Podcasting with Aaron By cover art

Podcasting with Aaron

By: Aaron Dowd
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  • Summary

  • If you're interested in learning about podcasting, this show is for you. My goal for this show is to share what I've learned about podcasting since 2008 and introduce you to other podcast producers, software and hardware tools, and various rad people working in the podcasting industry. Visit podcastingwithaaron.com or aarondowd.com to connect or learn more. Check out chartable.com to see what I've been working on recently. Thanks for listening. - Aaron
    Aaron Dowd
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Episodes
  • A 30 Minute Guide to Starting a Podcast

    A 30 Minute Guide to Starting a Podcast
    Nov 16 2023
    Hello friends! I need to republish an episode for work stuff, so I thought I'd share this one from 2021 again and say hello! Also I'd love to hear any questions you have about podcasts or podcasting, please visit this Google Form I set up and fill it out if you'd like to share your question(s)! Hope you've been well! Aaron Dowd, Fort Worth Texas November 16, 2023 --- My goal for this episode is to give you a big picture roadmap for how to start a podcast. You give me 30 minutes of your time, I'll tell you everything I know about starting a podcast. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide that covers everything you’ll need to know (that would take awhile longer and I'd like to keep this pretty short), but my hope is that it gives you enough information to help you start making progress on starting your own podcast. If you’re listening to this in a podcast app, I’d recommend pausing it and switching over to my YouTube video. I’ll be showing some screenshots and other visual aids that I think you’ll find helpful. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/4zfglqqHHtA Connect: Website: https://www.aarondowd.com/ Threads: https://threads.com/aarondowdtx Send me your podcasting questions: https://forms.gle/mGtoq9dQZjBrJNKt9 Aaron Dowd Granbury, Texas December 20, 2020 (Last updated November 16, 2023)
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    33 mins
  • 94: How to Get Good Sound for Your Podcast Part 6: Talk To Your Guests and Co-Hosts

    94: How to Get Good Sound for Your Podcast Part 6: Talk To Your Guests and Co-Hosts
    Sep 29 2022
    94: How to Get Good Sound for Your Podcast, Part 6: Talk Through Audio Gear with Your Guests and Co-Hosts Before You Start Recording Good sound quality isn't the only thing you need to be successful in podcasting, but bad audio quality will cost you listeners. It only takes a few minutes to talk to your guest or co-hosts about their recording setup, but it can help you identify and prevent potential audio issues. The good news is that you don't have to spend a lot of money or have an expensive studio to record quality audio. You just need to know a few things about recording audio, and follow the tips and the recording checklist I'm sharing in this episode. This is part 6 of a 7 part series about how to make sure your podcast sounds good. You can listen to the other episodes at podcastingwithaaron.com, or watch the video on Youtube here. Today's podcasting tips: 1. Talk to your guests and/or co-hosts about their audio recording setup before you start recording It only takes a few minutes to talk to your guest or co-hosts about their recording setup, but it can help you identify potential audio issues and prevent them. I'd recommend doing this a week or at least a couple days before the recording. For example, maybe your guest didn't know that they need to wear headphones or use some kind of microphone. 2. Be prepared to provide gear recommendations Not everyone knows what kind of gear they need to sound good on a podcast, so keep a list of affordable recommendations handy! I have my podcast gear recommendations listed on the kit.co website, so I can share it with anyone who asks. (Pretty much anything is better than a built-in computer microphone.) 3. Podcasting with a co-host? Make sure you're on the same page about gear and audio quality If you're starting a podcast with a co-host, talk to them about investing in a good recording setup. If you're recording from different locations, you'll both need a microphone and headphones. If you're recording in the same room, buy an audio interface and a couple of microphones as well as headphones. It's always a good idea to record a couple practice episodes to make sure you can dial in your settings and record audio that sounds good. You want your first episode to sound good! 4. Podcast Recording Checklist for Guests or Co-Hosts Wear headphones or earbuds while recording. Double check that the correct audio input device is selected in your recording software. If possible, find a quiet room to record in. Turn off fans, AC units, heaters,or anything else that creates noise in your room. Disable system notifications and/or set your phone to silent (Airplane Mode works best). Put any pets in a place where they won't make noise or disturb you while you're recording. Quit or pause Dropbox, Google Drive, Backblaze, or any other file syncing or bandwidth-heavy tasks before the call. Recap: Talk to your guest or co-host about their recording setup in advance. Give them recommendations: Record in a quiet room, use a microphone, wear headphones, set cell phone to airplane mode. If you're starting a podcast with a co-host, ask them to invest in a microphone and record a couple practice episodes to make sure you can record audio that sounds good. Follow the podcast recording checklist and sharing it with your guests and co-hosts. Talk to your guests and co-hosts about audio quality! You don't have to make a huge deal about it, but it does make a difference in the success of your show. That's all for this week's episode. Next week will be the final topic in this series, I'll be talking about learning the basics of audio editing, mixing and mastering. Thanks for listening If you have any feedback or questions, visit my website at podcastingwithaaron.com. I've got links to the social media accounts and my email address there. I'm back on Twitter and Instagram as aarondowdtx, so you can follow me there and ask questions if you'd like. Connect with me here: website: podcastingwithaaron.com twitter instagram linkedin music: kolton moore & the clever few music: the band laredo Ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify are always appreciated as well. Till next time, happy podcasting. Aaron Dowd September 28, 2022
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    12 mins
  • 93: Good Sound Part 5: On Recording Remotely

    93: Good Sound Part 5: On Recording Remotely
    Feb 27 2021
    If you only need to record your own voice, or maybe a couple people in the same room, you won't have a hard time ending up with a podcast that sounds good. However, if you want to record interviews or episodes with guests or co-hosts that are in different locations, getting good sound becomes harder. You won't have any control over which microphones the other people are using, if they use good mic technique, if they know how to set input gain levels correctly, what kind of room or location they're recording in, and so on. It's always a good idea to have a conversation about someone's recording setup before you sit down for an interview or start a new podcast with a friend who lives in a different place, and that's something I'll be talking more about in the next episode. But the the software you use to record the interview or conversation is going to play a big role in whether or not you end up with audio that sounds good. You have three options for recording audio for a podcast: 1. Talk with your guests or co-hosts using a chat app like Zoom or Skype, and have everyone record audio locally on their computer or phone, then put the audio files together afterwards for editing. This is easy enough for shows with the same co-hosts every time, but not always an option if you're doing interviews with new people every week. Your guests might not be willing or able to record an audio file to a computer or phone. 2. Use the recording functionality from a chat app like Zoom or Anchor, where you end up with a single audio file that has everyone's voice in it. This is easy, but often causes issues with sound quality (more on that in a moment). This was very common in years past because there weren't any good apps that made it easy to talk to and record multiple people at the same time and get an individual audio track for each person. 3. Use an app specifically made for podcast recording, like Squadcast or Zencastr. This is the best option for most people in my opinion, as these apps allow you to talk to multiple people and will also record an audio file for each person on the call that you can put together and work on in your audio editing software later. The pros and cons of recording everyone to a single track Pros: It can be simpler, easier Less friction or work for your guest(s) Editing is less complicated (this isn't always a good thing, though) Cons: Less control over editing and mixing You can't adjust the volume levels for each speaker without doing lots of editing to move them to their own tracks The pros and cons of recording a track for every person Pros: Far more control and flexability You can edit out more You can adjust any person's gain level (how loud they are) You can do unique audio processing on each track if you need to Cons: It's a little more time consuming and complicated to edit three audio tracks at the same time instead of one If you do want to do processing for each voice, you'll need to know about EQ, compression, noise removal, and limiting (although I'd recommend learning about those things anyways if you're going to be editing your podcast) Good software costs money ($20/month for Squadcast, plus whatever software you use for multi-track audio editing, Logic Pro or Audition) So which should you choose? I believe Squadcast is currently the best and easiest way to record conversations remotely. It's not free, but it's worth the cost. If you disagree or if you have a different solution you like (there are many remote chat and recording options, like Zencastr, Cleanfeed, Zoom Pro, and so on), leave a comment on the YouTube video and let the other listeners know, or send me an email, aaron@thepodcastdude.com. Thanks for watching or listening, be sure to subscribe if you'd like to get future episodes as I publish them. If you're finding this show useful, please tell a friend about it or leave me a rating and review in Apple Podcasts. You can find more at podcastingwithaaron.com. Next time I'll be talking about what you should discuss with your guests and co-hosts before you start recording. Till then, be well and happy podcasting. Aaron
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    13 mins
Art Education
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