Podcast Audio Setup Assistant
Select your hardware and recording environment to find the right microphone distance and input volume (gain). You can copy the results to send to your remote guests before you record.
Guest Setup Card
Getting Clean Voice Audio
Getting great audio from remote guests or your own home studio often comes down to distance and gain staging rather than expensive hardware. This guide calculates realistic setups based on real-world limitations. When recording spoken word, capturing a high ratio of voice to background noise is the primary goal.
Understanding Microphone Distance
If you record in a normal house or office rather than a heavy, treated studio, distance is your best tool. According to the inverse square law of sound, every time you double your distance from the microphone, the sound level drops sharply. If you sit two feet away from a microphone, your voice will sound thin, and the microphone will have to be turned up just to hear you. When you turn up the microphone, you also turn up the hum of the air conditioner, the street noise, and the sound of your voice bouncing off the hard walls.
By moving closer to the microphone—usually within one fist width for a dynamic mic or a stretched hand span for a condenser—your voice hits the capsule much louder than the background noise. This allows you to turn the input gain down, bringing the background noise floor down with it. That leads to a thicker, cleaner vocal presence.
Common Setup Mistakes
New podcasters often make a few common physical layout mistakes before they even hit record. Avoid these to save hours of editing work later:
- Placing a condenser out of frame. Mics like a Blue Yeti are highly sensitive. If you put it three feet away so it stays off-camera, it will capture every echo in the room. Bring it into the camera frame to keep it exactly where it belongs.
- Talking past the microphone. A lot of common podcast microphones are "front address," meaning you talk into the side or tip depending on the model. Make sure the active side of the mic capsule is pointing directly at your mouth.
- Typing on the same desk as the mic stand. If you use a small tripod on your desk, typing or bumping the table sends low rumbles directly up the stand. Use a boom arm attached to a heavy point, or type quietly during the recording.
What is Gain Staging?
Gain is the input volume before the computer gets the signal. Setting it too high means your loud laughs will "clip" or distort the audio, which cannot be fixed later. Setting it too low means the digital signal will be quiet, and turning it up later will introduce a hissing staticky sound. A good target is to peak around -12dB in your software while talking normally.