Congratulations! You’ve just recorded your first podcast. Now, you just need to get it cleaned up so that it is fit for human consumption. Hopefully, you’ve taken the time to learn how to use your editing software.
Start by cleaning up the noise in the background. No matter how silent you try to make your recording area, there will almost always be a background noise that must go. Again, you are striving for professionalism here.
So, even though you weren’t trying to develop the Great American Podcast when you were working on what you would say, you are striving for perfection in your recording and in the editing. You want an outstanding end product, whether it is for sale or not. Your reputation depends on it, and your future success in podcasting depend on it.
Once you’ve gotten rid of the background noise, go through and really listen to the podcast. Did you say what you wanted to say? Did you get your point across? Did you talk too much about any one thing, and not enough about others?
Even if it means doing it all over again, make sure that you have the podcast that you want to release to the public. Now, if you have the podcast you want, and all it needs is editing, first fix any problems. Hopefully, you’ve taken care of any unwanted background noise. Here, you want to focus on the sound, not the speech. That comes next. Edit out any weird sounds or unwanted sounds.
Next, let’s work on your actual words. Did you stumble? You can fix that with editing software. Did you leave out a sentence? You can record it and add it in. Are their weird pauses? Edit them out. Remember that we are just focusing on the actual speech right now. Close your eyes and listen. If there is a mistake, you need to find it, because if you don’t, your listeners will.
If all of the speech is now corrected and edited, let’s talk music. Adding lead in and lead out music is a wonderful thing. You absolutely must not use copyrighted music, however. Ideally, you should use music that you personally composed, music that a friend has composed and given you permission to use, or music for which you have a license to use. Don’t break this rule!
The best option and the one with the least amount of worries is to use music that is in the public domain, or music that has a creative commons license. Such music can be found all over the Internet. If you can’t find any, there is another option that works really well.
Go to MySpace, and look for bands. These are typically bands that are just starting out, and they would love the exposure. Contact them, and ask if you can use their music on your podcast, and let them know that you will give them credit. Then, at the end of your podcast, you can say ‘Music provided by….’
You are exchanging exposure and credit for the use of the music – not money. It is a good idea to create a simple document that gives you the right to use the music, and have them sign it and return it to you. That way, if they forget, or change their minds later, you are protected. You want a hard copy of that document with their signature and date, preferably notarized.
You could also use music software and create your own digital music. There are numerous free music composers online that you can use to make short music for your intro and exit music. You may have to try out several software titles to find the one that you want, but you shouldn’t have to go out and purchase expensive software for this. Create a theme song that you can use on all of your podcasts!
When you add your music, use the fade in and fade out features. The music should fade in at the very beginning, fade out when you start speaking, and then fade back in at the end. This will add professionalism to your podcast.
There are numerous things that you can do to spice up your podcast. For instance, if you want a talk show type podcast that sounds like it was performed before a live audience, you can add hand clapping in various parts of the recording.
If sound effects are appropriate in your podcast, by all means use them. Sound effects can really spice things up, and can be quite humorous. Again, make sure that the sound effects are appropriate for your podcast topic and your audience.
Save as you go – repeatedly. Each time you make a change during the editing phase, save the file. This will keep you from having to start completely over in the event that you mess things up later down the editing road.
All of it sounds like an awful lot of work. In the beginning, it may be. But this hard work phase only lasts until you get the hang of planning, writing, recording, and editing podcasts. Once you’ve done that, and you are past the learning curve, producing podcasts can be very fast and easy – not to mention a great deal of fun!
So even if you are frustrated by this point, keep at it. You will eventually get to the point where you see just how much fun podcasting can really be.
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