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I’ve been making podcasts since 2005.
I think I’ve made over 1000 podcast episodes between my personal ones (ADD, AAA, Band Specials, etc.) and corporate ones.
In fact, the first corporate podcast in Brazil was developed by us at Estudio Mellancia (already in 2005) in partnership with Diretta Web Design.
It was the Heineken podcast.
Anyway,
Let’s Get to the Point – What Do You Need to Do to Set Up a Podcast?
First, you need to have the audio. The content. For this, I suggest downloading Reaper.
Reaper is a super easy and intuitive DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to use.
The best part? It’s free (you can buy it if you want, it’s also very affordable. Consider this if you use it a lot, it doesn’t hurt to help the developers).
Click HERE, download and install it.
With Reaper installed, it’s time to start recording.
Questions:
What will be the content of your podcast?
Entertainment? Technology? Cooking? Chat? No matter the content, think before you record. Look for information, write a base text so you don’t get lost, do some research.
Who will participate?
Is it just you? Are there more people involved? How will you record the other people? Or will they just send audio snippets? Think about this as well.
The good thing about Reaper is that it accepts any audio format. You can ask your collaborators to send audio via WhatsApp, download it, and put it directly into Reaper, for example. Or record a Skype conversation and also put it in there, and it works.
What’s the average duration of each episode?
5 minutes? Half an hour? 1 hour? Think about this too. Depending on the content, it’s worth delving deeper into the subject in more episodes rather than leaving people listening non-stop to a 3-hour podcast.
Who is your audience?
For example, a podcast about technology. Who is the audience? Are they regular listeners who might be interested in the subject or people more “in the know” about the topic, who might be interested in more specific themes? In a cooking podcast, are you targeting novices in the kitchen as listeners or more expert people? And for all subjects, consider the level of knowledge your listeners should have to understand. There’s no point in making a podcast about Neural Networks in Artificial Intelligence, being super specific about the subject, but thinking that any layperson will listen, understand, and like it. If that’s the case, consider making an introduction to the subject for laypeople. It’s a chance to have more listeners.
What is the “order” of your podcast?
Am I going to prioritize interaction with listeners? Then I start with the messages they sent me. Am I going to prioritize guests? Then I begin by telling a bit about the episode’s guest. Am I going to prioritize content? It’s worth doing a “rundown” (like at the beginning of news broadcasts, where presenters mention the main headlines in the order they’ll appear during the program) right at the start.
With all of this thought out and outlined, let’s move on to the equipment.
I recommend buying a decent microphone. It doesn’t need to be expensive or anything spectacular. A microphone that captures your voice clearly and crisply is already helpful.
If you want to buy the microphone after publishing and seeing the viability of the podcast, record directly on your phone. Yes, the little microphone can do the job, and you can “touch up” the sound quality in Reaper.
A decent pair of headphones is also good. The majority of your listeners (I’d say 99%) will listen to the podcast on a mobile device or computer while doing other things.
People usually use headphones for this. There’s nothing better than listening to your podcast on headphones to know how listeners will receive your content and in what quality.
That’s it.
With Reaper installed and the microphone connected to the computer, you’re ready to go.
Choose a place without much background noise and with little reverberation. Suggestion? An office with carpet, a room with carpet, bed, and pictures on the wall. Or even the closet or your wardrobe with hanging clothes. These places remove some of the ambient reverberation, giving your voice better quality, without that famous “bathroom echo”.
I’ll publish another post on the technicalities of setting up Reaper and how to record your first podcast in the weeks to come.
Stay tuned!
Best wishes,
Billy.
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