SPECIAL PROJECT. Everything about how to make a podcast! From those who worked with Andi Moisescu, Măruţă and Micutzu

SPECIAL PROJECT. How to make a podcast? What do you need? What equipment? What software? How do you acoustically isolate the studio? The answers come from ZeedoShop, those who worked for some of the most popular podcasts in Romania: Andi Moisescu, Micutzu, Cătălin Măruţă.

ZeedoShop provided consultancy for these podcasts and now comes with a series of tips for Paginademedia.ro readers:

What does the material contain?

Enjoy reading!

Before, a Photo Gallery

PHOTO GALLERY. The podcast studios of Măruţă, Andi Moisescu and Micutzu, to which Zeedo also contributed:

1. Introduction

Here we are in 2021, a year where more people are listening to podcasts than ever before.

According to Edison Research, the number of Americans who listen to a podcast each week has increased 120% in the past four years, and 90 million Americans listen to a podcast each month.

This surge in podcast popularity makes 2021 the right time to start a podcast that will attract a new audience for your business, brand, or personal hobby.

With this article we aim to find out everything you need to start a podcast in 2021.

2. We need a good idea

To get started, we need to answer two essential questions: "Why start a podcast?" and "What is my podcast about?"

Then it is necessary to choose a name for the podcast, its format and length.

Nowadays, there are podcasts of all kinds, from history, pop-culture, music, cinematography, psychology to any niche topic we can think of. The only limit when it comes to a podcast is your own imagination. "The sky is the limit!".

The most important thing is to be truly passionate about whatever subject you choose. It has to be something you're excited about, can do a little research and then talk about on a regular basis.

In this planning, do not forget that based on the chosen idea you must generate very good content!

3. Silence on the set!

One of the beautiful parts of a podcast is that it can be recorded anywhere (this of course if we have a mobile setup) but to generate very good content it is ideal and necessary to have silence and decent acoustics.

If the room in which you want to record, be it at home or in a small studio, has non-ideal acoustic qualities and you feel a disturbing echo in the recordings or encounter an acoustic problem, you can mitigate the echo by small tricks like strategically placing microphones, using carpets, or even a quilt hanging behind you.

Of course this setup will not always work and you may want to have guests in a more professional environment.

If you still want to stay inside the house, it will be necessary to transform a room into a studio (a hybrid setup of homeliving and studio) in which to invest in acoustic treatment.

Acoustic treatment aims to solve the acoustic problems of a room by applying sound-absorbing or dispersion materials.

4. The equipment and software you need

When it comes to choosing audio equipment for a podcast, the possibilities are many, but that doesn't mean it's complicated. Therefore, we will list below some of the options proposed by us:

In 2021 you can easily create a podcast using only a PC/laptop, a microphone and editing software, but this setup can be quite expensive.

Smartphone-based setups are much more limited, but that doesn't mean they can't produce a quality podcast. A new generation smartphone accompanied by a smartphone microphone and a suitable application can produce surprising results and have the great advantage of being very portable.

RODE Reporter App for iOS or Speaker Studio are two very good software choices if you want to go for a smartphone-based setup.

2. Variant of podcast with a recorder

If you need mobility but want more flexibility than a smartphone offers, the ideal option is the recorder.

A recorder can be used either by the microphones integrated on the device or by external microphones. The integrated microphones offer a decent solution but not as versatile and qualitative as in the case of external microphones.

Recording will be done on most recorders to an SD card or, via USB connection, to a computer.

Once we opt for a PC/laptop, the editing possibilities expand considerably. When we talk about PC/laptop we are actually talking about two possibilities, one being stationary (PC) and one mobile (laptop), they are chosen according to the needs of each one.

Then, obviously, you need a USB microphone or an XLR microphone and an audio interface.

5. Necessary accessories

1. Headphones

Until now I have not mentioned headphones at all, because they are not an essential element. Do not understand that they are not useful!

The headphones give you the possibility to monitor everything that happens during the recording and at the same time to have a much higher editing precision.

The stand frees the hands and thus reduces the chance of having noise in the recording by handling the microphone. The most popular are the arm stands, which you can find most often at radio stations.

If you want greater mobility and a light stand, it is recommended to opt for a table stand, and if you are standing, the classic floor microphone stand is ideal.

If those "occlusives" or pops appear in your recording (the sounds p, t, b, d, etc.), a pop filter and/or a greater distance between the speaker and the microphone is necessary.

I mentioned above that XLR microphones require an audio interface. This connection is made, in the vast majority of cases, by means of XLR - XLR cables.

If you have several guests who want to hear themselves in headphones while speaking, and the audio interface does not have enough separate headphone outputs, it is necessary to use a splitter that will distribute the audio signal to the headphones.

If the number of guests is greater than 2 and monitoring is desired, a headphone amplifier is recommended through which everyone will be able to control the desired volume in the headphones.

6. What software should I use?

For beginners in the audio field, we will recommend 2 options that will allow you to record quality productions without spending a penny:

Audacity – is a free audio recording and editing program that can be used on Windows or Mac OS. Audacity is a very capable and extremely popular software that can be easily learned.

GarageBand – is a free audio recording and editing program that can only be used on Mac OS. It also has built-in tools in case you want to produce your own backing tracks.

7. Where do I publish the podcast?

The answer is simple and obvious, YouTube and Soundcloud are two platforms from the start where you can upload your podcast, but these, unfortunately, are not enough.

The vast majority of listeners are on platforms like Spotify, iTunes or Google Podcasts. Unfortunately, it's not that easy to upload your podcast to iTunes or Spotify. For this you need a hosting service that also deals with publishing.

Here are 5 such recommended and appreciated services:

Keep in mind that each platform does things a little differently. Explore the hosting services until you find the one that suits your needs at the right price.

8. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

The world needs to hear about your podcast, and now comes a part as important as the product itself: marketing the podcast.

In the following we will present several ideas to make your product known.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can note that building a successful podcast will still require a fairly large investment of time.

This article aims to answer the question "how to start a podcast in 2021?". Let's recap! You need a good idea, a suitable space, hardware and software equipment, the platform on which you will publish your podcast and a marketing strategy.

Success!

More details, on ZeedoShop.ro