The world we live in is constantly assaulting each one of us with noise. Over time, we learn to filter out or ignore a lot of it and only focus on what we consider to be important noise. You will find when recording a podcast that your microphone makes no such distinction regarding what noise is important and what noise is background noise. When listening back to your podcast, you may notice any number of hums, buzzes, etc. that affect your podcast audio quality. Here are 6 easy tips to eliminate background noise in your podcast.
While there are some hardware and software setups that can help reduce background noise, this article is going to focus on some very easy things you can do to evaluate your environment and potentially remove the background noise at it's source.
1. Your Computer - Whether you are using a laptop or a desktop computer, odds are that it is a fan-cooled system. Simply put, when the computer heats up, the fan comes on to dissipate some of that heat into the ambient air. I have had desktop computers that, when the fan came on, sounded like I was launching fighter jets off of an aircraft carrier.
It may not be practical to remove this computer from you podcast recording setup. The offending computer may be the same one you are using to record your podcast. Whenever possible, you will want to position your computer away from your microphone so that as little of this noise is picked up as possible.
2. Lights - Often times it does not register to us noise from lamps or overhead lighting. Some lights give off an audible hum at high pitched frequencies and while I am not suggesting that you podcast in the dark, I do recommend that you don't over-light your podcast environment. Use whatever lights are necessary but as I tell my children "you don't need every light in the house on!"
3. Ceiling Fans - This may seem like one of the more obvious noise sources. It may be that your fan is spinning at maximum speed, or perhaps it is improperly balanced causing an audible wobble sound.
Both of these can easily be avoided by simply turning the fan off for the duration of your recording session.
4. Phones - This one gets me all the time. Forgetting to turn the ringer off on your phone can be maddeningly frustrating. Not only will this introduce an alarm in the middle of your podcast but often times it breaks your train of thought and interrupts any flow that you might have built up during your recording session.
Remembering to turn off your phone will save you tons of aggravation and will prevent spontaneous rings making it into your podcast.
5. The Rest Of The House - It might be kids playing, televisions in other rooms, dogs barking, it may be impossible to control all the potential sources of background noise in the rest of your house. My advice here would be to find a time during the day when your house naturally quiets down. Schedule your podcast recording time to occur then.
Let your family know that you are going to be recording and they will assist you by trying to limit noise coming from the rest of the house.
6. You - That's right, you are often times one of the largest sources of background noise that makes it's way into the podcast. Why? Because you are sitting directly in front of the microphone and everything you do gets translated into your podcast.
There are any number of things that you may be doing to introduce noise into your podcast, here are just a few examples.
• Fidgeting - doodling on paper, popping your knuckles, nervous tapping. • Moving - rocking back and forth, shifting around in your seat, stretching, twisting and turning.
Always be aware of yourself and what noise you might be introducing into the podcast and try to eliminate it as much as possible.
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