Podcasting Guide | PoducateMe

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Figure 26: AHP Recording Bin.

Once you’re satisfied that everything is set correctly, you may delete the recording by

clicking “Trash” (C) and return to your interview settings by clicking on the title of your

setup (D). Keep in mind that AHP will not record over files left in your recording bin, even

if they have the same title—in the default recording mode, a date and time is

automatically appended to the file name, making each name unique.

When you’re ready, remind the participants that they should speak conversationally, as

they had while you were adjusting the recording levels. They should also try to keep their

distance from the microphone consistent and they should refrain from touching the mic or

its stand. It’s also helpful to mention that the recording can be paused at any time to allow

for the collection of thoughts or a do-over. In addition, flubs in speech can easily be

edited out later.

Ask the guest and interviewer remain silent for about five seconds so that you can record

room noise before beginning. These few seconds of audio will later be used to remove

from the entire recording the very noise you’re capturing. At this point, you can click the

Record button and let the program record the silence for a few seconds before giving a

visual cue to the interviewer to proceed.

Keep an eye on the levels during the interview. If at any time the volume spikes beyond

0db, you can click “Pause” and conduct a do-over, or continue recording and delete the

clipped portion of the audio during editing. For the CareerChat Internship Experience

episode, we recorded some sibilant clipping during the interview and thought we could

simply fix the problem in editing. We were wrong. Clipping can’t be fixed, only removed

like a cancer (along with the word that clipped). Not good. Recommendation: perform a

do-over.

If you decide on a do-over, simply Pause the recording and decide on a good spot to do

the retake. You’re not going to redo the whole interview or record over the flub, you’re

just going to restart the interview at the beginning of the sentence in which there was

clipping and proceed from there, as if nothing happened. You’ll replace the bad take with

the new one in editing.