Recording Scientific Podcasts – Where Do I Start?

In recent years, there has been a gradual increase in the number of podcast audience all over the world. As people can listen anytime while simultaneously doing other activities, they find listening to a podcast more convenient than reading a blog post or watching an informative video. In contrast to social media, they help people in engaging with their audience with long-form content.

Since the industry is still untouched by many, there are incredible opportunities for students, teachers and researchers to produce good quality scientific content and connect with their audience.

However, creating scientific podcasts can be a challenging task. To make an effective one, individuals need to understand the complexity of scientific topics. Additionally, you must also demonstrate the ability to communicate the important points of the complex topic in simple language for the audience to understand. Once a clear script is created, the next steps include recording, editing, uploading and connecting with the audience. If you are new to this, then here is a complete guide of recording a scientific podcast and making it a hit amongst your audience.

Equipment required for recording

New presenters might find it confusing to select the right recording equipment. It is a common belief that the quality really depends on the equipment used.

However, new podcasters can start with a small setup and gradually expand their list. Here is a list of basic hardware tools required for recording:

A microphone

While it is easy to record with the help of a smartphone or an in-built computer microphone, using a separate microphone for recording will make your scientific podcast sound more professional. A microphone plays a great role in determining the audio quality. Thus, make sure that you invest in a good-quality microphone. Simple USB microphones can offer great audio quality but if you want to significantly improve the quality then go for a microphone that is front-firing and has good rejection. This kind of microphone will clearly pick up your voice and will filter out all unwanted sounds from your surroundings. Before picking up a microphone, determine whether you will be using it to record your audio or to take interviews and also if you will record in a quiet room or in noisy surroundings. Some of the best microphones include Snowball, Zoon H2N, Samson Q2U, and Blue Yeti.

A computer

Using a smartphone for recording, editing and publishing a podcast can seem like an easy option. However, due to the small screen size, a smartphone is not an optimal option. A computer will not only make it easier for you to record but also will come handy to edit, save and upload your work.

Additional equipment

A microphone and a computer are the most basic and important tools required for any recording. However, as you progress in your podcasting journey you can invest in more tools such as an audio interface, a mixer, a pop filter or a windscreen, compressor, microphone stand, headphone, headphone amplifier, shock mount, etc.

Software requirements

Once you have recorded your audio, the next step is to edit it and publish it. GarageBand is one of the widely used software for editing audio files. Although it is free software, it is only available for Mac users and is not available on computers powered by Windows. However, Windows users can use Audacity which is also a free audio editor. One of the best features of Audacity is that it is an open-source audio editor which means users can easily make changes to the original code. Audacity also offers online tutorials and videos for new podcasters to efficiently use the software. Other commonly used podcast editing software includes Adobe Audition, Alitu and Descript.

After editing your content, you can move forward to the publishing stage and upload it. However, signing up to a media host is an important publishing step. With the help hosting sites such as Soundcloud, Libsyn and TuneIn you can publish your episodes online. Apps such as iTunes and Spotify will then pull your show from these sites and will make it available to a global audience.

Furthermore, you can also use hosting services such as Speaker or Omny. Apart from being user-friendly, these services also make it easier for the users to organise and publish different episodes in one place.

Software for organising guest sessions

For those planning to record with a co-host or interview long-distance guests, then specific software such as SquadCast and Zoom can help you in recording each speaker on a separate track. If you want to only record the audio, then SquadCast can assist you in recording high-quality lossless audio without recording the video conferencing. If you are planning to record both audio and video content of your guest session, then Zoom is one of the best online interview platforms. However, while recording a guest session in Zoom, you will have to compromise on the audio quality might as the audio is compressed.

Steps involved in publishing a podcast

Since you cannot directly publish your podcasts, here is an example of the steps involved in publishing on iTunes:

1. Before you publish, create an RSS feed. Sites such as Libsyn and Podbean automatically create the RSS feed for their users.

2. After creating an RSS feed, click on “Submit a Podcast” on the iTunes Store.

3. Next enter your feed URL as well as other information such as Name, Description and Author.

4. When you submit your show, you will get a confirmation message from iTunes about the status of your submission. Once approved, it will be available to audiences in three to five days.

Author Bio

This article was contributed by Laura Butler, owner of The
Loop Podcasting Agency, a multimedia digital agency specialising in helping people create, launch and grow successful podcasts in a variety of genres.