How to tell the difference between good and bad audio

Voice Over: 00:00:00

Got dreams of being a professional podcaster, but have no idea what you're doing. This is impossible. That's about to change. A new kind of school. Welcome to the Pod School Podcast.

Rachel Corbett: 00:00:10

Hello. Welcome to the show. Today's question is from Tricia, who says, “How do you judge good audio when you're starting out? And what about editing? How do you make those decisions?”

Great question. I know, I say that every week. It's like those people who have a guest, and every time they do, they say, “I'm so excited to have you.” I'm doing that with the questions. Every question is a great question — but they are! They're really good questions. Please submit yours via the link in the description of the episode.

This is really good because there's no short answer. The answer is: you have to train your ear. And the way that you train your ear is by listening. You do that by listening to other podcasts.

I would say that this is a bit more of a subconscious process, because when you're listening to a really professionally made podcast and you're a beginner, it's really hard to discern what you're listening to. But the more of that information that goes into the blender, the more you'll be able to whiz out something — and you won’t even know that you've understood it.

I think it's like an author. Authors read a lot of books because they need to know how other people do it. They need to read stuff and go, “Oh, I really like that for some reason” and “That’s a really good idea, I might use that in the future.” Same thing with podcasts. You want to be listening to heaps so you can get a sense of: What do I like? Why do I like it? What do I not like? Why don’t I like it?

All of those things will help you make better decisions. And you won’t even realise it, because it’ll all be in your subconscious. The trick is training your ear and your brain on this stuff.

You need to start getting to a space where you understand what a bad and a good edit sounds like — and I can tell you right now, that takes time.

I get resumes and edits from people applying for jobs who’ve had experience in the industry, and they’ll still make edits that are obvious. And I think, “I can tell you the four places you’ve cut this.” That amazes me because even if you’ve done this a lot, you can still make those mistakes.

So you really have to be mindful and intentional — not just editing mindlessly. And heaven forbid you ever edit while watching the telly or doing something else. Never. It takes full concentration.

That would be my first tip: when you're listening to audio or editing audio, it needs your full focus. If you're distracted, you'll miss a word or a stumble. You need to be listening for things like: does this sound like a natural conversation?

If you’re cutting something out, go back and listen to the lead-in — not four minutes before, but at least 10 or 15 seconds beforehand — so you hear the full sentence leading into that edited bit and then coming out of it.

I'll often close my eyes and listen and just ask, “Does this sound like it was recorded in one go?” Does it just sound like a normal conversation?

You’ll notice, once you’re paying attention, “Oh, those two words were really close together — that doesn’t sound like how a normal person talks.” That might need a breath in between.

And I’ll always have a breath file and a silence file saved in my editing session. That way, if I need space between something, I can drag in a breath and make sure it sounds good. If it doesn’t sound right, I’ll grab a breath from another spot. Or I’ll add a bit of silence. Sometimes you just need some space.

One of the things I notice about bad editing is that it's usually over-edited rather than under-edited.

Bad editing is when things are cut so tightly it’s like: “This is chopping from this bit… and then it goes to… and then it chops to…” And I’m thinking, “Did you even listen back to this? Or did you just give it one pass and go?”

That’s the key — when you’re editing properly, your first pass is a big machete chop. You go through and cut out big chunks. Then all the fine-tuning happens after that. You might listen to it three times. I easily listen to content three times when I’m editing.

You want a final pass-through where you're not editing — you're just listening to how it sounds from beginning to end. It should sound seamless, with no jumps, no quick cuts, and like it was all recorded in one go.

You also want to listen out for background noise — any echo or anything that makes it sound like the speaker is far away. Echo can really do that. You might have room noise, a buzz in the background, things like that.

There are tools like Adobe Enhance that can help with background noise. Right now I’m recording with my child in bed, and I can tell you she’s got white noise on that sounds like a jet plane.

But I’m hoping by the time this gets to you, it won’t sound that way — because I’m going to tweak it a little, while also not over-processing my voice. That’s the risk with tools like this — they can remove warmth and make you sound robotic.

And I get that “robotic” and “warmth” can sound like technical terms, but really you're just asking: “Does this sound normal?” Does this sound like a real person? Or does it sound like a computer made it?

Would it feel, as a listener, like someone is sitting next to me talking to me? Or would it feel overproduced?

These are the things you want to tune into. And it becomes easier the more you listen to your own content — and other people’s — so you can start picking up on those details.

And hearing bad edits is great. It helps you realise, “Oh, that’s what a bad edit sounds like.” So if you're editing early and making mistakes, fantastic. That will help you learn.

So it's really about training your ear. Listening out for those things. Paying full attention when you're editing and recording your show.

Because if you’re trying to do it with one ear on something else, you’ll miss things. For sure.

Hope that’s helped you, Tricia. And thank you so much for your question.

If you’d like a little help with your podcast, make sure you check out details of my podcasting course, PodSchool — there’s a link in the description of the episode. There’s also a free resource there: my equipment guide. That’ll give you all the tools and tech you need to set up your own home studio if you’re ready to give this podcasting thing a crack.

I'll see you next week.

Voice Over: 00:07:34

That's all for today.