Dr Atul Gawande argues that even the most experienced professionals can make mistakes and that checklists can help prevent those mistakes. His book, “The Checklist Manifesto,” has been widely adopted by professionals in industries ranging from aviation to healthcare.
There are many small but crucial steps we must take to produce our podcast episodes, especially when recording with a guest. Most of the time, we only get one shot, so we’ve got to get it right.
I’ve been editing podcasts professionally since 2016, and every client I’ve worked with has at some point had an issue that could have been prevented by following some preflight checks. And it’s not just them — on episode two of my long-running Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy show, I recorded a 90-minute episode from my laptop mic instead of my fancy XLR one.
But it’s not just about which mic gets recorded. A couple of weeks ago, I was on a Zoom call with someone I’d been emailing back and forth with for ages, and I got their name wrong. Luckily that wasn’t for a podcast, but a client of mine did exactly the same thing, and we had to keep it in the edit.
So here’s my 20-point checklist for recording remote episodes with guests. Whether you use Zoom, Riverside, or StreamYard, the principles are pretty much universal.
1. Is your mic turned on and working?
It sounds obvious, but these things happen. I’ve lost count of the number of times one of the people I’ve been on a call with has been on mute… usually me.
2. Are your headphones plugged in and working?
I was on a plane a couple of weeks back, sitting next to my dad. He was playing music from his phone with his headphones on, but the music was coming out of his phone speaker, and he hadn’t realised.
You might still hear sound coming from your computer, but if it’s not coming from your headphones, your mic will pick it up and it’ll mess up the recording.
3. Can you hear yourself through your headphones?
This will really help you know if you’re sounding crunchy and crispy, which might mean your mic is turned up too far or you’re really close to it. You’ll also hear rustling or other noises that you might not notice otherwise.
4. Do you have a glass of water?
It’s good to have a quick drink beforehand. Make sure you’re not dry, especially if you’re going to be speaking for quite a while. So get yourself a glass of water.
5. Are you comfortable and relaxed?
If you’re interviewing someone, you want to make sure you’re nicely relaxed in the body and that your diaphragm is open. What you don’t want is the sort of pinched sound that you’ll start to get if you’re a little bit nervous.
Instead, try to relax a bit and enjoy it. Remember it’s a discussion and that this person has given you their time because they’re interested in having it with you. You don’t have anything to prove or anyone to impress.
Take a couple of minutes if you need to do some breathing exercises, and make sure that you feel relaxed. Don’t go straight into a podcast recording from something else without taking a few minutes to land.
6. Have you told anyone nearby that you’re going to be recording?
Are you going to be interrupted? Is a dog going to bark? If a doorbell rings, there’s no much you can do about that – that’s a problem for your editor. But is there someone who’s going to come in and ask if they can have a bag of crisps?
7. Is your recording environment treated the way you normally treat it?
Are there things you normally do to make your environment sound the best it can? For example, do you get a bunch of sheets to deaden the sound? Do you close your curtains so that sound isn’t bouncing off the walls or the windows? Is there an overhead light or air conditioning that you usually turn off?
8. Are you a fist’s distance from your mic?
As we get more relaxed into the process, we might lean back or start moving around, but when you do that, you’re no longe really talking to us, but to the room in general (that’s how it sounds in the recording).
But if you’re always a fist’s distance from the mic, you’re always going to sound great.
9. Is your phone on Do Not Disturb mode?
Silence those notifications. If you’ve got a smartwatch or a tablet nearby, make sure you silence those notifications.
10. Have you quit any apps on your computer that you don’t need running?
If you’re recording via SquadCast, Riverside, or StreamYard, then your computer’s going to be under a bit of strain. It’s trying to keep up with the conversation. It’s relaying your stuff up to the cloud, bringing back your guest’s audio, and recording to your hard drive. All of those things put strain on the computer.
So when the computer’s under stress, especially if it’s a laptop, those fans are going to start spinning up. And that fan noise is going to get picked up on mic. Then that becomes a problem for future you or for your podcast editor, which may end up incurring some costs, depending on how long they need to spend cleaning up the audio.
11: Have you stopped your computer from going “bing”?
Lots of apps are running in the background on your computer, checking things for you. When you get a new calendar invite or a WhatsApp message, your computer is going to want to make a noise.
You need to send the signal that you and your guests care about the time you’re spending with the listener. Notifications pinging off suggests that this conversation isn’t all that important – there are more pressing matters right now.
12. Do you know your guest’s preferred gender pronouns?
There’s no harm in asking. A simple “What are your pronouns?” is fine, and it’s better than making an assumption and misgendering someone.
13: Do you know how to pronounce your guest’s name?
A quick tip for this is simply to ask the guest to say their name at the beginning of the recording.
14: Does your guest know what to expect of the conversation?
When I’m recording a podcast interview, I typically record the intros and outros afterwards. So I let my guest know that – that way they’re not wondering when I’m going to introduce them.
I hit record as soon as I’m happy that the audio’s sounding OK, then we can have a chat and gradually ease ourselves into a recording, knowing I can find the edit point later (which your editor can help you with).
If a show is more regimented in its format, I’ll give them the whole rundown beforehand so they can relax, knowing I’ve got this.
15: Can you hear your guest clearly?
Chances are, if you can hear your guest clearly, it’s going to come through OK in the recording. But if that’s not the case, if it’s sounding a little muffled, it’s best to nip that in the bud now and sort it out. Because while there are circumstances in which a podcast editor or a sound engineer can help with that stuff, but they can’t work miracles and they can’t make new sound where there was none.
16: Is your guest on the right mic?
Ask your guest to give the mic a rub if you’re unsure. Rubbing their hands around the mic should be picked up, and is easier to detect than tapping it, as if the mic they’re on is close to the one they think they’re using, you might get a false positive.
17: Can your guests hear you clearly?
You might find that your guest can help you diagnose something you didn’t realise was an issue, and it can make them feel more comfortable.
18: Have you tested the lag on your call?
This is something you could have a bit of fun with it, by asking them to clap on 3, along with you. But the purpose is to know what time difference there is between you ending a sentence and them hearing it and beginning to speak.
Long delays can affect the natural flow of the conversation, so if you find the lag is too much, switch to a different system. Better to sacrifice a little quality than forcing a fancy system that’s going to make the chat more stilted.
19: Have you pinpointed any troublesome noises during your pre-recording chat?
Guests with long hair who wear wired earbuds can end up with the wire brushing up against their hair. Similarly, if they’re wearing a hoodie, the mic might jostle around on the zip.
As soon as you notice something like this, politely point it out and ask “Hey, can you tie your hair back, or do you mind unzipping your hoodie a little?” and explain why you’re asking.
20: Have you pressed record?
Seriously. ‘m sure you’ve been there – many people have, including me. You get so far in and it’s a blinder of an interview and then you think “Oh no, I haven’t pressed record±” So now you’ve either got to go back and do the whole thing again.
Don’t be that person again. Put “Press record” on your checklist!
That’s the list
It might not be entirely everything you need, but it’s enough to get you started. Make your own list up and keep it with you, either in a note on your phone or printed up somewhere. Tick or cross off things as you go, and never worry about making a silly mistake again!
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