I’m going to begin by telling you about my living room… stay with me. When you think about comfort in your own home – what comes to mind? Cushions and sofas? Carpets and rugs? – all the soft furnishings that make a house extra warm and cosy. For many years I have felt like something in my living room wasn’t quite right but I was never able to quite put my finger on it. You see, I have a gorgeous living room with comfortable sofas and loads of big fluffy cushions – but my husband has always loved exposed wooden floors. I have often felt that something wasn’t quite right when sitting in there, something felt off but I just couldn’t work it out.
Then, one day, I was having a conversation in there and suddenly realised what it was that was making me feel this unease. It was the echo. The high Victorian ceilings along with the exposed floors were working together to create a space prone to echo, something that may not be blatantly obvious but after a while, becomes hard to ignore. The echo made the space feel empty and sparse. When you think of echoey spaces, you think of cold, lifeless areas – not somewhere warm and lived in… not the centre of a family home. The echo alone completely affected the mood of the room and has prevented me creating the atmosphere I desire. But I knew exactly what we needed – a great big rug, much to my husband’s dismay.
The point I’m trying to make is that we often prioritise how things will look when designing our environment – be that at home, at work or in public spaces, and the impact of how sounds will interact with the space is often overlooked. When recording audio for a podcast, echo, space, boom or tinnitus will massively impact the authority in your voice, especially if your guest is recording in a more suitable environment. It’s not something that will be glaringly obvious but in the same way I was feeling like something wasn’t quite right in my living room, the listener will feel that something is off. You will lose the sense of gravitas that needs to be utilised in order to deliver a punchy and powerful podcast.
In the same way that you wouldn’t want to have an important conversation on the phone with someone if the signal was poor, or they were in a really noisy environment – the listener isn’t going to want to listen to your podcast if the audio isn’t clear. By looking at the environment you are recording in, you will be able to make small changes that will massively improve the quality of your audio and therefore increase the professionalism and authoritativeness of your podcast.