Sometimes it’s 2 hours long, sometimes it’s as short as 30 minutes. It can be about fitness, health, the environment, chemistry, true crime, philosophy, or it can be about the most niche things like weightlifting, preparing a steak, or even music production. Podcasts are quite diverse.

But what even is a podcast? A podcast is an audio or video episode where a host, known as a podcaster, talks about a certain topic, often getting into great details. 

Podcasts are highly flexible in terms of structure, topics, content, and people.

Since podcasts aren’t regulated, there isn’t really a standard for how a podcast should be or what they’re about. Some podcasts can have multiple podcasters, include guests and guest speakers, contain advertisements and sponsorships, and have other segments that the podcasters wish to have.

The podcast has its origins in two people: Adam Curry and Dave Winer who, back in 2004, developed a way to download online radio broadcasts into an iPod, giving birth to the term “podcast” which is a portmanteau of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”. Their development gave them the ability to listen to downloaded radio broadcasts whenever they wanted.

The podcast would slowly gain momentum amongst the masses throughout the years until 2014 when podcasting reached mainstream attention with This American Life releasing in podcast format. Podcasting also garnered a lot more attention when Marc Maron interviewed Former US President Barack Obama on the widely popular WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2015.

Then podcasting reached new heights in 2019 when Spotify acquired multiple podcasting networks, overtaking Apple as a podcasting platform in the US back in 2021.

One thing that is consistent with all these popular podcasts is that they all sound professional and high quality. A vast majority of the time, podcasts are recorded with high fidelity microphones like the Shure SM7b, interfaces like the Focusrite Scarlett 4i2, and software like Avid Pro Tools.  

Podcasts need to have high quality audio because the human voice is the center of a podcast. Listeners expect to hear the podcasters very well, and if the audio quality is less than ideal, it may end up distracting the listeners, resulting in a smaller audience than anticipated.

Another factor that can ruin a podcast is external noise. This can be from a vehicle passing by, a chicken crowing in the background, or even the hum of an air conditioner. Any sort of noise can creep into a microphone while recording, distracting listeners and possibly leading to them to lose interest in the podcast. What’s worse is that it takes a lot more work to remove these distractions after recording

Recording in an audio studio solves all these issues because most recording studios already have high quality microphones, preamps, interfaces, and they have rooms designed to keep the noise out through sound dampeners and panels. Studios can also be set up in a way that is most comfortable for you and your podcast, making the podcasting experience a breeze and hassle free.

Room Eleven has all the essentials needed to record a podcast such as high quality microphones, state of the art audio interfaces, and a quiet studio which is isolated from all the noises of the outside world. We even have the famed Shure SM7b in our collections, the industry standard for podcasts and radio broadcasts.

So if you have a podcast that needs recording, we’re accepting clients who want their podcasts to become the best they can be. Leave us a DM on our socials or give us a call to book our studio.