Before the recording commences, in some cases a recording engineer on the call will run a microphone and headphone level check with each guest, to ensure there is good sound ready for recording. This may involve adjusting your physical position in relation to the microphone, and the microphone or headphone level in your computer sound preferences (so it is useful to know how to access these).
• When all the sound levels are set and all is good, the interview recording can commence.
Post-recording
When the interview ends, it is worth staying online and keeping the recording app window open until you have the nod from the host/engineer/producer, to allow the interview recordings to be downloaded, and just in case any last minute re takes are needed.
Recap
This is not an exhaustive list, but is well worth giving these points some consideration if you want to come across well and sound as good as possible for your next remote recording session.
To re-cap:
1. Location check - You are comfortable, set up in a nice sounding space with strong Internet signal.
2. Equipment check - Have you got everything you need? is it all set up correctly and working?
3. Unwanted noise check - Have you done what you can to keep unwanted sounds at bay? Are all potential distractions silenced?
4. Pre-recording sound checks - Is your voice getting through loud and clear ready to be recorded?
If you can go through the above steps methodically and start to think about things like your recording location, furnishings, set up of kit, and a general familiarity with everything, you will be in a great position to dial in to a remote podcast/radio Interview or voice over recording (or even for an important Zoom call meeting - good clear sound really does make such a difference) and sound great! And of course, if you still feel a little out of your comfort zone after reading this, then you can give us a call for some additional help 🙂
Kommentarer