Stuck recording your podcast at home? Here's some tips to impress your listeners.

In an ideal world everyone would record their podcast in a professional studio, but that's not always possible especially at the moment! Unfortunately if you record at home you’re often left with a poor recording that won’t impress your clients and colleagues. But with just a few of the nerdy additions I talk about below, you’ll have something that’ll impress your listeners.

Get The Room Right!

Record in the smallest room possible with the most amount of soft furnishings possible. Use sofas, cushions, pillows and if it’s not possible to use some sort of pro acoustic treatment, then hang some heavy blankets wherever you can...it might look silly but it’ll sound great. The softer the room the less sound will bounce off the walls and you won’t sound like you’re recording in the bathroom.

Talk Into The Mic

It might sound obvious but a lot of people very quickly forget they’re supposed to be talking into that grill. Your mouth should be 10-30cm from most mics for best results. Don’t rely on the host to check the sound, have someone listening whose sole job is to check everyone’s mics are working and they’re actually speaking into them!

Recording Remotely

If you're recording via Skype or another VOIP service, then each record your own end of the conversation and put it together later. You’ll avoid connection glitches and can easily adjust the levels of each person after recording. That way if someone's dog starts barking it doesn’t have to wipe out the rest of the conversation!

Music & Idents

Using the same music for the intro and outro of your podcast is a great idea for branding and giving your listener that familiar feeling. If you want to sound truly professional then create an ident using a pro voice-over along with your music. That way if you ever have an awkward pause or edit you can fire off the ident and move onto another topic leaving the listener with a smooth experience.

Make it sound cool, call a nerd!

However your podcast is recorded there will always be some ways to improve your recording so never be afraid to call a nerd!

Got some tips of your own? Let me know in the comments below.