Other Articles in Make
Podcasting Blog
8 step guide to podcast marketing
6/28/2008
Podcasting leader Christopher Penn has published a short PDF guide, 8 step guide to podcast marketing, that seeks to help you jump start how you’re marketing your own podcast. This is a very short PDF and covers topics that include whether your podcast is worthy of buzz, is easily found and how you’re measuring your success. The … Continue reading »
Publishing a Podcast with ExpressionEngine
6/24/2008
If you’re a user of the wonderful ExpressionEngine CMS (this site has been running on it for more than 2 years) and want to easily and efficiently publish a podcast with it, I just released a new screencast you might be interested in.
The latest episode of the ExpressionEngine Screencasts covers … Continue reading »
Voice Over Training
5/10/2008
One of the obvious aspects of podcasting is using your voice. And using it properly. If you’re looking for some more information about how to improve your voice technique in your podcast, I’d suggest checking out the Voice Over Experts Podcast from Voices.com.
Hardware Recommendations
- Kustom KM4 Mic with Cable
- Behringer XM8500 Microphone
- Shure SM58 Mic
- MXL MXL V63MBP Computer Desktop Recording Kit
Masthead
Contact
Ryan Irelan, Editor - listen@podcastfreeamerica.com
After the Recording: How to Make an Interview Sound Great
Once you've recorded that interview, you suddenly carry an important responsibility.
One of the great joys of the podcast revolution is that it gives each of us a real opportunity to make contact with people we admire. Whereas we used to merely write fan letters to our heroes, now we can record podcast interviews with them, and share these with the world.
But here’s something to consider: once you’ve recorded that interview, you suddenly carry an important responsibility. Your interviewee is placing a great trust in you: to present that interview in a thoughtful, listenable way. Here are some tips on how to do that.
(I should add here: this article is more of an ideological how-to piece than a technical one. There are many great references on the subject of audio editing. This article assumes that you have a sound editing program of some kind, and know something about how to use it. If you don’t, I highly recommend Audacity, which is free and simple to use.)
First, deal with the nerves.
When the recorder switches on, most of us get a little nervous. And when we’re nervous,
we tend not to express ourselves as well as we do when we’re relaxed. So when
conducting an interview, your first task is to help your interviewee relax and be comfortable speaking to you.
One great way to do this is to send your interviewee a list of the questions you’ll be asking in advance, so they can prepare. Or if you’re not the plan-ahead type, then you can spend the first few minutes of your interview time in light conversation, without recording, to warm things up a bit. It’s also very courteous to let your interviewee know exactly when you’ve turned the recorder on, and when you’ve turned it off.
Peel away the layers, get to the good stuff.
Surprisingly few of us are really good at being interviewed. When you interview someone
who’s a seasoned pro, you’ll notice that they speak in concise, sound-bite language, and
they have ready answers to your questions.
Much of the rest of the time, however, you’ll find that your interviewee is a bit less polished, tending to ramble a little, and to repeat themselves. Like we all do when we’re nervous.
If your interviewee has done a bit of nervous rambling on your recording, then it’s a very kind thing to clean that up when you edit. Take out any “ummms†and “uhhhsâ€Â, remove any stutters. Editing your audio like this will make your interviewee sound calmer and more authoritative.
Make your points once, then move on.
When your interviewee repeats the same ideas over and over, your audience tends to get
bored. You can work a bit of editing magic to make your interview more engaging.
Listen carefully to your recorded interview. When you hear an idea being re-stated several times, pick out the one occurrence that’s the clearest and most interesting. Keep that one, and delete all the other repeats. It’s paradoxical, but the point you make one time carries much more weight than the point you make five times. By whittling out the redundacies, you’re doing your interviewee (and your audience) a huge favor.
Be a pace-setter.
When you listen to professional radio interviews from now on, I want you to notice
something: you’ll rarely encounter a very long answer to any interview question. This is
because the human brain generally cannot focus on a long, drawn out speech. To keep
your listeners engaged, you need to keep the pace of your interview brisk.
If your interviewee is prone to long, drawn-out answers, then you’ll need to use some
editing tricks to keep things moving.
First, remove all unnecessary repetition and rambling from your interviewee’s speech. Be
fairly ruthless; reduce each answer to its essence, and keep it under three minutes. If you find all that cutting too daunting, then alternatively you can come up with some extra clarifying questions. Record yourself asking these questions separately, and then insert these into the long, drawn-out answer at appropriate points. Voila! Better interview pacing!
Don’t be afraid to kill questions.
When you listen to your recorded interview, you may discover a Dud Question—an
unwelcome guest that shows up somewhere during many interviews.
No need to panic. In the course of any conversation, there’s bound to be one section that’s weaker than the rest—maybe your interviewee didn’t understand a question, or maybe their answer just didn’t come out right. It happens.
If your interview contains a Dud Question, don’t hesitate to edit it (and the resulting answer) out of the recording. The whole interview will be stronger for it.
By the time you’ve finished all this polishing, you will have created an audio interview that presents your interview subject in the best possible light. He or she will greatly appreciate your efforts, as will your audience.
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