If you want to know how to make your podcast sound better, stop shopping for microphones for a minute.
Most amateur-sounding podcasts don't have a gear problem. They have five small habit problems, and each one can be fixed in about ten minutes with what you already own.
Podcast audio quality is how clear, steady and comfortable your voice sounds to someone listening. That someone is usually wearing cheap earbuds on a bus, not sitting in a studio. Your show only has to sound good where they actually hear it.
I record every episode of this show myself, and I clean up the audio myself too. After more than 700 episodes across my shows, I still catch myself making at least one of the mistakes below.
So none of this is about being perfect. It is about removing the things that make a listener reach for the skip button.
What "Amateur" Actually Sounds Like to a Listener
Listeners will forgive a lot. They will forgive an average microphone, a slightly nervous voice and an episode that runs a bit long.
What they won't forgive is anything that makes listening feel like work. Straining to hear you, jumping when you suddenly get loud, or hearing a fridge hum for 25 minutes straight.
These are the five common podcast audio mistakes behind almost every "this sounds amateur" reaction:
- Sitting too far from the microphone, so the room is louder than you
- Recording in a bare room that bounces your voice around
- Recording too loud, so the peaks crackle, or too quiet, so you boost the hiss later
- Leaving steady background noise in, or scrubbing it out so hard your voice turns robotic
- Uploading at a volume that doesn't match other podcasts
Notice that "a cheap microphone" isn't on the list.
A $60 (₹5,000) USB microphone used well beats a $400 (₹34,000) one used badly, every time. I have heard both, many times, on client shows.
Why beginners think gear is how to make your podcast sound better
It makes sense, in a way. Gear is something you can buy, so it feels like a fix you can control.
But I have watched people spend $300 (₹25,000) on a new setup and sound exactly the same. They were still sitting an arm's length away, in an empty room, with the fan on.
Here's the thing. A better microphone hears everything more clearly, and that includes the echo, the fan and the traffic outside. Upgrading before fixing the room can actually make a recording sound worse.
Does that mean gear never matters? Not really. It matters later, once the basics are right, and by then you'll know exactly what you need.
The good news is that habits are free to change. That is where we start.
How to Make Your Podcast Sound Better: The Five Ten-Minute Fixes
The fastest way to make your podcast sound better is to fix what happens before you press record. Get closer to the microphone, record in a soft room, and set a sensible level. Then do two small clean-up steps in editing, which together take about ten minutes.
Fix 1: Get closer to the microphone (1 minute)
This is the biggest single improvement, and it costs nothing.
Put your microphone about a hand-span away from your mouth. That is roughly 10 to 15 centimetres, or four to six inches.
Angle it slightly to the side, so your breath doesn't hit it straight on. That stops the popping sound you get on words starting with "p" and "b."
When you are close, your voice is much louder than the room around you. When you are far away, the microphone hears the room almost as much as it hears you. That is what makes a recording sound hollow and distant.
If you're recording on a phone, the same rule applies. Prop it a hand-span away, not at arm's length on the desk. I cover the full phone setup in how to record a podcast on your phone.
Fix 2: Record in the softest room you have (3 minutes)
Echo happens when your voice bounces off hard, flat surfaces like bare walls, tiled floors and windows. Soft things soak it up instead.
So pick the room with the most soft stuff in it. A bedroom with a bed, curtains and a rug beats an empty home office every time.
A wardrobe full of clothes is one of the best free recording booths there is. Plenty of podcasters have recorded their first year standing in one.
Then spend two minutes on noise. Switch off the fan, the air conditioner and anything that hums. Put your phone on airplane mode and close the window.
This is the quickest way to reduce background noise on a podcast: stop it getting into the recording in the first place. Removing noise later always costs you a little voice quality.
Fix 3: Set your recording level with room to spare (2 minutes)
Your recording level is how loud your voice arrives in your recording software. You will see it on a meter, usually a bar that jumps as you talk.
Too loud, and the loudest moments distort into a harsh crackle called clipping. Too quiet, and you'll have to boost it later, which brings the background hiss up with it.
Do a quick test before every recording. Talk as you would on the show, including your loudest laugh, and watch the meter.
Aim for your normal speech to sit around the middle. Your loudest moments should peak somewhere between -12 and -6 on the meter.
Never let it touch 0. Once audio clips, no software can fully repair it.
I learned this one the embarrassing way, and recently, after hundreds of episodes. My own exported files were hitting the absolute ceiling, and I had to change how I export them. Now I always leave one or two decibels of breathing room at the top.
Fix 4: Remove noise gently, not completely (3 minutes)
Even in a quiet room there will be a faint, steady hiss. Audacity, which is free, has a Noise Reduction effect built in, and it works like this:
- Select two or three seconds where you aren't talking, just room sound
- Open Effect, then Noise Removal and Repair, then Noise Reduction
- Click Get Noise Profile, so Audacity learns what the hiss sounds like
- Select the whole recording, open the same effect again, and click OK
Start with a gentle setting. Pushing noise reduction too hard makes your voice sound watery and robotic, which is worse than a little hiss.
If you use Descript, its Studio Sound feature does a similar job in one click. It is easier, but it can overdo it on some voices, so listen back before you commit.
Fix 5: Match the loudness of other podcasts (1 minute)
Loudness is how loud your whole episode sounds compared to other shows. If yours is quieter than the show before it, listeners turn it up, then get blasted by the next one.
Most podcast guidance aims for around -16 LUFS. LUFS is just a standard measure of how loud audio sounds to a human ear.
In Audacity, the Loudness Normalization effect lets you type in -16. It handles the rest in a few seconds.
That's the whole fix. It takes one minute, and it removes one of the clearest signs of an amateur show.
Podcast Editing Tips That Don't Eat Your Weekend
Good editing is mostly about removing distractions, not polishing every second. A beginner should aim for 30 to 60 minutes of editing per episode. If it's taking four hours, you are editing things no listener would ever notice.
Editing just means cutting and cleaning up your recording before you publish it. These are the podcast editing tips I actually use.
Use a marker phrase when you stumble
When you trip over a sentence, stop and say a short marker phrase out loud. Pause for a second, then say the sentence again from the start.
I have used "delete it" for exactly this. Later, when you edit, you only need to find that phrase.
It is far faster than listening to the whole episode, hunting for the flubbed takes. On a 20-minute episode it can save you half an hour.
Cut the long pauses, keep the natural ones
Trim silences that run longer than about a second and a half. Leave the short pauses alone.
Those are how people naturally breathe and think. Remove all of them and you sound rushed and a bit strange.
Leave most of the "ums" in
Cut them when three or four pile up in one sentence. Leave the occasional one.
Listeners are hearing a person talking, not a news reader. A few "ums" make you sound like one.
Stop editing when it sounds like you on a good day
That is the finish line, and it is also the quickest way to make your podcast sound better without burning out. Not perfect, not polished like radio, just you on a good day.
Choosing an editing tool is its own question. My roundup of the best free podcast editing software compares the main options side by side.
Audacity vs Descript: Which One for a Beginner?
Both tools can handle all five fixes. They suit different kinds of people.
| Audacity | Descript | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free forever | Free plan, paid plans for more features |
| How you edit | By looking at the sound wave | By editing a written transcript, like a document |
| Noise removal | Manual, a few steps | One click (Studio Sound) |
| Loudness to -16 LUFS | Built in | Built in |
| Learning curve | A few hours | Under an hour for most people |
| Best for | People who like control and want free | People who find audio software scary |
My honest suggestion is simple. If you're watching every dollar, start with Audacity.
If the sight of a sound wave makes you want to quit, Descript will have you editing the same day. Either way, the five fixes matter more than the tool.
Troubleshooting: "I Did Everything and It Still Sounds Off"
Sometimes you follow every step and something still isn't right. These are the usual culprits, and what to do about each.
It sounds hollow or boomy. That is still the room. Move closer to the microphone and put something soft behind you, like a duvet over a chair.
It sounds muffled. You may be too close, or talking straight down into the top of the microphone. Back off a little and angle it towards the side of your mouth.
There's a buzz or hum you can't remove. That is often electrical, from a laptop charger or a cable. Try recording on battery power with the charger unplugged.
Your voice sounds metallic or underwater. That is noise reduction pushed too far. Undo it, and try again with a gentler setting.
One guest is loud and the other is quiet. Record each person on their own track if you can, then level each track separately. Zencastr records a separate track for each guest automatically.
If you've tried all of this and you think the microphone really is the problem, it might be. My guide to the best podcast microphone for beginners covers what's worth buying and what isn't.
The Two-Minute Listening Test
Before you publish any episode, do this. It takes two minutes.
- Put in cheap earbuds, the kind that came with a phone
- Listen to the first two minutes and one random minute from the middle
- Set the volume to where you'd normally have it
- Ask yourself one question: would I keep listening if this were someone else?
That's the test that matters, because it is how most people will hear you. Studio headphones make everything sound better than it really is.
When I helped my wife with her recipe podcast, this plain earbud check was one we came back to again and again. That show went on to reach 3.1 million downloads and the Apple Podcasts Top 10.
Very few of those listeners were wearing studio headphones.
Small Noises That Make a Big Difference
Some of the most common podcast audio mistakes have nothing to do with rooms or settings. They are small physical habits that the microphone picks up far more than you'd expect.
Mouth clicks. A dry mouth makes little clicking sounds between words. Drink a glass of room-temperature water before you record, and keep one nearby.
Skip milk and coffee right before recording. Both tend to make mouth noises worse.
Desk taps and chair creaks. If your microphone sits on the desk, every tap of your finger travels straight into it. Keep your hands off the desk, and if your chair creaks, sit still or swap it for a quiet one.
Paper rustles. Reading notes from paper makes a crinkle every time you turn a page. Read from a screen instead, or lay the pages out flat before you start.
Moving around. Leaning back to think changes your distance from the microphone, and your volume drops with it. Try to keep your head roughly the same distance away for the whole recording.
None of these take more than a few seconds to fix. Together, they are the difference between a clean recording and one that sounds a little distracted.
Your Pre-Recording Checklist
Stick this next to your recording spot. Running through it takes about two minutes, and it catches most problems before they happen.
- Phone on airplane mode, and notifications off on your computer
- Fan, air conditioner and anything humming switched off
- Window closed, and door shut
- Glass of water within reach
- Microphone a hand-span from your mouth, angled slightly to the side
- Test recording done, with peaks between -12 and -6 on the meter
- Ten seconds of silence recorded at the start, for the noise profile later
- Notes on a screen, not paper
That seventh one is a small habit worth building. Those ten quiet seconds give Audacity a clean sample of your room to learn from when you remove noise.
After a few weeks, you'll run through the whole list without looking at it. That is when your sound stops being something you worry about.
Where This Fits When You're Just Starting
Most people get stuck on sound before they ever publish. They buy gear, return it, watch comparison videos, and six weeks later there's still no episode.
That is exactly why Day 5 of my 7-Day Podcast Launch Challenge is about recording with what you already have. You set up your space, run a test, fix the obvious problems and record, all in one day.
Each day is gated behind the work from the one before. So you can't spend three weeks on microphone research while your first episode waits.
Listen to the Podcast Episode
This week I share the podcast editing tips I actually use, as someone who records and cleans up every episode of this show myself. These are the habits that took my audio from homemade to something people finish.
I start before the editing even begins, with the two fixes that matter most. How close you sit to the microphone, and which room you record in. Then I admit to a mistake with my recording levels that I only caught recently, after hundreds of episodes.
The editing part is where I share the little trick I use to find every stumble in seconds. I also explain why I leave most of my "ums" in on purpose.
What I cover in this episode:
- The hand-span rule for microphone distance
- Why the softest room in your house is the best studio you own
- The recording level mistake I only caught recently
- The marker phrase trick for finding mistakes fast
- Which pauses and "ums" to cut, and which to leave in
- The cheap earbuds test I run before anything goes out
Three tools I recommend for getting your sound right:
- Audacity for free recording, noise reduction and loudness levelling
- Descript for editing your episode by editing a written transcript
- Zencastr for recording guests on separate tracks, with the code thepodu for 30% off Pro
Want your recording setup sorted in a single day? Day 5 of the 7-Day Podcast Launch Challenge walks you through it, using the gear you already own.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are the audio questions beginners ask me most, with short, plain answers.
How can I make my podcast sound better without buying new equipment?
Move closer to the microphone, record in a room with soft furnishings, and keep your level away from the top of the meter. Those three changes cost nothing. They fix more beginner audio problems than a new microphone would.
How do I reduce background noise on my podcast?
Stop it at the source first, by switching off fans, air conditioning and anything that hums. Then use a gentle noise reduction pass in Audacity, based on two or three seconds of room sound. Pushing it too hard makes your voice sound robotic.
What volume should a podcast be?
Most podcast guidance aims for around -16 LUFS for the loudness of the whole episode. LUFS is a standard measure of how loud audio sounds to a person. Audacity's Loudness Normalization effect can set it for you in about a minute.
Why does my podcast sound echoey?
Your voice is bouncing off hard, flat surfaces like bare walls and tiled floors. Move to a room with curtains, a rug and a bed, and get closer to the microphone. A wardrobe full of clothes is one of the best free recording spaces there is.
Is a USB microphone good enough for a podcast?
Yes, a USB microphone around $60 to $100 (₹5,000 to ₹8,500) is plenty for a beginner. Just use it close up, in a quiet room. Technique matters far more than price at this stage.
How long should it take to edit a podcast episode?
For a beginner, aim for 30 to 60 minutes per episode. If it's taking three or four hours, you are probably polishing things no listener would notice. Cut long pauses, clusters of "ums" and obvious mistakes, then stop.
Should I remove every "um" from my podcast?
No. Remove them when three or four pile up together, and leave the occasional one in. A few natural hesitations make you sound like a real person rather than someone reading a script.
Is Audacity or Descript better for beginners?
Audacity is free and gives you more control, but it takes a few hours to learn. Descript lets you edit by editing a written transcript, which most beginners pick up in under an hour. Both can handle every fix in this post.
What is clipping in audio?
Clipping is the harsh crackle you hear when a recording is too loud for the equipment to capture. The top of the sound gets flattened off. No tool can fully repair it afterwards, so keep your peaks between -12 and -6 on the meter.
Can I fix bad audio after recording?
Partly. You can reduce steady hiss, even out the volume and cut mistakes. You can't fully fix clipping, heavy echo or someone talking far from the microphone, so the ten minutes before you press record matter most.
Ten Minutes Before You Buy Anything
Before you order a new microphone, give the five fixes one honest try. Get closer, pick a soft room, set a sensible level, clean up gently, and match the loudness.
Most people find they didn't need the new microphone after all. They needed a hand-span and a bedroom.
So which of the five is your recording missing right now?
Resources that I recommend
Here are some of the resources that I recommended in this episode and the ones that I recommend in Podcasting.
- Ubersuggest – The Keyword research tool that I recommend
Below are the tools that I recommend for podcasting —
- Buzzsprout – Podcast hosting
- Behringer Audio Interface – You will need an audio interface if you are using an XLR microphone. This is my recommended audio interface.
- Behringer Audio Interface (budget option) – A lower-cost alternative if you're just starting out and want to keep costs down.
- Zencastr – Zencastr is the easiest option to record interviews, both audio-only and audio+video. This is a must for an interview podcast.
- Audacity – This is the best and most feature-rich free audio editing software. It gives you a lot of options while editing your interviews.
- Samson Q2U – My recommended microphone
- Audio Technica ATR-2110x – My recommended alternative microphone
- TidyCal – My recommended calendar and booking solutions
Thank you for joining in
I hope you enjoyed the information that I shared in this episode.
Do subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting platform in order to stay updated with the latest episodes that I release.
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Then you might want to join my "7-Day Podcast Launch Challenge".
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