405: Recording Your Narrative Podcast

CS405 – Recording Your Narrative Podcast Special guests: Corey Coates Jessica Rhodes Dave Jackson Daniel J. Lewis Geoff Woods  Intro:Welcome to the Creative Studio, where we conduct experiments with podcasting. We are in the middle of our fourth season, where we are talking about narrative podcasting. If you’re new to the show, I’d recommend going back to the first episode of this season because each episode builds on the previous one – at least to some extent.We’ve already looked at: What a narrative podcast is and whether you should do this format or not The overall workflow or roadmap of a narrative podcast The planning and preparation that needs to go into a successful narrative In this episode, we will be looking specifically at the recording aspect. Jessica Rhodes and Corey Coates are the hosts of The Podcast Producers podcast. They are conducting interviews for their second season (which is almost over), but for the first season, they did a narrative or documentary style.4 – Guests are the spotlight1 – Looking for sound bites6 – Interviews not meant to be raw and uncut2 – Doesn’t have to be perfect questions7 – Let the guest talk5 – Allow the guest to tell the story3 – Shut up after asking the question8 – Best stuff after 15-20 minutesJessica Rhodes is also the founder of Interview Connections, a service that connects podcasters with guests. She also provides a lot of great information and resources for interviewing. One resource is a video series called Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic. This can help you with being both a host and a guest. Check it out at InterviewConnections.tv. Besides having interview skills and techniques to get the content you need, an important aspect of interviewing is having a way to record the content. There are several ways that you can record.One popular way is using Skype with a Skype-recorder. You just speak with the guest and the software can record the conversation for you, usually splitting your side from theirs. This makes it easier for editing later. This is how I did most of the interviews for this series.I also used my cell phone with Corey Coates. I had my phone hooked up to my mixer so that both sides of the conversation could be recorded into my digital recorder. If your guest has the right equipment, you could speak over the phone and each of you can record on your own side separately. This is called a double-ender.Another method that you use is in person interviews. For this a portable digital recorder is really helpful. Dave Jackson even uses his iPhone’s recording software.9 – Digital recorder readyDaniel J. Lewis also talks about using a digital recorder, but he emphasizes the importance of getting good quality audio – at least quality that is good enough. He has some great tips.10 – Clear spoken word11 – Microphone techniques12 – Contrast in audioGeoff Woods records a lot of audio for his podcast, The Mentee. It started as a personal mission to build passive income after his income got slashed by 40%. He sought out people...