Episode Summary
Recording the first episode of your podcast is exciting and can be a game changer for you and your company. But many things, usually related to tech, can go wrong. In this episode of Recorded Content, our host Justin Brown shares ten steps for testing your remote podcast recording software and equipment.
Guest Profile
Name: Justin Brown
What he does: He’s the co-founder of Motion
Company: Motion
Noteworthy: Justin is also the co-host of the Recorded Content podcast
Key Insights
- Recording a podcast is more than hitting the record button, especially when the host and the guest are not in the same room. Instead, they may be recording online from different continents and time zones. However, despite the convenience of the digital space, recording video and audio over the internet is complex. There are different cameras, mics, operating systems, computers, and internet speeds. Therefore, it is advisable for creators entering the podcast space to organize a test session prior to recording the first episode.
- Use the same equipment. For the test session, use the same equipment as you will with your guest. You’re gonna want to use the same podcast equipment, microphone, headphones, et cetera, that you’ll use during your recording with a live guest. It is the only way to mitigate or avoid tech-related issues during the recording and ensure everything runs appropriately.
- Choose your recording environment and stick to it. That includes everything from the devices you plan to use to a secure internet connection and your physical surroundings. You don’t want a window behind you that can create shadowing and make you look bad. Find a quiet spot in your home or office environment, hopefully one that is not going to be disturbed.
Episode Highlights
1. Identify all the participants for the test scenario
If you’re the host, confirm that you’re the host. For the guest, confirm a guest. Get a friend or colleague to join, someone who’s going to jump in and be a simulated guest for this setup.
2. Create a session and a unique link for participants
Whether you’re using Zoom, Riverside, SquadCast, don’t just jump in and say, “All right, here’s access to my general Riverside.” Instead, create that session, create the link, a unique room, and run this like an actual recording you would do with a guest.
3. Invite your participants to the session and share material
Send the link you created for that room to the participants and have them join as they would in a real session. In addition, provide any supplemental materials, like guest guidelines, that you would provide to guests.
4. Prepare your environment
Put your phone on silent, turn off computer notifications, Slack, what have you, and close out all apps you can. And that leads me to my next point: before any recording, you’re going to want to restart your computer. You never know what your computer’s going to be picking up from an audio or video perspective.
5. Start the recording session and check your equipment in the green room
Whether it is Zoom and you’re running a test, whether Riverside or SquadCast, you’re going to want to check your mic levels, check your mic technique and make sure that it’s aimed the right way and stay at a comfortable range from that microphone. You’re also going to want to check your camera frame. Are you clear? Is the camera positioned close to your eye level? And do you look good?
6. Check the equipment and environment of other participants
Once you jump in, start asking them some questions. Make sure that you can hear them well. How are their mic levels? Do you have an echo when you speak and do they hear an echo when they speak? If they do, you may have to adjust. Also, check how your guests are positioned within their camera frame.
7. Simulate a real recording session and have a dialogue with the participants
You don’t wanna jump in, hit Record and say, “All right, looks like this works.” It may fail after 60 seconds. So run this as a session, spend 10 minutes, 15 minutes there. Hit the record button and use it as some practice time to do your intro, your lead-in. One of the things I’ve told people is if you have a 15- to 30-minute meeting with a colleague, do it over Riverside or whatever your recording platform and use that as your test.
8. Conclude the session
Stop recording and ensure that all files have been uploaded, whether Riverside, SquadCast, or Zoom. You’re going to check and make sure that everything worked appropriately and then you’re going to exit your session.
9. Download the files and review them
Check out your and your guest’s videos and see if everything worked well. Do you sound good? Do you look good? How did the guest sound? How did the guest look? And then pinpoint any adjustments that you wanna make.
10. Run a second test
You’re going to wanna go back through all of this again. Now, do you have to? No, you don’t have to listen to anything I’ve said today. You can go into your first recording session, a live one, and hit Record. But what I’m trying to do again is to set you up for success as much as I can.
