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Podcast studio: how to set up the best place to record your podcast

April 19, 2023
Looking to make a in-home podcast studio? Here are the essentials you'll want to consider.

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One of the most daunting challenges for new podcasters is figuring out how to capture crisp, clear audio that makes every episode sound professionally produced. After all, sound engineers who work on big podcasts are basically artistic physicists armed with a room full of equipment.

The truth is, though, plenty of popular podcasts are recorded in the corner of the creator’s bedroom. And they sound great.

You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars or hire a professional sound mixer. A few pieces of equipment—maybe just your cell phone—and the right space will get you where you need to be.

In this story, we’ll help you create the perfect environment to record professional-quality audio. You’ll learn:

  • How to choose an ideal and quiet spot for your home studio
  • How to tame ambient sound and improve audio quality in your home studio (no physics degree required)
  • How Spotify for Podcasters’ Audio Enhancement tool can help you sound like a pro no matter where you record

There are lots of ideas in this post for setting up your podcast studio, but rest assured this is an iterative process. Start with your mobile phone and a walk-in closet, then expand as your audience grows.

Choose the right room for your podcast studio

The enemies of a professional podcast sound quality are external noise and reverb.

External noises come from all around us—the neighbor’s apartment, an air conditioner, a lawn mower. Each one can ruin an otherwise perfect interview. But many of these noises are hard to isolate because we’re able to tune them out.

Reverb is a little harder to identify, because it’s all the sound waves that bounce off surfaces and return back to a microphone. In life, reverb is what gives sound its richness and helps us locate where a noise originated. In podcasting, it creates echoes that make it seem like you’re recording from a tunnel.

New technology like Spotify for Podcasters’ Audio Enhancement tool smooths over the external sounds out of your recordings. But you can also keep them from ever reaching your microphone by recording from the right space in your home.

Small interior room

The first goal is to find a small room. Why? Think about the sound in a large auditorium. Sound waves travel far away and then bounce back, creating a long echo. That extreme reverb would make it hard for listeners to understand what you’re saying.

The echoes in a large living room with vaulted ceilings won’t be as dramatic as those in a concert venue, but they’ll still be noticeable in a recording. 

On the other hand, a small room, like a guest bedroom or home office, leaves less space for sound waves to bounce around. Since the waves return so fast, they produce less perceptible reverb. 

Walk-in closets are also perfect podcast studios, especially since they often have hanging clothes that dampen reverb even further (more on that in a bit).

You can create a similar small-room effect in a larger space with room dividers. These free-standing, often folding fixtures act like portable walls you can tuck away when you need the space back for other reasons.

It will also help to sit toward the center of your podcast studio room. That’ll keep the reverb equal on all sides and less noticeable on the recording track.

A couple of rooms to avoid are garages and rooms that share a wall with a neighbor. Garages have terrible acoustics and little insulation from outside sounds. Podcasting from a shared-wall room leaves your recording vulnerable to the neighbor’s coffee grinder or barking dog. 

Away from appliances

Our brains adapt to ignore repetitive sounds. Sit in a room long enough, and you’ll forget the noisy air conditioner is there. Your podcast recording isn’t so forgiving. It’ll pick up every sound and place it right over the top of your guest's voice.

Remove, turn off, or avoid noisy appliances. Here are a few to look out for:

  • Air conditioners or fans
  • Humidifiers or dehumidifiers
  • Buzzy light bulbs
  • Chiming clocks
  • Microwaves 
  • Clothes washers and dryers

And the one many podcasters forget: your laptop. Keep it as far from the mic as possible, and close all open tabs. You don’t want a delayed advertisement to start blaring in the middle of your recording session.

DIY sound absorption and diffusion

Have you ever noticed that your voice echoes in a completely empty apartment but doesn’t when that same apartment is full of furnishings? It’s because the couch, rug, curtains, and even the plants have either diffused or absorbed your voice’s sound waves, so they don’t return to your ears.

You can accomplish the same effects with a few well-placed items in your podcast studio.

Sound diffusion

Sound diffusion is done by evenly spreading sound waves out in a space. To envision how it works, think of sound waves like a handful of very bouncy rubber balls. Throw them hard at an empty wall, and many of them will ricochet back to you. 

Now put a plant in the way and much of the balls’ energy is redirected and spent on leaves and branches. The same happens to sound waves. The more obstacles there are in a room, the more the sound waves are diffused and not returned back to you—or your microphone.

It’s especially important to diffuse sound directly in front and behind your recording station since that’s where the first and strongest reflections happen. Corners are also hot spots for creating echos. Furniture and plants help. So does a filled bookcase and decorations on the wall.

Absorption 

Absorption happens when a sound wave passes through a material, losing its energy on the way—just like spraying water from a hose through a beach towel. It’s important to absorb both reverb sound and exterior noises.

To reduce reverb, use soft furnishings and cover flat, hard surfaces—like walls, hardwood floors, and table tops—with soft materials. Towels work, but they can be a little thin. Moving blankets are cheap and dense, making them great DIY sound absorbers.

Covering doors and windows has a double effect of softening reverb while also absorbing exterior sounds. Close the blinds and hang a blanket over the windows. If there’s commotion in the rest of the house, stuff a rolled-up towel at the bottom of the door or lean a mattress up against it. And don’t forget the flat reflective surface right in front of you: your computer monitor. Cover it with a towel.

For serious noise reduction, consider hanging acoustic panels. These thick pieces of foam or other sound absorption material are what you’ll see in professional recording studios. Many of them have ridges or cone shapes built into them to diffuse what little sound they don’t absorb. You can get thinner, one-foot square acoustic panels for a dollar or two each. Professional-level versions are two to three times that cost. You don’t need to cover the entire room. A few panels in sound hot spots will go a long way.

Here are a few other tips to reduce the chance of noise intrusion on your podcast recording:

  • Record at quiet times like mid-day when there’s less chance of traffic noise.
  • Hang a “do not disturb” sign, so the delivery person doesn’t ring the doorbell.
  • Post a recording schedule on the refrigerator, so others know when it’s quiet time.
  • Speak close to the microphone.
  • Use a vocal booth box around your microphone.

It won’t take much to set up a home podcast studio that makes you sound like the rockstar you are.

Video podcast studio considerations

Video adds a layer of personalization and emotion to podcasts. It also adds another sense—sight—to consider when setting up your home studio.

Just like reverb can make your podcast sound less professional, poor lighting can make it look that way, too. To improve the scene, cover bright light sources like external windows. Add soft light that doesn’t cause harsh shadows. For a one-person podcast, a ring light works well. Consider a two-light system if you’ll be interviewing guests in person. 

Another option is to interview guests using video conference software. The sound won’t be great since those platforms often compress audio files. But you can just use the video portion and edit in your audio recording.

Oh, and remember all of those furnishings you’ve set out to diffuse sound waves? They’ll make for an attractive backdrop in videos.

Spotify for Podcasters’ Audio Enhancement

You won’t always have access to a quiet recording space. If you’re recording on the go from your phone, you may never get that chance. That’s why we’ve launched one-tap Audio Enhancement—a feature built into the Spotify for Podcasters app that lets you improve your sound quality without additional editing.

Here’s how it works. You record an episode on the Spotify for Podcasters app and tap the “enhance” button. The technology identifies and removes background noise while leveling voices to a consistent volume.

With Audio Enhancement, you’ll sound great whether you’re recording from the subway or your kitchen table.  

Design your space and plan your recording sessions with these tips in mind, but remember it doesn’t have to be perfect. What matters most is what you have to say, so keep sharing your message even if some weeks the sound isn’t at the highest level.

Feeling inspired?