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When Michael Roffman first started producing The Losers Club and Halloweenies, he recorded both shows in person.
That meant gathering the four or five horror nerds who appear on each episode around a table in a studio, with a single mic, every time. It meant everybody schlepping across Chicago to the studio. And it put a ton of pressure on the few people, like Mike, who knew how to do the technical setup in the recording space.
Then, a pandemic hit, and meeting up to record in person wasn’t an option anymore. All the co-hosts had to set up a recording studio at home. They all got used to Zoom. Things got simpler. Mike got happier.
“Everyone owns a mic now,” he says. To make an episode, “all we have to do is open our laptops. If we had that five years ago, I can’t even imagine how much easier this would have been.”
I’ve heard from lots of podcasters and producers who feel that way. Remote recording has made it easier to book guests, saved on studio rental costs, and, in a lot of cases, improved audio quality.
Of course, it’s not foolproof. It’s no small feat to ensure your guest is comfortable and is capturing clean audio when you can’t be physically next to them. And plenty can go wrong, with laptops and USB mics and dongles and roommates and your stupid laptop fan.
So here’s some advice on getting the very best remote recording you can get, largely from someone who’s spent a lot of time figuring it out.
Don't let guest audio suck
As a rule, listeners are more forgiving of a guest with subpar sound quality than they are of a host. That’s no reason to let your remote guest muddle through with tinny, glitchy audio. But if you don’t have control over your guest’s gear, internet connection, or tech skills, how can you ensure they come in clear?
The producers at Twenty Thousand Hertz have solved this problem by crushing it. It’s sort of a necessity for them — the show is about the world’s most interesting sounds, so it’s ride-or-die on audio quality.
“We’ve canceled interviews because of bad recordings,” says Nick Spradlin, a sound designer for the show.
Early on in the show, it was up to each producer to record their interviews as best they could. But that led to a wide range of recording quality; they had to find a better way. So they decided to either send guests to a nearby recording studio or hire a local sound pro to record the guest in person. It cost them a couple hundred dollars per interview, but they considered it worth the investment.
But again — a pandemic. Suddenly, sending people to do anything in person was off the table. After some experimentation, they landed on a solution: if the guest doesn’t have a microphone, just buy them one. (The mic they landed on is the Audio-Technica ATR 2100x, a dynamic mic with dual USB-XLR output that costs around $100).
Not everybody can swing a hundred bucks per show, we know. It’s also possible to rent a mic, from places like BorrowLenses. But even then, if you’re an indie podcaster making a show for fun on the weekends, that’s a lot of money. Fortunately there are other ways to safeguard your guest’s audio quality.
One tried and true technique: using a remote audio recording software like Descript’s remote recording powered by SquadCast. With a Descript subscription, you can both record and edit podcasts for no extra cost.
The Descript x SquadCast integration is a lot nicer than recording over Zoom or asking everyone to record their own voice, for a few reasons:
- Guests can join recording sessions from their web browser or their phone. No one needs to create an account.
- Recordings are done locally, up to 4K. Every guest's audio and video is uploaded to the cloud while recording.
- Because SquadCast is now a part of Descript, you get pristine quality audio and video recordings that you can edit and publish seamlessly.
Learn more about Descript, and try it free ➡️
Another option is to have the guest record a voice memo on their smartphone while they talk to you on their computer. The recording quality on most modern smartphones is surprisingly good. You can even use an app like TalkSync to get the recording automatically sent to you. But have them hold the phone like a phone, Nick stresses. Talking into the end like an old person in the grocery store will introduce breath sounds and plosives that can ruin your recording.
But if you end up stuck with crappy audio — and at some point, you probably will — there are ways to fix it after the fact. One, of course, is Studio Sound, the Descript feature that uses AI to strip out background noise, then regenerate and enhance voices.
Nick says he once started an interview with someone who said he was in the office. Fine, thought Nick. But it turned out the office was open-concept and the guy was sitting right next to the kitchen. Ten minutes into the interview, someone started cooking breakfast.
“It just ruined it,” Nick says. “But we turned on Studio Sound.” That made the recording usable again.
Hold their hand
The first thing Nick does before every interview is email his guest some guidelines on how to get the best audio from their microphone. He tells them to position the mic 4–6 inches from their mouth, and suggests placing it on a stack of books to raise it up to the right level.
“It’s good to think about those sorts of things — what is every person likely to have in their house, just available?” Nick says.
Then, he asks the guest to set up in “whatever room in the house that has the most soft things.” Rooms with carpets, drapes, couches, and pillows, and so on.
Once the interview comes, Nick recommends dedicating the first 10 minutes to tech setup. And don’t be afraid to ask the guest to change things — most of the time, you’ll be a better judge of their audio quality than they are.
Pick the right platform
For a lot of podcasters, Zoom is an easy default platform for remote recording — most of us live on it at work these days. But the audio quality is pretty meh. That’s because it and other remote-meeting apps are designed to cut out speaker echo, background noise, and other sonic chaff. “They do a good job of cutting those things out, but they also cut the life of the person you’re talking to,” Nick says.
Instead, try a platform that’s specifically designed for remote recording. Twenty Thousand Hertz uses Cleanfeed, which they like for its dependability—though it doesn’t have a video component.
If you want a platform that lets you see — and record — your guest’s face, Descript’s remote recording tool, powered by SquadCast, is an excellent option.
Before you decide on any recording platform, test it out. “Whenever we test a new platform, we bring three or four people on and we just say, all right, just start doing weird stuff,” Nick says. They change out their microphones, unplug their internet cables, refresh the page, do whatever they think might mess up a recording when the stakes are high.
Put them at ease
Sound isn’t everything — what you want above all else is a good conversation. If your guest doesn’t have a lot of experience with recording gear, they may end up stuck in their own head and unable to talk like the real person they are (presumably).
That’s why once you’ve established that their setup is as good as it’s going to get, you should put all that aside and just focus on making your guest comfortable. Give them a break to get a glass of water or breathe a little fresh air before the real conversation begins. Let them focus their attention on the stuff you want them to talk about.
“The tech is just a means to the interview,” Nick says. “What's really important is the story of that person and what they have to offer.”
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