Why does recording audio have to be so difficult?

If you’re trying to record audio of a very high standard, you’re often met with a barrage of choices you have to make.

Today I’m excited to share a game-changer in the world of audio recording - Shure Motiv Mix, which at time of writing is currently in its Beta phase and it’s completely free to use.

It’s happening. You’re finally launching a podcast.

You’ve been thinking about it, planning it, buying the gear, deciding not to do it, then deciding you want to do it, then getting scared, putting the gear back in the cupboard, then getting it back out, then realising you really just need to do it.

You know, all the normal emotions that fresh podcasters go through.

You get over the initial hurdle of committing to the process, but then you start thinking what that first episode needs to be like.

It needs to be amazing.

The kind of episode that someone will listen to and think, “This is possibly the greatest podcast in the history of the world. I’m hooked and I will now be a raving fan forever. I will give them my first born child as gratitude for how good this podcast episode is.”

Sure, that’s one way to attack your first episode, but maybe it’s not the smartest…

In this episode, I step through how I believe you should approach your first podcast episode.

Recording on location used to be such a huge pain in my ass.

I’d have this big carry case with my trust Zoom H5, Rode lapel microphones and clips, wind socks, XLR adapters for the lapels so that they’d connect to the Zoom and then a huge amount of leads to make sure all my bases were covered.

And then a few brands started bringing out wireless microphone options that could connect to your phone. 

Some of them were okay, but most of them weren’t good enough for me to switch from my bulky setup. I was capturing much better sound doing it my way. 

As the technology improved, so too did the wireless microphone options that were brought to the market.

Again, I was still dubious, but I decided to bite the bullet and put the Rode Wireless Pro to the test. I’d looked at some reviews on YouTube, reviewed the sound quality and inclusions and decided it may be a viable option for myself and our clients.

For the tests that I conducted, I was focusing on how the Rode Wireless Pro system handled a diverse array of recording environments. I tested in a quiet hotel room, at the beach, on a train, in the park and using the included lapel (wired) setup vs the completely wireless option.

I’ve been using the system now for almost three months, and I’m ready to give you my recommendations.

After recently watching Happy Gilmore for probably the twentieth time, it got me thinking about how we present ourselves as creators.

I found myself reflecting quite existentially on the impact that Adam Sandler’s character had on my view of where the world of content creation currently sits. 

And I honestly think it’s all a little boring. 

Overwhelmingly people are presenting as the “professional” version of themselves, especially on LinkedIn. This makes sense as we predominantly put out content to draw the viewer/listener into ultimately buying something from us. 

We present as the authority.

We present as a leader.

But are we showing enough of ourselves to keep our content interesting?

I think we could stand to be a little more ridiculous. Let loose a little more and present more in the way you might present to a friend.

Currently, the global creator economy is valued at around $155 billion.

By 2030 it’s expected to surpass $525 billion.

That’s a lot of wig wams.

And I know it might seem like every person and their pet is a “creator” these days, but it shouldn’t stop you from exploring this option for yourself too.

Being a content creator can mean many different things and encompass a variety of industries. It’s not all about selling the latest products, jumping on the newest trends and vlogging about your latest dental checkup.

There is nuance to this industry. It’s fun, creative, explorative, educational and thinking of yourself as a creator will open you up to delivering more valuable content for your audience.

No doubt you’ll also make more money as a result.

But the first step needs to be answering the all-important “why”.

I’ve got some practical tips to help you answer that question in this podcast episode.

Here at Bamby Media, we’ve been producing podcasts for clients for almost a decade and I’d say at this point we’ve worked with almost every podcast hosting platform out there.

From Omnystudio to Simplecast, Podbean, Libsyn, Blubrry, Acast there is no shortage of hosts.

But do we really need that many podcast hosts?

Don’t they all largely do the same thing?

The short answer is yes, they do all largely have the same basic functions.

But I do feel that not all podcast hosting platforms are created equally.