Choosing the Right Environment for Recording a Podcast

There are many things to consider when you are starting your podcasting adventure. One of the most important decisions that you will have to make is choosing the space that you will use to record the audio for your podcast. Finding the right room can drastically improve the quality of audio. It also allows us to master your audio to a higher standard. 

Rooms for podcasting come in all shapes and sizes, but the best usually have common features which we will discuss below.

Important Considerations

The room you pick may depend on what equipment you have at your disposal. A lot of recording equipment will necessitate a larger space. Here is a good article that explains all the tech and gadgets that you might need when podcasting. That being said, we understand that those who are just starting their podcast journey may not have a recording studio full of equipment. 

This is okay. It does not take a lot of equipment to create a successful podcast. A Minimum Viable Podcast (MVP) involves having only the bare necessities such as a way to record your voice – ex. A brand new phone with a quality recorder – and a way to distribute your podcast. Although the audio quality of your content may be lower, it still can be good enough – especially after the sound engineers at Your Podcast Pal edit and master it. 

When choosing a room to record in, try to avoid a large room with lots of hard surfaces. By using a smaller room with softer surfaces, like carpet, the sound waves are less inclined to bounce around the room and less of an echo will be present. Think of the echo created when you yell in a large building or down a big canyon. 

For the Podcasters on a Budget: 

Your Closet

The beauty of a closet is that it is generally both small and filled with soft surfaces – your clothes.  Although it is not necessarily the prettiest of studios, it is very effective for those on a budget and can reduce echo and distortion enough to create quality audio.

Your Car

Like your closet, your car is filled with soft surfaces, it is quiet, and it is designed to muffle sounds from the outside. If you’re using this option, you may want to buy specific equipment that allows you to clip your mic to the steering wheel. You may also want to cover the windshield with a blanket to further absorb sound. 

Check out this Redditor’s tricks and tips for their car studio. 

Create a Pillow Fort

On a standard desk, lay a blanket over the table, put two pillows at 90-degree angles to each other, and place the mic at the intersection of the two pillows (right in the middle of the V that the pillows make). When you speak, speak about two inches away from the microphone’s filter (this may involve leaning in). This won’t reduce the reverb as well as other options, but it will reduce it to some degree. 

For a visual of what we mean, check out this blog post.

If Budget is not an Issue:

Pay to use an Established Studio

Many cities have established studios that will allow you to record your podcast with them. Generally, their rooms feature all the necessary modifications that most podcasters don’t have available to them. These rooms are engineered to reduce unnecessary and unwanted noises. However, this option is much more expensive and may not be viable for many podcasters, especially those who are just starting out. 

Buy/Design a Room

For a hefty price, you can buy an award winning, engineered studio which you can place wherever you have free space. By doing this, you don’t have to worry about renovating your house and you ensure that your studio can be easily removed. 

If you don’t want to buy a portable studio however, you can buy acoustic panels, foam to dampen sound, or go so far as renovating your room to enhance the acoustics. These renovations can be temporary or permanent. In general, the temporary options will be less  aesthetically pleasing than the permanent options. 

Here is an excellent article on what kind of renovations might be necessary for your podcast studio. 

There are many simple ways of changing your environment in order to enhance your audio. Browsing the web for interesting and unique ways that people have designed their studios should give you a good idea of where to start. For example, there are many ways to reduce an echo in a large room or to dampen sound waves in rooms with hard surfaces. Most do not have access to a professional recording studio, so do not be discouraged if this is not an option for you.