During my honeymoon, I had several episodes of the Ramen Noodle and The Audacity to Podcast automatically post. How can you prerecord and schedule your episodes to magically post while you are away? I share some tips for workflow, Audacity, and WordPress.
This week's Audacity tip is the power of the pause button.
Feedback
Brian from Small Biz Kaizen shares some constructive critical feedback and raises points that I neglected to mention when I spoke on the need for verbal organization in episode 15.
Scott shares a success from advice I gave in episode 12 about getting an analog-to-digital converter for reducing digital interference noise. Scott bought a Syba SD-CM-UAUD USB Stereo Audio Adapter for $10 shipped (now $14 + shipping) and it worked perfectly.
Tips for prerecording podcast episodes
- Be organized and plan ahead.
- Consider bringing guests onto the show to provide content.
- When you're in “the zone” could be the best time to prerecord.
- Name your episodes and write your shownotes immediately after recording.
- Try to have your shownotes written ahead of time.
- Keep it simple! The less editing you perform, the quicker you can prerecord your episodes. Consider even allowing a few more “glitches” than you might normally allow.
- Don't feel like you have to release episodes while you're gone, unless you have contractual obligations. Sometimes a break is nice, and it ensures your listeners won't fall behind (especially around holidays). In fact, iTunes will pause (not unsubscribe) your listeners' subscriptions if they fall behind.
iTunes pauses unlistened subscriptions, not unsubscribes them
- Schedule your post in WordPress to automatically post while you're away.
Schedule a podcast to post for you
Audacity tip: pause while recording
Don't forget the power of the pause button! Use it wisely, and you may not need any postproduction! The keyboard shortcut on Windows and OS X is P (for pause).
Need personalized podcasting help?
I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.
Ask your questions or share your feedback
- Comment on the shownotes
- Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
- Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)
Connect with me
- Subscribe to The Audacity to Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Android.
- Join the Facebook Page and watch live podcasting Q&A on Mondays at 2pm (ET)
- Subscribe on YouTube for video reviews, Q&A, and more
- Follow @theDanielJLewis
Disclosure
This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
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Thank you for the suggestion to check out the Grammer Girl podcast. Traditionally I’ve gone through a routine of:
Establishing a verbal crutch
Realizing I’m using a crutch
Hating that crutch
Trying to get rid of it
Succeeding
Establishing a new verbal crutch
“And” “y’know” “like” “but” are some common crutches.
Great tips on pre-recording episodes!
I’ve fallen back into some of my verbal crutches. 🙁
It is very difficult to break that habit. I’ve come to realize that I may never be perfect. But, the important thing is that I strive for improvement.
Daniel, you say in one of your episodes that our listeners are listening because they like us. They don’t want us to be anyone different and we should always be ourselves. So, if we use a verbal crutch now and again I think that the listeners will understand.
This is where I disagree with many people. Saying “um” every few words isn’t a personality, it’s a distraction. I’ve unsubscribed from podcasts that had good content, but far too many ums to be listenable.
It seems most verbal crutches are the result of distraction, lack of planning, or uncertainty. These are areas where skills can be developed without compromising personality.
For example, “I’m Daniel J. Lewis, I’m a, uh, web designer and, um, a, you know, great-looking guy.” The personality in that is actually being over-powered by the distracting crutches.
Now consider, “I’m Daniel J. Lewis, I’m a web design and a great-looking guy.” The personality is still there, but the unnecessary crutches are removed. Now you actually hear my personality more!
Personally, I find myself falling to crutches when I let myself get distracted while speaking (something happened, I lose my place, I’m trying to read or write something else, etc.), I speak to quickly for my brain at that moment, or I’m not as confident as I should be.
There is definitely a line in the sand. Perhaps it varies from person to person?
My preference is to minimize those crutches. It truly does sound better to say “I’m Daniel J. Lewis, I’m a web designer and a great-looking guy.” Too many of those crutches are dastardly.
If one or two happened to come out every few minutes, say every 5 or 10 to extend the definition of “few”, then that is tolerable to me. At least, for a hobbyist podcaster. I’d expect better from someone like Leo Laporte or a professional on the radio.
Today I was surprised that a major radio broadcasters in Boston said “y’know” “uhh” “umm” “ahh” and “err” no less than 18 times in under 2 minutes. Yes, I counted…it really surprised me. Maybe that’s his quota for the month?
Using tools that help me outline my discussion topics is helpful. Even with them I manage to get caught up in the heat of the moment at times, speak at a faster pace, and fall victim to the dreaded “uhh.”
I look back at recordings from when I began in 2006 and I cringe. They’re dreadful. Yet, people gave me a shot and some of them are still here listening to me. Some encouragement from the listeners and an inner desire to improve has helped me to get better.
I think my main failing is not so much the verbal crutch but breathing. I’m asthmatic and my breathing is inevitably picked up by the microphone. Haven’t found a sure-fire way to conquer that just yet. Some tricks like speaking slower, moving the mic a little further away than the 3-5 inches, angling it a little more on the side of my face, and some deep breathes before starting have helped.
I think that’s a good line.
How close are you to the mic? Have you tried running any gating/compression that will decrease the volume of your breathing? You wouldn’t want to completely remove it, just reduce it.
I try to be a hands breath away. My guess would be 3-5 inches away from the mic. The mic is on a mic stand that sits to my left. It is angled horizontal with the mic sitting just to my left. Slightly diagonal from my mouth so that I talk straight across, hopefully causing my breath to go past and not into, the mic.
I record directly into Audacity using my Blue Snowball mic. When I finish recording I:
1) Equalize the recording with EMI 78
2) Run your secret sauce using the following settings
Compress ratio: .85
Compression hardness: .5
Floor: -32
Noise gate falloff: 2
Maximum amplitude: .95
That’s all I do other than deleting long pauses (the truncate silence tool doesn’t work how I expected so I need to put more time in to figuring it out).
I’ve tried raising the noise gate falloff to 4 and it makes a small difference. Not sure how much higher I want to go without removing too much noise.
When I speak outside of recording I never hear or notice the sound of my breathing. That microphone must be very sensitive or maybe I breath louder when I’m recording.
Try raising the floor a little, but keeping the noise gate falloff at 2.