Go Outside: podcasting shouldn’t be limited to studios
Idon’t often write blogs where I talk about how to make better podcasts. And that’s not least because I know that not everything I’ve ever made is brilliant. There are producers who output a few hours of content, at most, per year, but what they make is so exquisite — the Fabergé egg of podcasting — that they can pontificate on quality. And then there’s someone like me, who creates several hours of content a week. Inevitably, when you’re working with quick turnarounds and bulk orders, quality is the prime consideration. All the same, I saw this quote circulating on Twitter (shoutout to producer, Holly Fisher) and thought I’d share.It’s from the Financial Times’ review of a new podcast, Why Women Grow, where writer Alice Vincent visits, as you’d expect, women growers, speaking to them in the landscapes that shape their professional and personal lives. For me, this is also a pertinent reminder of what podcasting can do — and a lot of the things that have possibly been forgotten in the rush to “challenge” prestige radio.Sure, all those crummy podcast conversations about Star Wars, real ale or why Keeping Up With The Kardashians sucks (usually recorded between two blokes, in a basement lair somewhere) would be improved, aurally, if they were in a sound-proofed studio. But the reality is that, for most podcasts, working in a proper sound-proofed studio is beyond their financial means. And, additionally, most podcasts gain astonishingly little from recording in that environment. The great thing about pre-recorded content — the clear advantage it has over live broadcast — is that we can take risks on the quality of the record. We can start recording next to, say, a busy road, and if it proves too noisy, guess what? we can move! We can adjust mic positions, re-record segments, mix field recordings with indoors recordings.
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