Podcasting is seeing a boom right now, and more persons are starting to create their own shows, but with all the excitement people rush into doing it and end up compromising the quality of their show, as a result of faulty editing techniques. This makes the experience less than ideal for the listener. Here are 3 mistakes freshman podcasters make when editing.
#1 The volume of the interview and music bed does not match
This is the first noticeable and common mistake. You start listening to a show, loving the intro music then the introduction comes in and you realize the volume to be way quieter than the music. Sometimes the difference in volume is so great it makes it hard to listen to the show without turning up the volume of your device.
A quick fix for this is turning down the volume of the mic to match the interview. This is easy to do, just turn down the volume knob in your editor for the music track. Use your ears to match the volume. you know if it’s good enough is when the volume of the music and the interview does not drown each other out. Also, when the fade comes in it does not hide the words of your introduction.
#2 The interview is too quiet.
The other mistake noticed is that the actual interview is too quiet. I was listening to a podcast once and when the episode started I had to turn up the volume in my car to its maximum to hear what the person was saying. The information was good, it’s just that I had to strain my ears to listen.
A quick fix for that is using the amp tool in your editor to increase the volume of your podcast episode. You can also use a compressor or a limiter to achieve the same result. This will help you to make the volume of the podcast consistent.
#3 leaving dead space inside the interview
The last mistake I notice is persons leaving dead space inside the interview. An example of this is the guest might be explaining something then pause for a bit before finishing a thought. Some podcasters leave that in not knowing it can be taken out. You will be listening to the show and perhaps think it has ended, not knowing there’s dead space in the audio.
To correct this problem you can just highlight the space in your editor and press the delete key. This will get rid of the empty space. While you are doing that, go through the interview and clean up space and make the conversation tighter.
You can also use this time to take out any “umms” and “ahhs” that you or the guest makes while talking. This will clean up the interview quite nicely and increase the quality of the show.
Conclusion
Fixing these 3 mistakes will increase the overall quality of your podcast. It will also improve the experience of your listeners.