So You Wanna Make a Podcast!
Hey guys, Producer Natalie here. Kyle and I have recently had some people message us asking for advice on how to start a podcast of their own, so I thought I would put together our approach, or at least what works for us and This Is Rad!
Our qualifications: Kyle is a podcast producer for multiple podcasts on the Nerdist network, and I've been producing This Is Rad! since its second episode. (UPDATE: I now also produce podcasts for Nerdist.) This is a layman's guide to producing a podcast that is professional sounding without breaking the bank and one that can be made relatively efficiently without driving you to madness.
So you’ve got a great idea for a podcast and a trustworthy cohost or a couple of friends who want to join your crusade. Then you're ready to start! But first: Take a beat and think about the requirements of a podcast and if it’s something you will realistically have time to do. To build a following, a podcast needs to be consistent (even if it’s recorded and released in “seasons”). Is this a “live interview” type show like most podcasts? Or is this going to be a show with a lot of segments/editing/music/sound effects? Is it scripted? If so, then be prepared to multiply your time commitment and energies twenty-fold.
By the time everything is said and done with TIR, I probably spend around 5-10 hours per episode per week producing the show. Let's say that’s an average of two hours of actual podcast recording time followed by two hours of editing, writing the episode description, exporting and and uploading. Another hour if you count admin stuff like booking guests or working with sponsors and another hour’s worth of social media engagement and promotion. In general, the more post-production editing involved, the longer the episode will take.
Do you have a co-host or producer? Great! Podcasting is way more fun when you've got someone who can help you out and pull some of the weight. It’s even better if you two have complementary skill sets, like one of you is good at tech stuff while the other is good at promotion and social media. Having a podcast producer isn’t totally necessary but it definitely helps a ton. My other podcast, Scriptease, which I produce and host on my own, involves a lot more post-production editing and takes a ton of time and energy to create. It’s rewarding to make, but it’s also a lot of alone time spent recording and listening to my own voice. TIR is more collaborative and therefore more fun to work on.
If all of this sounds good to you, then move on to step two!
You're going to have to spend some money. Podcasts are free, but making them is not. The good news is that you don't need a TON of money to make it sound good, but you ARE going to have to invest in some equipment unless you can borrow it. (Making a podcast is neither easy nor cheap despite what people say. Yes, compared to shooting a sketch or film, it's definitely easier/cheaper, but it's not a cake walk either.) If you’re completely broke or unsure if podcasting is for you, there’s no harm in recording a few episodes on your phone or on a cheap Snowball mic until you save up for better equipment. Ultimately, a shittier sounding show with more engaging content will always be better than a slicker sounding show that’s boring, at least in my opinion.
There are a ton of different ways you can go with sound gear. First question: Do you have access to a studio? TIR is fortunate in that we do. Having a studio is definitely an advantage and will provide optimum sound quality, but you absolutely don't need one to make a good podcast.
If you don’t have studio access, my personal recommendation is buying (or borrowing) a Zoom H6, which is a recording device that records your audio and saves it to an SD card as a .wav file. You will also need a mic and cable for every person talking (usually 2-4, although the H6 can accommodate as many as 6 mics). Since the H6 has a built-in sound mixer, you can control the levels (how loud everyone is) directly from there. This is the set up we use to record our field location episodes, such as our Summer of Rad series.
Kyle: “The two mics I swear by: 1) Shure SM58. A standard vocal mic, you see horribly beat up versions of these at stand up shows. If you really want to live it up, you can upgrade to a Beta SM58, which is a slightly nicer version. 2) Blue enCore 100. I fucking love these mics. They sound great. They make less noise. A little more expensive but worth every penny.”
Mics, cables and a recorder are the bare minimum of what you’ll need, but here are some quick and easy tips to make your podcast sound WAY better than the bare minimum:
- You really want to spring on some noiseless cables and mics. Yes, they are more expensive, but otherwise you are going to end up with a lot of mic handling noise which sounds terrible and is NOT fun to edit out. We use Blue’s noiseless cables, which don’t eliminate the mic noise entirely but definitely cut down on it a ton.
- Kyle: “ Foam microphone covers. They look silly but holy fuck they make a huge difference. They help stop mouth noise which is a horrible thing no one wants and everyone does subconsciously. They also muffle general room noise.”
- If your guests are fidgety, then it's worth it to buy tabletop mic stands. They're about $10 a pop but definitely cut down on the mic handling noise that results from holding it by hand.
Kyle: “You can get table top mic stands for cheap. They make a huge difference. Even the most seasoned comic shakes and moves a mic like an animal when they are on a podcast. Not 100% needed but I swear it makes a big difference.”
- Be sure to color code or number your cables to easily keep track of who is talking into what mic for live mixing. (I recommend colored tape, not Sharpie as I used, which continues to melt off off on people's hands as we record.)
The H6 setup might be overwhelming at first (and really, you just have to accept that cables are going to get tangled) but it packs up small and produces great sounding results, especially if you are traveling to different locations each week to record.
Ok, so that's my personal sound gear recommendation. However, I would say the more common setup is a Zoom H4N (a step down from the H6 in that it doesn't have a built-in mixer) and a separate mixer. To me, this seems like an extra step, but I also get the advantage. It's easier to adjust levels on a mixer than the little knobs on the H6. (You will also more likely need an H4N if you are recording in a studio.) Another advantage is that having a mixer means all the audio tracks kick down to ONE .wav file, making it easier to deal with in editing. The H6 creates individual .wav files for each audio input channel, meaning it takes up a lot more space (up to six 2GB files as opposed to one), which can add up. (I just filled up a 500GB drive with just TIR stuff.) If you like to have a lot of control in editing, then this is a huge bonus. It’s also much easier to edit out unwanted noise, but the editing process in general can get cumbersome with so many tracks.
To sum it up, here’s Kyle: “There are two basic set ups that are industry standard: 1) The Zoom H6, which is more expensive but is an AMAZING audio recorder that is a recorder and mixer all in one. 2) The Zoom H4N recorder and a mixer is a more common set up and it works great. It’s a little easier to figure out but it does take more setting up.”
For the absolute most barebones recording approach, which we’ve used when the studio has been booked out (see our Wrestling episode), you can set the H4N to “Mic” mode, set it in front of you, preferably on a little stand, and have you and your guests talk into the direction of the mic. Individual microphones are always going to sound better, but this can work in a pinch.
At this point, if you don’t have one, you also might want to consider hiring or bribing a sound tech/producer. It's definitely not impossible to mix live as you host your own show, but it is definitely more challenging and can be distracting to your performance. Which reminds me, you'll need at last one pair of studio quality headphones to monitor audio levels. I recommend Tascams, even though they are aggressively too big for my head and the cord is super long.
Kyle: “I also recommend getting an extension cord and power squid (a cool version of a power strip where each outlet is a freestanding cord) because there is never enough power nearby.”
It goes without saying, but they’re your guests, so be respectful even if they’re just your scumbag friends. Make sure you have waters to give them. Respect their time, especially if they have a hard out time. As far as scheduling your recording sessions goes, I’ve found that it's much better to stick to a consistent record schedule each week (for us it's Mondays at 8pm), and if the guest can't do it that week, then reschedule for the next and move on to your next guest. The more you try to work around and adjust everyone’s schedules to “make it work,” the more likely the person will end up flaking or dropping out, at least in my anecdotal experience. Make them come to you unless they are a “get,” and in that case, then you are kind of beholden to them. For your first few episodes, it’s wise to reach out to your friends and people who have podcast experience or experience talking on mic. Newbies can sometimes get nervous and freeze up on mic, which can just add to the anxious energy if you yourself don’t have a ton of podcast experience yet either. Also, practicing on your friends means you don’t burn a "get” guest early on before you’ve gotten proper podcasting experience.
Reminder: Before you do anything else, make sure your SD card has enough space on it to record the entire episode! You’re going to be so pissed if you don’t do this!
Your general goal with recording is to keep the levels hovering around -12 dB. Getting into the yellows at PEAK volume (yelling) is ok but if you're consistently hitting the yellows or reds, it's too loud and will clip. Low or quieter voices like mine need a bump up, while Kyle and Burnside are the loudest people on earth so I typically have to lower their levels a lot. Tell your guests not to be shy and get up on the mic. When you yell, laugh loudly or make an otherwise obnoxious noise, pull away from the mic so you don’t blast out people’s ear drums. You also might want to compress your audio. I don’t really know what this means but a lot of sound people recommend it.
The best kinds of podcasts to listen to are by people who seem like friends in real life and have a good chemistry and rapport. A listener should feel like they’re a fly on the wall in a fun conversation. Therefore, I highly recommend that you don't just immediately put out the first thing you record. Record a couple test episodes first. You're going to fuck up. It takes time to figure out your chemistry, show structure and get used to the gear. Talking to a guest is a weird experience you'll want to get more familiar with before unleashing it into the world. “But hey, Natalie, if no one’s going to listen to it, then what’s the point? That seems like a total waste of time.” Sure, but what do you really have to lose? If your test episode turns out great, then great! Put it up. But if it doesn't, then aren't you glad you took the extra time to make something better? You can always release it as a “lost episode” later down the line too.
Another benefit to having a sound tech or producer is that he or she can monitor your running time. I have time-coded index cards so that when we hit the 45-minute mark (which started when we thought the show was only going to be an hour), I will flash a “:45″ card to Kyle and Burnside. Then I will usually show them the time cards in 5 or 10 minute increments as we go on until the end so they’re aware of the time, occasionally putting down a “Wrap It Up!” card if things are dragging. Once again, you can monitor the time yourself, but it’s always easier to have someone paying attention to that stuff so you can focus solely on your performance. It’s even more helpful if that person can take notes during the episode so you have info to put in the episode description.
UPDATE: I’m not sure what changed in the new Garageband update, but I suddenly found that exporting episodes as mp3 straight from Garageband wasn’t producing the best-sounding podcast anymore. As a result, I’ve now changed the way I edit and export episodes. Here’s what I do: 1) Run all my .wav files through Levelator. 2) Drag those output files into the workspace and assemble the episode. 3) Go to Share > Song to iTunes, select “Highest Quality” and export. 4) Now click on that file in iTunes and convert it to mp3. 5) Drag it from iTunes into whatever folder you keep all your final podcast episodes in. This approach will result in a slightly bigger file, but in my opinion, it sounds way better than just exporting it straight from Garageband. Kyle, on the other hand, continues to use his approach as written below. So, once again, just do whatever sounds best to you.
I use Garageband. There's a lot I don't like about it, as it's not particularly conducive to podcast editing – odd, considering most podcasts are edited in Garageband. Audacity can work too, especially if you have a PC, and it does things Garageband can’t do, but I don't particularly like its interface.
Open a new Garageband file with nothing in it. Drag in your individual .wav files from your recording from your SD card into the workspace and assemble your episode. There are a ton of Garageband tutorials out there on how to do this. Also: Make sure to label your audio files. Don’t just have a recorder full of blank MONO-000 files because it will make you go insane when you’re putting the episode together later.
Kyle: “Adding a catchy theme song makes you look more professional. Nothing long, just something to get folks hyped.”
Quick sidebar on audio files: .wav and .aiff files are uncompressed audio files, meaning they sound the best but take up the most space. An mp3 is a “lossy” format, which means it compresses the file. An mp3 doesn’t sound as good, but it takes up less space (for graphics people, it’s kind of like the difference between a .jpeg and a .png). You will need to compress your podcasts to mp3, otherwise you will end up spending an arm and a leg on hosting fees. Luckily, converting it to mp3 (which you should do last) doesn’t make a huge discernible sound quality difference.
Once your episode is edited and ready to export, you have some options:
1) You can export your assembled episode straight to mp3 (if the file is short enough) and be done with it. [Share > Export Song to Disk]
2) Recommended: You can export the episode as an .aiff file and then drag the file into Levelator. Listen to me. USE LEVELATOR. It's a free program and it will dramatically smooth out your sound quality. It amazingly balances out the audio in your episode so you don't get crazy jags of highs and lows. It's not perfect, but there's nothing else out there really like it. If you are doing a weekly show and don't have time to mix the entire episode manually (and quite frankly, who does?) just use Levelator. It is quite frankly a magical program. If you take anything from this guide, take that. But don’t just take my word for it, here’s Kyle: “It’s the best thing ever and it will save you hundreds of hours of trying to mix shit. Don't be a fuck boy. Download Levelator and save yourself a TON of headache.”
After your file’s been Levelated, drag it into iTunes and convert it to mp3 [File > Convert > Create MP3 version]. (Libsyn, a popular hosting service, has good info on how to set up your preferences for mp3 conversion.) This is the way I like to export episodes. I will say if your show has a ton of music in it, then I would recommend the next method because Levelator will sometimes remove the music fades in the process.
3) Kyle prefers running the raw .wav files through Levelator FIRST and then dragging the converted files into Garageband for editing and exporting as mp3. I recommend trying both approaches and see which works and sounds best for your show.
Now that your podcast is edited and ready to go, you have to host it somewhere so people can download and listen to it. Libsyn is super easy to use and reliable. If you plan to put out a podcast that's about an hour to an hour and a half in length each week, expect to pay a hosting fee of about $20 a month. The longer your episodes (and larger your files), the higher your hosting fee is. If you have no money, you can upload your episodes to Bandcamp or SoundCloud, but I don't think people can download them to iTunes that way, which will limit your amount of listeners. (I could be wrong here though.)
Kyle: “Use Libsyn. Its $20 a month and they are the best. They are industry standard. Nerdist, WTF, Rogan they all use Libsyn. It is super easy, very user friendly, and they make it easy to track your stats. Don't dick around with other services. Just do it. “
Do you know an artist? Now is the time to call in a favor or (better yet) pay the person to make you a cool logo that will look good on a phone. This is harder than you think. It needs to be something eye-catching that gets the name of the show as well as the tone across. Simple is usually better. Look at podcast logos you like and don’t like to get some inspiration. It needs to be square, but you can find the specific size requirements on iTunes.
Kyle: “Get a cool ass logo that fits the square that podcasts icons have on iTunes. I have listened to many a podcast cause they had a cool logo. I swear it makes a difference. You can look up online what the exact size specifications are.”
9. Social Media and Promotion
I hate social media and I'm bad at it, but it is something you obviously have to deal with to get your podcast out there into the world. At the very least, start a Facebook page and Twitter for your show. I think having a website is super helpful as well, even if it’s just a modified Tumblr, but it’s not necessary.
Kyle: “Start a Twitter to go along with the podcast. As you get listeners, it’s the easier way to get feedback and for them to communicate with you.”
At the end of recording each episode, always remember to take a picture of the group/guest to promote the episode. Nothing is worse than getting ready to post your episode only to realize you don't have a graphic to promote it. (Unless you are making a new graphic each time by hand.) I’ve found that people don’t really like looking at direct links to your episode on Facebook. I would recommend posting the group picture and putting the bit.ly or TinyURL to your episode’s direct download link in the copy.
Kyle: “Take a photo with every guest. You'll need images for episode posts on social media and it’s the easiest way to create a sustainable set of new images.”
Yeah, yeah, this is all well and good, but how do we make money? Here's my advice: spend two years and over 100 episodes making a really good podcast for free so people will finally take notice and then reach out to you to sponsor your show. It took us two years to “break even” which we did through individual PayPal donations before sponsors reached out to us, and even now we still basically break even. (We don’t “cash out”; all profits go back into the podcast whether for printing up advertising like postcards or into eventually getting merch off the ground). When you get a sponsor inquiry, they're going to want to know how many listeners you have (downloads per episode, which you can find on Libsyn easily). The more listeners you have, the more money you can charge for an ad read, which is usually a pre-roll (an ad read in the first five minutes of the episode) or a full read, which is a recurring ad or sponsor that carries on throughout the episode. Or at least, that’s how we do it. We charge more for a full read than a pre-roll.
When you’re just starting out, it’s good to set up a website with a PayPal donation button so people can donate. We haven’t fucked with Patreon yet, but that’s also another option. However, it seems like you definitely have to build a following first and provide incentives, which can be a lot of work right off the bat. I guess Kickstarter is also an option, if you’re into that sort of thing (we aren’t).
All right, I think that’s all my advice for now. I’ll close out with some final thoughts from Kyle:
“BE CONSISTENT!!!!!! Pick a release day and stick to the schedule as hard as you can. There are a ton of podcasts that never post and people stop listening to them. If someone is going to take time to listen to them, give them the respect of consistently providing them with something. They'll appreciate it and it’s the best way to grow an audience.
BE PATIENT. Nothing good happens over night. At first it will seem like you are talking to no one. That's okay, because your podcast will suck early on (like stand up). If you stay consistent and have an interesting concept, it will build slowly. Don't get frustrated and don't take your early adopters for granted, they can become some of your greatest allies.
And now you have all our secrets. Unless you count the tip of ‘trick your girlfriend into doing a podcast.’ That is my ultimate tip.”
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