I was reading a fascinating article the other day - all about the intricacies of audio and how the different frequencies of (mainly) spoken audio interact with the human ear.
At this point, let’s do a quick run through of how sound works. Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to write an essay or anything…
So, let’s say you are sat in your kitchen - and you exclaim loudly at something that you have just seen on social media. The fact that Stephen Fry is considering becoming a bikini model, perhaps?!?
Anyway, your exclamation leaves your mouth and heads outwards. As you know, if you’ve ever shouted to someone in an open space, your voice can carry over a pretty big distance; so when you speak loudly, the sound wants to leave your kitchen.
Some of it, but most of it will be blocked from leaving by walls, cupboards, doors, tables, windows etc. That’s when echoes occur, because the sound will bounce off all of the things in your kitchen, with many of the ‘bounces’ coming back to your ear.
All of this happens in a very small amount of time.
Now, whilst the ear is an amazing piece of machinery - it’s also very good at lying to you. Or, at the very least, not giving you the full picture.
What I mean by this is that, when you’re speaking into a microphone (possibly in your kitchen) it most likely sounds amazing. You’re sounding authoritative and knowledgable, whilst also being entertaining. Who wouldn’t want to listen to that?
However, when you - or your editor - listens back to it, there’s a slightly different story. You’re still sounding authoritative and knowledgeable - but it now sounds like you’re doing it in an echo chamber, rather than your kitchen.
This is because your ear filters out a lot of the tiny echoes that occur - but the microphone doesn’t. Actually, to be fair to the human ear, the issue is that the microphone isn’t as good as the ear - rather than the ear letting you down in some way.
Either way, what you’re hearing through your ears and what a microphone hears are two very different things - and this can affect everything.
Most importantly, it can affect how much the listener trusts you, and what you’re saying.
Honestly, the quality of the audio is almost as important as the quality of the content itself.
Here’s another example…
You’re in your car and listening to the radio.
Your favourite song comes on. You turn it up and begin to sing along. However, because you’re on the very edge of the transmission area of that particular radio station, it affects the quality of the audio. If you’re listening on DAB it will just cut out, as DAB is made up of 1’s and 0’s - so it’s either there, or it isn’t; and if you’re listening on FM then it will start to sound fuzzy and fade in and out.
Will you continue to listen to it, straining to hear it and sing along as the quality gets worse and worse?
Of course not.
Now, this is the thing to bear in mind when you’re recording your podcast. If you won’t even listen to your favourite song when the audio quality is bad, why should a podcast listener hear what you’ve got to say, if the quality of your audio is bad?
During the pandemic, podcast listeners were incredibly forgiving. They knew that circumstances had changed and that people were recording their podcast episodes in all kinds of places - some of which didn’t sound great.
But that time has passed. Listeners are expecting good quality audio again.
That doesn’t mean that you should never put anything of poor, or lesser, quality into your podcast. What I’m saying is that you should be aware of the standards that podcast listeners are looking for now - and they will judge you for not working towards them; or telling them why you couldn’t achieve them with a particular episode.
So - going forward, if you believe that the quality of the audio isn’t going to be the best - either from you, or your guest (if you have one) - either record the episode again (a pain, I know…) or mention the quality of the audio in the introduction.
Something like ‘Just to let you know, we had a couple of issues with the recording of this episode, so the quality isn’t as high as we would like to bring you - but there’s still some great content here, and we’ll be back to normal with the next episode’
Simple as that. You’re including the audience in the production side of the podcast - and they will love and respect you all the more for it.
However, like so many things, you shouldn’t overuse it.
If you’ve had to put that into the intro of, say, 3 out of 5 episodes - then maybe there are some issues with your setup, or the briefing for your guests, that needs to change.
Make sure that both you and your guest have an external microphone (you can pick one up for about £100. The Røde NT-USB Mini is a great one to start with) and that you’re recording in 1) anywhere that isn’t your bathroom and 2) is as small a room as you can get into.
Your podcast isn’t just for you. It’s not even for your business network. It’s for your listeners. A completely separate group of people, many of whom don’t know you and won’t even get to hear your great content for months or years.
So, treat the audience with respect. Make sure that the quality of your audio is the best that it can be - and that, coupled with great content, will keep your listeners coming back again and again and again to hear what you’ve got to say.