Audio design and the concept of creating a podcast are COMPLETELY new to me! 

This week was the first time I’ve had the chance to experiment with audio – and I dove in. I ordered a USB microphone and pop filter mask to ensure nice quality from the get-go. Along with that, I downloaded audacity, and a few more Adobe programs for editing. 

In preparation to start a podcast, of course, there are a few things to go into it beforehand. My steps for podcast pre-production went as such – 

Readings:

In The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, written by Tom Schroeppel, I learned about sound. With sound comes vibration, frequency, amplitude, types of microphones, and effects that help with audio editing. One thing that really caught my attention was reverberation – here’s why:

Two days before I read Chapter eight: Sound, I had started playing around recording my voice with my fancy new tools. One day before I read this chapter, I recorded more using the same mic location, effects in audacity, and level of voice, but in a different room. And I was surprised to find that the audio sounded distinctly different; the new recording was more echoey! WHY?! The short answer is because of reverberation. 

My living room has soft furniture with a large area rug, and a nice mix of hard surfaces. Where my studio is mostly hard surfaces with 2 large tables, and sewing machines; it does have carpet, however, but the table I work at is at standing height, so it’s farther away from the floor. This caused an echo to happen when I moved from the living room to the studio! 

Interesting enough, and I’m glad I found this out first-hand to help my knowledge with audio recordings.

When it comes to podcast development specifically, I learned a lot from the Podcraft Podcast. Within their series, there are specific articles relating to an invisible script, injecting personality into that script, and perfecting the script. Reading through these articles, and listening to the narrated podcasts for them, I realized just how essential the pre-production planning of a podcast is. 

It was at this point that I needed to do more research on podcasts already out in the world to learn more about how they incorporate what I listened to from Podcraft Podcast. 

Podcast Research:

Creative Pep Talk:

Creative Pep Talk is a podcast I’ve been listening to for a few years now – it’s grabbed my attention more than any other podcast thus far. Here are the reasons why: 

1. Andy J Pizza evokes his personality through his voice – he’s fun, entertaining, and engages with the audience, even though they’re listeners at a different time of recording his episodes. 
2. The music at the beginning of each episode is branded towards his podcast – I know that it’s his when I hear it, and it immediately pulls me in.
3. Pizza tells you why you should be interested in the episode as soon as possible, giving the audience their benefits right away to keep them listening. This is like how the article “The Art of Creating an Invisible Podcast Episode Script” from Podcraft Podcast describes. 

Girlboss Radio:

This is a podcast I’ve found recently, but it caught my attention with the way this episode begins by a quote from the interviewee rather than introducing the podcast. By doing this, it shows the variety of ways to grab the audience’s attention without stepping away from the brand of your podcast. 

Being Boss:

Being Boss is another podcast I’ve listened to for a while. I like their introduction and layout. Similar to Creative Pep Talk, they begin their episodes with their branded music track, and introduce the podcast/episode & cast. Their voices and their script keep me interested with the personality and subjects. They have easy transitions and always have something worth-while to talk about. 

Developing My Own Podcast:

When it came down to deciding what to make a podcast about, I really wasn’t sure for a while. It wasn’t until I started thinking more deeply on who I am and how I view myself in society that made me realize… I have some different views from my peers! 

My point of views mostly differ from the generation before mine: Gen X; as well as about maybe 60%-ish of my fellow millennials. That number is extremely rough, as I’m basing it entirely off of what I’ve seen personally. But from this, I DO know that there are others out there with similar, unpopular POV’s like me. And I knew this would be a great audience base!

What it really comes down to is being more vocal about living your adult life your own way; disregarding or having the conventional aspects of life as an afterthought. Breaking the adulting stigma – that we need to know what we’re doing, or have a plan/timeline that follows what we’ve been taught to know, and so on. 

So, I wrote up a pre-production document which involves a mind map of all topics I immediately thought that I could include, and a solid draft of what the first episode will be! Check it out in the link below.