The Well-Edited Podcast – How To Accomplish It!
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage–as long as you edit brilliantly.”
~ C. J. Cherryh
Disclosure: Some of the links to products on this website are affiliate links. It simply means, at no additional cost to you, I'll earn a commission if you click through and buy any product. Read full disclosure here! Thank you for your support.
Ever hear the expression, a movie is made in the editing room? It is true not just for films but for any communicative medium where you interact with large groups of people.
Editing is a delicate process and most amateur podcastsers don’t grasp that it is possibly the most important tool in your podcasting arsenal.
A well-edited podcast can take your podcast from amateur to professional sounding. There are five principles of podcast editing you have to understand to master the craft. Let’s discuss these briefly:
1. Make it Tight:
Edit out anything that doesn’t help move your podcast further by adding to the content. Any pauses, repetitive thoughts, off topic remarks, pops, hisses, or other noises should be snipped right off. Making the audio as tight and forward moving as possible. Edit it once and play it back, be critical and edit the audio again.
2. Recorded Audio Effects:
Add the right recorded effects at the right moments. E.g. add a laugh track right after a punchline. Add a boom or crash effect at the right dramatic moment. Adding recorded sound effects may seem easy and fun with all those effects just sitting their in your software’s library. Adding too many, unneccessary or ill-timed effects will ruin your podcast.
My rule for adding recorded sound effects to podcasts is, when in doubt leave it out.
3. Apply the Right Sound Effects:
Adding effects like reverb, echo, delay, amplify etc to artificially manipulate your voice will not make it sound cooler or better. Adding the appropriate sound effects and lowering your voice naturally (if you need to) is what will make your podcast sound professional. Normalization, Equalizing and compression of the audio will make the audio sound more fluid.
Effects like echo, delay will only work for entertainment oriented podcasts, if at all. Try ans steer clear of the embellishments and keep your voice clean.
4. Transitioning:
Transition between segments on your podcast should be seemless. Even if you planned separate segments on paper, there is no need separate them on audio. Make them sound like they are a part of the same whole and not different segments on a podcast.
This is where audio transitioning comes into play. The worst thing you could do is add a fade out/ fade in, music or a pause between segments. Remember, “make it tight”. Get rid of the clutter, just add one sound clip after another on the timeline.
5. Harness the Power of Layering:
Layering is your friend. The capability to add different tracks is a great tool to have, if you know how to use it. When layering with your voice track think about every single track you add and its purpose. Again, “make it tight”. Add only one track for all your recorded sound effects, a single track for your background music clips and a single track for other sound bites. This way you won’t end up over-lapping and adding noise to your final audio.
Wanna Learn How To Create The Perfect and Most Well-Edited Podcast? Contact Us.
Did you find this article informative? Share it in Social Media below.
Link to this article by using the following URL: https://infointernetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/audio/the-genius-of-a-well-edited-podcast/ COPY & PASTE!