What's the Best Podcast Equipment to Buy? 5 Steps to Help You Get Started.
Podcasts have become hugely popular on a worldwide scale. There are over 850,000 active podcasts and over 30 million podcast episodes!!! That’s HUGE!!!
While the act of starting a podcast may seem easy, there are a several skills and techniques that will make your podcast stand out from the rest. Let's take a look at how you can start your successful podcast and Podcast Gear Melbourne
1. Learn the fundamentals of basic audio recording.
The first one is a biggie. Before getting stuck in, you'll need to learn some audio basics including signal flow, gain staging, how to use podcasting equipment, how to set it all up and how to use editing programs to cut your masterpiece together. If you search on youtube, you'll find there are a world of resources online where you can learn the basics.
2. Define the theme of your podcast. Name your podcast and create overviews.
Research what already exists. You'll need to choose what topic you'll cover in your podcast. To compete with the masses, create a consistent intro and outro that matches your brand, maybe some music and/or sound effects for sonic branding. The name you choose will be fairly important, not just because it's your name but it will let your listeners know what you're about.
Write an overview explaining what your show is about. The title should give an idea of what your show is all about, but your overview will tell a little bit more about what people can expect, for example: "Every week I will talk to one of the leading photographers in the industry to share their story" or "Every week I will give you a quick overview of what it takes to become a professional photographer".
3. Record your podcast.
Once you've figured out your topic and you have your basic audio knowledge downpat, it’s time to record your podcast (which I'll cover in my next few posts). If this is your first podcast, you don't really need anything fancy; you can even use your smartphone to record yourself if that’s all you have. To level up in quality, an audio recorder and mixer such as the Rodecaster Pro II is a high quality option, a microphone we hire and recommend for podcasts is the SM7b, a quiet space and a laptop is all you’ll need. Once you get serious, you can invest money in a full studio set up, but while you're starting it's best to test the waters without dropping big bucks. Alternatively, if you wanted to try out the idea, hiring podcast recording equipment is a cost effective way to get your ideas recorded.
4. Edit your podcast.
The next step is to edit what you've recorded. This step is cleaning up background noise, editing out sections you want removed, adding in your intro, outro, sound effects, music... and whatever else you'd like to add to make it yours. I use and love Logic Pro X as a die hard Mac nerd but for a free alternative available on all platforms, check out Audacity.
5. Release your podcast to the world.
Now all you need is listeners to find your podcast. Once it's all edited together, export your audio files as high quality MP3 or WAV files and upload them to the website or a podcast host of your choice to make them accessible to listeners. You can submit your podcasts to platforms such as Podbean or Beansprout who will host and distribute it to all the major players, such as Spotify and iTunes.
That's pretty much it!
If you feel like you're not ready to take that step to produce and edit your own podcast, you can outsource the work to an expert. A great podcast production company will assist you with all of the above, and supply files ready for upload.
Keep in mind, like any aspect of marketing, learning how to create a podcast is something you have to invest time and effort in to become good. Keep at it and remember it's all a learning process. If you have any questions, or want some advice feel free to get in contact with Mike for a chat.
While the act of starting a podcast may seem easy, there are a several skills and techniques that will make your podcast stand out from the rest. Let's take a look at how you can start your successful podcast and Podcast Gear Melbourne
1. Learn the fundamentals of basic audio recording.
The first one is a biggie. Before getting stuck in, you'll need to learn some audio basics including signal flow, gain staging, how to use podcasting equipment, how to set it all up and how to use editing programs to cut your masterpiece together. If you search on youtube, you'll find there are a world of resources online where you can learn the basics.
2. Define the theme of your podcast. Name your podcast and create overviews.
Research what already exists. You'll need to choose what topic you'll cover in your podcast. To compete with the masses, create a consistent intro and outro that matches your brand, maybe some music and/or sound effects for sonic branding. The name you choose will be fairly important, not just because it's your name but it will let your listeners know what you're about.
Write an overview explaining what your show is about. The title should give an idea of what your show is all about, but your overview will tell a little bit more about what people can expect, for example: "Every week I will talk to one of the leading photographers in the industry to share their story" or "Every week I will give you a quick overview of what it takes to become a professional photographer".
3. Record your podcast.
Once you've figured out your topic and you have your basic audio knowledge downpat, it’s time to record your podcast (which I'll cover in my next few posts). If this is your first podcast, you don't really need anything fancy; you can even use your smartphone to record yourself if that’s all you have. To level up in quality, an audio recorder and mixer such as the Rodecaster Pro II is a high quality option, a microphone we hire and recommend for podcasts is the SM7b, a quiet space and a laptop is all you’ll need. Once you get serious, you can invest money in a full studio set up, but while you're starting it's best to test the waters without dropping big bucks. Alternatively, if you wanted to try out the idea, hiring podcast recording equipment is a cost effective way to get your ideas recorded.
4. Edit your podcast.
The next step is to edit what you've recorded. This step is cleaning up background noise, editing out sections you want removed, adding in your intro, outro, sound effects, music... and whatever else you'd like to add to make it yours. I use and love Logic Pro X as a die hard Mac nerd but for a free alternative available on all platforms, check out Audacity.
5. Release your podcast to the world.
Now all you need is listeners to find your podcast. Once it's all edited together, export your audio files as high quality MP3 or WAV files and upload them to the website or a podcast host of your choice to make them accessible to listeners. You can submit your podcasts to platforms such as Podbean or Beansprout who will host and distribute it to all the major players, such as Spotify and iTunes.
That's pretty much it!
If you feel like you're not ready to take that step to produce and edit your own podcast, you can outsource the work to an expert. A great podcast production company will assist you with all of the above, and supply files ready for upload.
Keep in mind, like any aspect of marketing, learning how to create a podcast is something you have to invest time and effort in to become good. Keep at it and remember it's all a learning process. If you have any questions, or want some advice feel free to get in contact with Mike for a chat.
