Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, hey friend, Welcome back to another episode of the
Soul Podcasting podcast, where passion, purpose and podcast strategy come
together to help you amplify your voice without all the burnout.
I'm Demitria, founder of the Soul Podcasting Collective, which is
a podcast production agency where I help solopreneurs launch and
grow their shows with confidence and clarity. And today's episode
(00:34):
is going to be a quick, bite sized one, a
short and practical chat inspired by a listener question that
I recently got about podcast setups for beginners. So I've
been getting more requests lately from new podcasters who want
to know where to start, what geared to buy, how
to record good audio, and how to make it all
work without overspending. So let's break it down. We're gonna
(00:55):
be sure to keep it simple but sound great at
the same time. So first things first, as your setup
does not have to be fancy, I'll tell you what
I'm using right now. It's my good old, trusty blue
Yetti microphone and it's not the best by industry standards,
and it's definitely not the most expensive, but it works
just fine for me. And I paired it with a
phone box and that is another Amazon purchase. Also a
(01:17):
pop filter clip right onto the mic. That little combo
helps absorb sound reflections and cuts down those harsh P
and T sounds. It's budget friendly, it's simple, and it
gets the job done beautifully. But if you're just starting out,
here's my honest advice, you shouldn't fall into the gear trap.
You should only focus on just getting clean sound and
not worrying about all the fancy equipment out there. There's
(01:40):
a lot of things you could get, but we want
to focus on just being straightforward with making a quick
decision and moving forward with your podcast. So a few
affordable options that are tried and true that I do
recommend for beginners is the Audio Technica. There's an at
R twenty one hundred X it's a good one. There's
(02:01):
also a Samson Qtu. I've mentioned a few others on
this show before in the past, and you can check
out all of these. But these are both USB and
XL are compatible, so you have to figure out, like
what's best for you. I prefer USB just because it's
easier for me on the go, but these options will
grow with you if you ever upgrade your setup, so
(02:22):
be sure to also get a pop filter and a
mic stand so you have something to put your microphone on.
These small investments make a huge difference. And if you
can record in a quiet, soft space that could be
a closet full of clothes or a room that's kind
of off to itself, these are gold mine for great acoustics. Now,
if you don't have an option to record in a
(02:45):
quiet place, just every little thing you can do will
help with keeping things quiet. So, again the closet situation,
I'm currently not in a closet. I'm in my office
and so there's a bit more echo in here than
if I were in my closet, But I make do
with what I have and then I go back and edit.
So try to find as quite a place as possible,
(03:05):
and just keeping in mind that you know life is
going to happen, and if you're recording from home or
from an office where there is a bit of noise
going on around you, you just have to do your
best to minimize that as much as possible. And that's
where the soundbox can help a lot. I'll leave a
link for the one that I'm using from Amazon. I'll
leave that in the show notes so you can see
(03:25):
some of the kind of things we do to make
recording easier. So let's talk real quickly about recording software,
because this is where a lot of beginners get stuck.
So if you're on a Mac, you could essentially use
Garage Band, which is absolutely free and it's surprisingly a
solid software. So I will never ask you to use
(03:46):
something high level or with all the bells and whistles,
just because I appreciate that company. Of course, I love
Audition and all the things that Audition offers. The Adobe
products are products that I stand by. I've been working
with Adobe products for a long time, but I didn't
start out using Adobe. So I started off actually on
a Windows computers. For those of your own Windows, you
(04:08):
could use Audacity, and that was my best brand for
a long time. With my edits. I used Audacity for
probably over ten years. And for remote interviews, you want
to check out Riverside or Zincaster, and so probably Riverside
would be the one that I would recommend. And there's
also Descript for editing, and again I have a little
(04:30):
experience with Descript. I haven't used it a lot, but
for my understanding, it's a really simple way to edit
your shows. And again the more options the better, right,
So we always want to have choices, and there's a
few for you both Riverside and Zincaster. However, record locally
if you're doing, for example, interviews, so that means your
(04:50):
audio won't sound glitchy if your WiFi hiccups. So that's
one benefit to using like Riverside. So the bottom line
is just pick one place platform, whether that's Audition like
I'm using, or Audacity, which is where I started garage band.
If you're on a mac, Riverside, Zincaster, wherever you choose,
(05:11):
you know, you got to pick one right and get started.
Don't waste a lot of weeks researching. You'll learn more
from your first ten episodes than from ten hours of
YouTube tutorials, I promise you. So my next tip for
you is to create a mindset that helps you to
focus on consistency. I say that to all my coaching clients.
You know, make sure you're consistent before you worry about
(05:34):
being complicated and complex, right, So don't get into all
nitty gritty and all the nuts and bolts and try
to figure everything out at once. Just be consistent with
what you do know, with the knowledge you have. Be
faithful with that. Your listeners don't really care if you're
recording on a two thousand dollars studio or your guest bedroom.
They care about your connection. So just record, listen, learn, tweak,
(05:56):
and repeat, and that's how you build confidence. That's how
you improve your sound and find your flow, because your
message matters way more than your mic. So here's your
action plan for getting started. Choose a reliable, beginner friendly mic,
a USB Dynamic or a blue Yetti if that's what
you've got. Use a pop filter and create a soft
(06:16):
space for recording. Believe me, your audio will thank you
for it. Keep your software simple, don't overthink it, and
focus on showing up and speaking clearly, not necessarily on
being perfect. And remember that every podcaster you admire started
with a good enough setup. What matters is that they
actually got started. All right, my friend, that's it for
today's short and sweet episode. If you're a new podcaster
(06:38):
and you've got questions about setup, gear or just getting started,
I'd love to help you. Head over to soul Podcasting
dot com and leave me a voice note with your
question and I might feature it in a future quick
tip episode like this one. And if you're ready to
launch with clarity, grab my free Launch Confidently Podcasting checklist
when you join my newsletter at soul podcasting dot com.
(07:01):
So keep showing up my friends, keep sharing your voice,
and as always, keep podcasting with soul Happy Podcasting