Help Me Podcast

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Welcome to help me podcast. A show designed to help you launch and grow your podcast. I am your host Gino. And twice a week, I will release a new episode with different tips and tricks for launching and growing your podcast. From audio engineering to planning intentionally to growth tactics, each episode will be a bite sized tip to help you podcast. Welcome back to the podcast, and this is gonna be a special episode because we have reached episode 50. Yep. That's 50 episodes in the books.

Speaker A [00:00:41]:

I can't believe it. It's flown by, and to commemorate today's episode. I got some good news, and I also got some bad news. So let me give you the bad news first, and then we'll get to the good news. So the bad news is I am going to take a break with this podcast. I don't know how long it's gonna be yet, maybe a couple weeks. Maybe a month, we'll see. But, basically, I want to take some time off and reevaluate, see what's done well, see what hasn't done well.

Speaker A [00:01:09]:

And then, you know, I'll come back into it and be stronger than ever and hopefully have better episodes to better serve you all. So That's the bad news. You're gonna take a short break, but the good news is that I have a free gift for you. And the free gift is my PDF download that I just created. You know, we talked about lead magnets a couple episodes ago, and this is my lead magnet. My new and improved lead magnet called how to record a professional sounding podcast. I think it's really good, and I'm really proud of it. And you can click the link in the show notes to download it.

Speaker A [00:01:48]:

But basically, what this free PDF does is it describes to you in three steps how to record a professional sounding podcast every time you go to record a podcast. So I'm gonna describe it and go through those steps in this episode so that you can also use this as another tool to help you further understand the material that I talk about. So let's get into the three steps of this PDF. So the first step is microphone placement. And microphone placement is how you're positioning your microphone in regards to what you're trying to record, which for a podcast is your mouth. A useful visualization that I heard a while back is to to think of a microphone like a flashlight. And, you know, you turn a flashlight on and wherever you point the front of the flashlight will illuminate whatever you're trying to see in the dark. Right? microphone is the same way, but it's not lighting anything up.

Speaker A [00:02:43]:

It's recording things. So wherever you point the front of your microphone is going to be where it records. And you can think of it the same way as, like, you know, when you point a flashlight in front of you, it'll illuminate the front of you the most and then less as you go out towards the sides. And a microphone is the same way. It records the best directly in front of the microphone, and then less as you get out towards the sides. So when you're positioning your mic, you wanna make sure it's pointed straight at your mouth. And you also wanna know where the front of your microphone is. because it's picking up audio and you can't see the microphone picking up audio, you need to make sure that you have the front of your microphone actually pointed towards you.

Speaker A [00:03:24]:

So most microphones are labeled, you know, where the front is, but some of them can be tricky like the blue yeti microphone. I have a diagram in this PDF that show you how to properly use it and how to not properly use it. And it may be a little confusing just visually looking at it. So So step number 1 is you wanna make sure that you find the front of your microphone and you point it directly at the front of your mouth and put it, you know, right in the center of your face as you're recording. Step number 2 is distance from the microphone. Now the way a microphone works is it picks up more of your voice the closer you are to it. So when you back away from your microphone, it's gonna pick up less of your voice and Any noise present is gonna be louder. So your voice won't be as strong over the noise as if you were closer to your microphone.

Speaker A [00:04:16]:

I usually recommend for a podcast recording to be somewhere between 2 4 inches from your microphone. Right now, I'm probably 2 inches from my microphone. Now, this may sound a little bit close, but, you know, the closer you are, the better with recording podcasts, really. And the only thing you wanna make sure is that you're not bumping into your microphone. As long as you're not bumping into your microphone and you're as close as possible, that's where you wanna be when recording a podcast. So use step number 1. We wanna position it right directly in front of our mouth, and then we wanna get between 2 4 inches from that microphone. Now, When you are disclosed to your microphone, you do wanna make sure that you're using a pop filter.

Speaker A [00:04:57]:

What is a pop filter? A pop filter is a mesh sort of filter that's placed between your mouth and the microphone. You've probably seen them if you've ever seen, like, a studio video or a pic from the studio or a music studio. They're usually, like, a circular sort of plastic thing that you hook onto your microphone stand, and you bend into place in between your mouth and your microphone. Now, they also have different types of pop filters that are called wind screens, which are those really thick foam pads that you kinda slide over your microphone, and they do the same thing as the more traditional pop filter. I do have both images inside this PDF you can see what I'm talking about. But you wanna make sure that you're using one of these. And the reason is because when you're speaking with words that have p's or t's, these hard consonants, you actually are sending rush of air out of your mouth. And if you're not using a pop filter, This can overload your microphone and cause like a harsh popping noise and actually clips your microphone.

Speaker A [00:05:59]:

So you wanna make sure that you have these filters in place so that this doesn't happen. So to recap step number 2, get the proper distance from your microphone 2 to 4 inches and make sure your pop filter is in place. Now we're getting to the final step. Step 3, you wanna set the levels of your microphone properly. So setting the level of your microphone means adjusting the level that it's recording at. So on all microphones, you should be able to adjust what's called a gain knob. And this is simply just adjusting how loud your microphone records at. So depending on what type of microphone you're using, if it's an XLR microphone or a USB microphone, That gain knob is gonna be in a different spot.

Speaker A [00:06:41]:

On a USB mic, the gain knob will be right on the microphone itself. There should be a knob like on the blue yeti. There's a knob on the mic Some cheaper USB microphones won't have the knob on there, and you'll just have to adjust that microphone inside of your recording program or on your computer. which isn't as ideal, but you do wanna make sure that we're setting this level properly. On an XLR mic, you will have an audio interface that has a gain knob. And I got some pictures on my PDF so you can see the knob that I'm talking about. But, basically, what we wanna do is we wanna set this level to not be too loud and to not be too quiet. Because if it's too quiet, you're gonna have to turn up that volume And, you know, this can possibly introduce noise into your recording, which you definitely wanna stay away from, to have a quality signing podcast.

Speaker A [00:07:31]:

And if you're too loud, then you'll get what's called clipping. And clipping is when your microphone is recording at too loud of a level and it basically maxes out and starts to cause distortion. And this sounds really bad, and we definitely wanna avoid it when recording a podcast. So how we're gonna determine how loud your microphone is recording at is when you have your microphone hooked up and plugged into your computer, We're gonna go into your audio recording program, whatever program you're using, and you're gonna look for your audio level meter. Now this will be the thing that's gonna be bouncing up and down, you know, similar to, like, on a stereo when you see those levels going up and down. You're gonna find that meter and you're gonna watch it as you speak into it. So right now, if I'm looking at my level meter, I can see it bouncing up and down, and it's not hitting the top of that meter, but it's not down at the bottom that meter either. When you start to clip, you will usually get a red light indicator telling you that you're too loud.

Speaker A [00:08:32]:

So as you're doing this test and sampling your audio, you wanna make sure that you're not hitting that clipping light and you're also not too low. I have some graphics in the PDF to show you what too loud looks like, what too quiet looks like, and what a good audio level looks like. But generally speaking, you wanna be about 3 quarters of the way up to the top of that level meter. So if you put these three steps together, you will have a good quality sounding podcast recording every time you go to record a podcast. And just to review those steps, step number 1 is you wanna position your microphone properly. In order to do that, you need to find the front of your microphone and then point it directly at the front and center of your mouth. Step number 2, you wanna make sure you get that distance between you and the microphone set properly. It's between 2 4 inches.

Speaker A [00:09:22]:

You wanna be nice and close to that microphone, but also make sure that you're using a pop filter, either the windscreen type or a more traditional type of pop filter that ups onto your mic stand. And step number 3, you wanna make sure that you're setting your level properly. You wanna find that audio level meter inside of your computer. you wanna make sure that you're adjusting that gain knob until you're about 3 4ths of the way up to the top of your audio meter, and definitely avoid clipping. So with these three steps and the use of the PDF guide that I have in the link in the description, you should be able to record a quality sounding podcast every time you record a podcast. And this is what I want for you. This is the whole point of this show and the whole point of all the content that I make because I'm passionate about audio and audio quality. I want you to have a podcast that sounds great.

Speaker A [00:10:11]:

You don't need to have really expensive gear to do this. If you follow these three steps, you will have a good sounding recording, and your podcasts are gonna come out great. So thank you for listening. Thank you for all your support. I appreciate you sticking with me and being here. all the way to episode 50. As I stated in the beginning, I will be taking a short break, maybe a couple weeks, maybe a month or so. And then I'm gonna come back and have some even better episodes for you all.

Speaker A [00:10:39]:

If you're a new listener and you just started listening to this podcast, I have 50 episodes for you to go back into the catalog and listen to those episodes. And, you know, If you haven't heard some of them, go listen to all of them. Each of them have a tip for you to grow and launch your podcast. Make sure you download how to record a professional sounding podcast, guide with the link in the description, and, you know, share this podcast with a friend. Thank you for listening. I will see you all soon. We've reached the end of the episode, and if you enjoyed this podcast or you got something from it, you might be interested in my weekly newsletter that I send out every Monday morning full of podcasting tips, tricks, and news. So if you like this show, you might like this newsletter.

Speaker A [00:11:26]:

To sign up, just go to the show notes and click the link. Thanks for listening and happy podcasting.