GMA-Studios is part of the GMA-Media Group Ltd - All rights reserved 2021

Tips for planning a podcast

Planning a successful show or series is all in the preparation - but even the best planned shows can be ruined by bad audio quality. Make sure your host and guests have a wired headset or dedicated microphone and good internet (ideally with a wired connection and not on Wi-Fi - if it has to be on Wi- Fi, then they need to sit as close to their Wi-Fi router as possible to get the best internet speeds). You can check the download (and more importantly) the upload speeds at www.speedtest.net What is the format for the show and how long will each episode be? Who are your audience and where will they be listening to, and finding your podcast? Music bed - for the show's signature theme tune, as the intro and outro to the show each week. Do you have a licence to use it or will you be using royalty free music? Who is going to be the show host or hosts - and why (and will they definitely be available for every episode)? If you are having guests each episode, how many of the future episodes, have you already booked the guests in advance for? It’s always nice to be able to tell listeners who future guests will be, and who will be on the next episode, to make them tune in again for the next show - (unless you have not secured the guests yet, but have already announced them as a feature on the next episode. Your podcast credibility will crash!!!) Have some guide questions to help steer the flow of the show and to make sure all points are covered. Never try to script a conversation or full answers to a question. The conversations will sound like it is being read and unnatural. Bullet points or one line answers as prompts are fine, but we have seen complete 30 minute conversations being scripted and a client/ sponsor wanting it read word for word by people who are not actors. Not only does it sound horrible and over branded, but they take forever to record and edit to make them sound half decent - which is a massive waste of your production budget/ profit. Make sure everyone who is part of an episode is available on the day of recording. It sounds obvious, but we have had sessions where 2 peoples 20 minute chats were fully scripted because the 2 hosts were not available on the same day of recording!! Once the parts were edited together (as per the script), it sounded disjointed, as there was no chemistry between the 2 and couldn’t react naturally to each other’s part of the conversation.
- Online Studio bookings - Book / Check availability

Online booking

Suggested work flow for recording

and editing

In our experience, once you know the flow of an episode, and 'suggested' questions to help steer the show, and make sure the show is the length you need. You are made sure the guests have good internet and microphone (and are not just talking into their laptops microphone) and you have the rights to the theme music for the show (if any), then you are good to go - once everyone has joined their links to the session and audio levels have been adjusted on our mixers the recording can begin - record the show and its conversation in its entirety, mistakes and all, as we can edit out the obvious mistakes and restarts on the fly. - once the show/ conversation is recorded, re-record the hosts intro and outro a couple of times as options for the edit - you may also need to think about a 30sec advert for your shows if hosting on iTunes or Spotify. - to save time and money, we send you the rough edit as an mp3 with any specifics taken out that were noted at the time of recording - you listen through and make a note of the timings of anything you want taking out or points of concern (i.e. - 6min12sec - 7min43sec take out mention of competitors brand) and send back to us - We then load up the full multi-track recording and make those changes, sorting out audio levels, noise cancellation and adding the music etc. - we then send it back to you for approval or feedback and repeat the process if necessary, until sign off.

We have found this to be the most

productive and cost effective way of

working, as most of the studio time

used up during an edit session, is the

playback and decision making on what

to keep, by all those involved.

Podcast tips

[ ] GMA-Studios Broadcast & Streaming Solutions
GMA-Studios is part of the GMA-Media Group Ltd - All rights reserved 2021
Tips for planning a podcast Planning a successful show or series is all in the preparation - but even the best planned shows can be ruined by bad audio quality. Make sure your host and guests have a wired headset or dedicated microphone and good internet (ideally with a wired connection and not on Wi-Fi - if it has to be on Wi-Fi, then they need to sit as close to their Wi-Fi router as possible to get the best internet speeds). You can check the download (and more importantly) the upload speeds at www.speedtest.net  What is the format for the show and how long will each episode be?  Who are your audience and where will they be listening to, and finding your podcast?  Music bed - for the show's signature theme tune, as the intro and outro to the show each week. Do you have a licence to use it or will you be using royalty free music?  Who is going to be the show host or hosts - and why (and will they definitely be available for every episode)?  If you are having guests each episode, how many of the future episodes, have you already booked the guests in advance for? It’s always nice to be able to tell listeners who future guests will be, and who will be on the next episode, to make them tune in again for the next show - (unless you have not secured the guests yet, but have already announced them as a feature on the next episode. Your podcast credibility will crash!!!)  Have some guide questions to help steer the flow of the show and to make sure all points are covered.  Never try to script a conversation or full answers to a question. The conversations will sound like it is being read and unnatural. Bullet points or one line answers as prompts are fine, but we have seen complete 30 minute conversations being scripted and a client/ sponsor wanting it read word for word by people who are not actors. Not only does it sound horrible and over branded, but they take forever to record and edit to make them sound half decent - which is a massive waste of your production budget/ profit.  Make sure everyone who is part of an episode is available on the day of recording. It sounds obvious, but we have had sessions where 2 peoples 20 minute chats were fully scripted because the 2 hosts were not available on the same day of recording!! Once the parts were edited together (as per the script), it sounded disjointed, as there was no chemistry between the 2 and couldn’t react naturally to each other’s part of the conversation.

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Podcast tips

- Online Studio bookings - Book / Check availability

Suggested work flow for

recording and editing

In our experience, once you know the flow of an episode, and 'suggested' questions to help steer the show, and make sure the show is the length you need. You are made sure the guests have good internet and microphone (and are not just talking into their laptops microphone) and you have the rights to the theme music for the show (if any), then you are good to go - once everyone has joined their links to the session and audio levels have been adjusted on our mixers the recording can begin - record the show and its conversation in its entirety, mistakes and all, as we can edit out the obvious mistakes and restarts on the fly. - once the show/ conversation is recorded, re- record the hosts intro and outro a couple of times as options for the edit - you may also need to think about a 30sec advert for your shows if hosting on iTunes or Spotify. - to save time and money, we send you the rough edit as an mp3 with any specifics taken out that were noted at the time of recording - you listen through and make a note of the timings of anything you want taking out or points of concern (i.e. - 6min12sec - 7min43sec take out mention of competitors brand) and send back to us - We then load up the full multi-track recording and make those changes, sorting out audio levels, noise cancellation and adding the music etc. - we then send it back to you for approval or feedback and repeat the process if necessary, until sign off.

We have found this to be the most productive

and cost effective way of working, as most of

the studio time used up during an edit

session, is the playback and decision making

on what to keep, by all those involved.

[ ] GMA-Studios Streaming & Broadcast Solutions [ ] GMA-Studios Broadcast & Streaming Solutions