At Digital Noir, we all listen to podcasts, both for entertainment and information. It’s not crazy to say that we love them, we are entertained by them, we learn from them and they make our daily commute bearable. Sam consumes them like his homemade pickles, listening to podcasts like The Tim Ferriss Show, getting insight from interesting interviews and Mogul, an episodic documentary in audio form. You can find a podcast on anything nowadays, even a fictional radio show in a fictional town with supernatural elements called Night Vale.
Why did we start a podcast?
We really want to say that we started Digital Noir Presents: The Podcast because it’s a great content marketing tool (which it is), it’s great for sharing industry knowledge and all that crap, but in reality, we just wanted to sit and chat with each other and interesting people in the community.
It’s a booming platform, and it’s a great time to jump in and start your own show. To get an idea, the big podcasters like Joe Rogan and Tim Ferris make north of $100,000 per episode. The future is bright for podcasts, seeing unprecedented investment into the platform with companies like Fox and others launching podcast divisions in their organisations.
More important than the ‘why’ was the ‘how’, it took a long time for us to record our first podcast. We put it off for two years, just always talking about doing one. It wasn’t until we decided to treat it like an actual project that we just really committed to it. It took a lot more time to do than we thought, it’s not easy. We put in place a plan and schedule to record every Wednesday. We started with one USB microphone with 3 of us huddled around it, it wasn’t until we got some good audio equipment that it felt like true podcasters.
What equipment do you need?
Having good sound goes a long way, it’s a first impression thing for listeners. Sam was a recording hip hop artist, so we were lucky to have a knowledgeable sound guy from the start. Here’s what we went with:
Microphones: We’re using a couple of Rode Podcaster Mics, these are sweet. They are really heavy though so make sure you have a mic stand with a wide base if you’re thinking of these.
USB Mixer: If you want to use more than one microphone then you should get one of these mixers, we’re using a Behringer Xenyx Q1202USB Mixer with USB. We plug the microphone into this mixer and then we connect this mixer via USB to a computer to record the podcast.
Headphone Amp: Having one of these is great, you can hear everyone’s mic level back in real time. Everyone plugs in their own headphones into the amp. This allows you tweak everyone’s levels to make sure someone isn’t sounding louder than someone else, you can monitor everyone’s sound throughout the recording session. It also just makes it all feel just a little more professional.
Audio Software: They are many options out there to record and mix your podcast, we use Adobe Audience but any will do. Just make sure you hit record!
How do you get your podcast out there?
Find a place to host and distribute your podcast. There are many but we recommend SoundCloud. It’s easy to setup and you only need to upload once to SoundCloud, from there you can link to other popular podcast platforms like iTunes and Stitcher, which will automatically pull from SoundCloud when you upload it.
Final Words
If you’re thinking of starting podcast, we say just do it! Commit, plan and execute. Stick to it, keep to a schedule, have fun.
Do you want to start a podcast for your industry? What would you talk about? Let us know.
Check out our podcast below about Podcast 101 or subscribe to our podcast on your favourite podcast app by searching Digital Noir Presents.
