Microphone Tips for Your Best Podcast Sound – PCI 454

0:00 And I guess I start it. Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mike Dell, VP of customer relations here at Blueberry. And I'm Todd Cochran, CEO of Blueberry Podcasting. Today, we're diving into a topic every podcaster can benefit from, how to sound your absolute best behind the microphone. Yeah. We're talking about microphone technique, setup basics, a few, simple confidence boosters, and, you know, that can make a big difference in how you come across to your audience. And, of course, we're gonna cover a Blueberry hosting feature that can polish your audio automatically. It's perfect for creators who want that pro level sound without doing all the mastering themselves.

0:44 Yeah. Whether you're brand new or hundreds of episodes in, these tips will help you tighten up your sound and deliver, you know, better podcast. So let's jump in. You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting. With all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in. We're gonna talk about using the right mic. And, of course, I'm kind of the oddball in this. I used a condenser for years and years and years, but I highly do not recommend it to probably 95% of podcasters out there. Yeah. You you you really have to have a good spot to to record, you know, real quiet.

1:40 Yeah. Yeah. Condenser with a dynamic, you can you know, like this room here, I got, helicopters flying over and all sorts of things going on and, you you probably don't hear any of that. Now I've got a, dynamic mic, and I have the air conditioner turned up on absolute whole micro blast right now because it's it's hot here. So I'm using, the Shure SM seven b. It's a it's a dynamic mic, quite nice one. And, of course, there's other ones on the market out there like the Samsung q two u, and it's great for voice and podcasting. And as long as you're speaking into the correct side, usually the front up the top, you're you're okay.

2:23 Yeah. So make sure, you know, whatever microphone you have, make sure you know, you know, if it's a side address or an end in address or whatever. You know? So many people with the Blue Yetis, you know, because it looks like this SM7B that both Todd and I are using. Well, we're not using the same one. We're using two different ones. But if if you look at it, you look at the s m 7B and you look at a Blue Yeti, they look kinda similar in shape, but the Blue Yeti is a side address, and that's also a condenser, so don't use that. Well, you know, that my favorite saying is, podcasters don't let other podcasters use Blue Yeti mic, so we'll just start there.

3:06 You know, in in all honesty, the the mic positioning matters. Yeah. And I have a a challenge at times. I get a little too close to the mic, but, really, you need to be two to three inches away. And, of course, using a pop filter or windscreen to help reduce the plosives, and I I'm real bad at this hard p's and b sounds, and or a slightly angle. Having the mic a little bit off center from your mouth to avoid breath noises. So it's kind of like turning your head and, like, pretend you're whispering someone's ear Yeah. Versus talking directly into the, to the microphone. Well well, like where I'm at right now, I'm about three inches from the microphone, and I have it 45 degrees off. You know? So I'm still talking into the end, but I'm talking past at 45 degrees.

4:02 And that seems to work the best for me. You know, your mileage will vary, but, you know, this this way, I could still see straight ahead, look at my show notes here and all that, look at, anybody that I'm doing video with, whatever. And it also keeps the, breath sounds from hitting the microphone head on. So And I'm kinda doing the opposite. I'm kind of turning my head a little bit, but it really depends on the situation. If I'm doing video, I'm usually head on to the mic. So it's you know, I think your mileage is gonna vary there. But unlike me right now, record in a quiet carpeted room, and that will help. I I have hard floors here.

4:48 I do have a green screen behind me that helps a little bit with echo. Again, turn off the AC and silence notifications. And when I'm in, my studio in Michigan, I've actually got a noise gate. Of course, there's suppression plug ins as well that you can use. And but what I have found is because I don't have little kids running around no more, and I have control over my sound environment unless someone decides to start the lawnmower up that's in in the I live in a loft above a garage. Unless someone starts a lawnmower, I'm usually pretty good in keeping the noise down. But that noise gate, if you have kind of a traditional system where you have something that allows you to set a noise gate, especially on the Roadcaster and other types of devices, it can really kinda just cut out that, that, you know, that that noise that may show up. You know, have someone come and, you know, maybe the spouse comes in the room and say something, you wave her down.

5:51 You may not even hear her, with a noise gate. Yep. That and, again, just make sure that, you know, you've got a quiet environment and just let everybody know that's around that you know, hey. I'm recording now. Like, right now, on my office door, I've got a little, little like, a hotel sign that you'd have for do not disturb. I've got one of those that says podcasting in progress. And, you know, everybody knows to not knock on my door here, so it's all good. And, of course, you can also let Blueberry master your audio audio automatically. Yeah. Hosting customers can use media mastering by Auphonic. Auphonic's kind of a used to be a standalone tool, and I loved it when it was that way. But now it's all online, and we've integrated it with Blueberry. So for a little extra charge, we can, master your audio. That really helps if you're doing interviews or doing something, you know, where maybe the the two hosts are not exactly the same level. So that really does that, and it cleans up some of that background noise. It's not gonna do, not gonna do miracles, but it's pretty good.

7:02 Well, I've been using Auphonic for literally more than ten, fifteen years. I mean, I absolutely love the product, the mastering of the audio. I don't have to worry about having the levels perfect. You know, and and that really kinda goes into, you know, one of the key things is watch your levels. You can always be low and and fix when the audio is low, but you can never fix it when you're overdriven. So you should always aim for that minus 12 to minus six, dB when recording, and that really is gonna help you avoid, peaking.

7:42 It's gonna be able to, allow you to have some headroom in fixing that. And speaking of background noises, Mike. Yes. Somebody didn't mute their phone when they were supposed to. Uh-huh. So that's one of those little example. Good good example. You know, and, you know, using headphones to monitor while recording, that really helps catch Yeah. Issues early as well. But make sure you are actually listening to the master in and not something that's adjusted because I've made a mistake in being plugged into the wrong monitoring port and then at the end, have some audio that was very hard to fix, and, it really makes you look bad. So better to be too low than to be too hot. Yeah. You can always boost it. Yeah.

8:30 Don't, don't do it. And, also, when you record, you know, most recording software has different formats you can select from, like, you know, Adobe Audition or off Audacity or whatever. Record and save your original recording in WAV, and that's the highest quality because it's uncompressed. And then once you're done editing, whatever you're gonna do, clipping the ends, leveling, all that stuff, at that point, turn it into an m p three. But, you know, while you're working with the raw audio, do it in WAV. And and and, also, don't upload WAV to, to your podcast host. It's well, with our, with our, a phonic leveling, though, it will convert it to an m p three for you. But, in most cases, you do not wanna try to distribute a WAV file as a podcast.

9:21 You know, dumb it down to m p three. If you are using the media mastering, you do want to upload a WAV file. Correct. Correct. That'll be mastered, then they'll deliver it in m p three. You know, one thing I found is being where I'm at currently, I've been recording in the morning. So I've been waking up, spending maybe thirty, forty five minutes doing prep and getting ready to record, but you know how it is in the morning. Your voice can be, you know, it can be bad. So I'm doing, short warm up sessions here. I'm, like, you know, reading in the first paragraph of my open, drinking water, and trying to get that morning voice, under control. And then that can be the case too when anytime the day that you're recording, do a little bit of a warm up session.

10:06 You know, practice your intro. Don't wing it unless you're a seasoned pro. But even me, all these years later, I I do a little bit of a warm up as what invariably happens is if I don't, two minutes in, all of a sudden, the bottom of my throat starts itching, and then it's like, okay. I have to start this over anyway because, you know, that that's the last thing people wanna hear is, some throat action. Early throat action. You guys know what that is since gross enough just saying it, worse hearing it. But, you know, as you're as you're getting ready to do your show, definitely, I I found bullet points have helped a lot.

10:47 I don't have scripts per se. One thing to I always do is I, make sure that I realize who I'm talking to. So I have a little picture on my computer of the audience, the size of the audience that I have so I realize who I'm talking to. That's just one of the things I do. What what's some of the stuff you do, Mike, when you're Well, this may sound completely silly, but smile when you speak. You know? It it makes your tone sound warm, more confident, and, you know, it it actually makes you sound like you're enjoying yourself instead of just reading into a script, you know, that kind of thing. But, yeah, we use bullet points here.

11:29 We I use bullet points on my show, you know, that kind of thing. And but, you know, I know it sounds silly, but, you know, smile, be happy when you're doing your podcast. And, of course, those pauses with purpose where you take a breath and let the thought that you just said ring out. Those are always good. Silence is powerful. Don't rush. Yeah. It gets listeners time to really absorb and nothing to it gives you time to breathe. Yep. Yep. Well, coming from radio, you know, silence was deadly, and it took a really long time for me to quit doing that, you know, where that's where the umms and ahs and stuff come in because you gotta fill that blank space. Don't.

12:15 Just make a little silence instead of an or an ah or, you know, some other filler noise, and that'll help you out a lot. I've always saw the umms and ahs come from lack of preparation. So as long as you're prepared, there should not be as much, umms and ahs that, that happen. Of course, I always imagine that I'm talking to my audience, that they're sitting right there with me at the table. Some people say talk to one person, but podcasting is a very intimate, medium, so you're definitely want to come across as one to one. You wanna make that person feel as if you're talking to them so that talking to one person metaphor really, really is important. And, of course, most of us don't like listening to our episodes.

13:08 But one of the things that will help you get better quicker yes. Is that a right way to say that? Yeah. Review your episodes. And know Aries very strong sound strong as I know now when I'm coming in to record if I have had a long day and I'm out of gas or if I, had a a Red Bull and I've got enough energy to cover me for forty minutes or if it's probably better not even to pull up the mic. So you that energy level is really, really important, For sure. If it comes across real clear. Yeah. And also confidence. You know, sound like your confidence even if you're not. You know? Fake it till you make it is the old saying, and, you know, it really grows.

13:55 The more you do it and the more, you know, the more you pretend to be confident, the more you're actually gonna become confident. And don't be nervous. This is a recording. You don't have to be perfect the first time. You can do it over and over and over if you have to, so don't ever worry about that. Just be confident. And even if you're not, sound confident. And I always say that for a new podcast, it's gonna take you ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty episodes before you really truly find your voice. And don't be worried about how episode one sound is compared to episode five. We all know that the podcast get better over time, and that's the most important thing is to be able to hit record, get that episode in the can, and learn from it and be able to move on. I hope these tips have helped you.

14:41 And, really, that's pretty much a wrap on this episode about Mike technique and on mic confidence. And I guess we hope that you picked up a few ideas to, really to level up your sound. Then, of course, don't forget, if you're hosting with Blueberry, you can always add the, media mastering BioPhonic feature. That'll clean up and optimize your audio. You know, after you've uploaded it, we process it, and, it does a pretty darn good job. I I'm very impressed with it. And some other folks use Ophonic in the podcasting space, but they don't acknowledge them. And the reason we do is because we have a long history and we really trust the tool. But, of course, for more podcasting tips and tools, head over to blueberry.com. And, of course, if you need help, the support team is there to help you.

15:30 And, Mike or Dave or Sean will be the one that you communicate with, and, of course, I'm always available for consulting as well. Yeah. So thanks for tuning in. And as always, keep podcasting. And if, you wanna read the full show notes of this episode, go over to podcastinsider.com. Thanks for joining us. Come back next week. And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com for more information, to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. To check out our latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast, visit blueberry.com. That's Blueberry without the e's. We couldn't afford the e's.