How To Edit Your Podcast
Each podcast is different, but here’s what you’ll want to consider when you’re thinking about editing.
Everybody who has a podcast has to deal with the task of editing. This may range from simply trimming the start and finish of a single audio clip through to performing a detailed edit on multiple audio channels where you are removing or rearranging parts of the audio.
Each podcast is different. What follows below is the process that I use for Days, my podcast with Amanda Danells-Bewley. You should not see it as a process to be followed rigidly but instead, think of it as a starting point from which you can build your own process.
As podcasts go, Days is reasonably simple. It’s a conversation between two or three people, each of whom is recorded on a separate audio track.
The goals of editing
Editing is the process of taking raw materials in the form of audio files and making them into a finished podcast episode.
I find it useful to think about these objectives when I sit down to edit, as they drive the activities that I perform, and contribute to the (sometimes considerable) length of my editing process. If you’re editing your own podcast, you should be thinking about what your version of these are, and maybe even go to the length of writing it down.
You might find yourself needing to add one around music or other non-spoken audio clips. I don’t need to think about those, as Days doesn’t have them!
1. Produce a great episode
My overall editing objective is to produce an episode that does not appear to a casual listener to have been edited. It should be interesting, flow naturally and contain nothing to distract the listener’s attention from the content.
2. Remove digressions & off-topic meanderings
I remove parts of the conversation that have strayed away from the main topic or have gone down a rabbit hole into too much detail.
