An EASY guide on how to edit a podcast

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about how I edit my Instagram pictures. Since it has been a while I thought I’d do another one of these posts, starting with how to edit a podcast. If you didn’t know I recently started a podcast called The Normal World. This podcast is all about how former elite athletes experience their transition back into the normal world after they quit their sports careers. If you want to listen to my own experience, listen to the very first episode of the podcast The Normal World. As I already mentioned In this blog post I want to show you and talk you through the steps I take to edit my podcast and some useful tips to promote your podcast as well.

Recording your audio

Before you can even start editing your podcast you need to record your audio first, using editing software. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on your audio quality and podcast production here are some tips. I don’t have a very fancy setup when it comes to recording my podcast. Before buying microphones I did some extensive research on podcast audio, pro tools, podcasting, and music. I took into consideration that I want my guests to feel comfortable and not really forced into a podcast setting. Hence, I chose to use lavalier microphones or lapel microphones to clip on their jumper or t-shirt.

I record the audio on my MacBook using the podcast editing software called Audacity in combination with Garageband. Audacity is free software you can download both for Mac and Windows. The editing process is much easier and less cumbersome compared to Garageband, which is a huge time saver in the production process. Hence why I record and edit my audio in Audacity and export it to mp3. Then I import it into Garageband to add the intro and outro of the podcast.

Edit a podcast

So how to edit a podcast? Here are some podcast editing tips! When talking about Audacity I do a couple of adjustments to the audio, audio editing, before I even start to cut out any ‘Uhm or slips. I usually start with removing background noise, which is something very easy to do in Audacity. Then I’ll use the compression setting to bring up any vocals that might be too quiet. Step 3 is to use a limiter, to make sure audio is ‘cut off’ when vocals were too loud. I usually notice a difference when both of us, me and my guest, are laughing about something or both are talking quite loud.

As the last step, I use the Normalize functionality within Audacity to normalize both tracks. This is just to make sure that the audio from both tracks is normalized. So for example when one of us talks louder than the other one throughout the entire recording, this setting adjusts for that. If you want a full guide on how to do all these settings in Audacity, make sure to check out this article! After all the adjustments using the Audacity settings, I start to cut out any ‘uhm’ or slips. I usually also mute the one mic when the other person is talking, so the sound is more clear.

Promoting your podcast

So after I talked about how to edit a podcast it’s maybe also nice to tell you something about ways of promoting your podcast.

Automatic transcripts

Sometimes it can be very useful to have a transcript of your podcast. This can be a real pain if you have to type out the entire podcast by hand. This also applies to subtitles underneath your videos for example. There are many ways you can do this, but the easiest option is to use automatic subtitles or automatic transcripts. Amberscript is a service that offers just that and even has a 10-minute free trial, so you can try it out and see if you like it. Their software can handle over 39 languages and has very flexible subscriptions on a pay-as-you-use or monthly basis.

Headliner Audiogram

If you want to promote your podcast on social media you can use audiograms to make it more interactive. Audiograms are just normal social media posts with audio added to them. What I like to do is search for a couple of sentences that really stood out to me in the podcast episode and use that for an Audiogram. I like to use Headliner because you can create 5 Audiograms for free per month. If you’d like to see Audiograms in action, head over to The Normal World Instagram account. And if you’re there don’t forget to follow the account, so you are up to date on all the updates regarding the podcast!

Last minute tips to save time to edit a podcast

In my podcast I am the podcast host and podcast editor, I basically do everything myself. If you want to save time editing the podcast you can always opt for podcast editing services. Although I’m not familiar with these services there might be some free podcast editing services out there? Also if you are not able to record a podcast in a physical studio, due to corona or travel distance, I’d opt for a service called Zencastr. This is basically a digital audio workstation and podcast recording platform. Besides that always try to be well prepared before recording the podcast and make sure you’re consistent with uploading content. Lastly, don’t forget to add your show notes to your show, so listeners know what the episode is about and how they can find you.

I hope you loved reading about how I edit a podcast and some additional tips on how to quickly get transcripts from your podcasts using Amberscript. And additionally some last-minute tips I learned along the way. Let me know in the comments below your favorite tips on how to edit a podcast!