10. Inside an episode: Sound Advice (From Someone Who Forgot to Use Their Mic)

Even after five years of podcasting, mistakes happen — like forgetting to select the right mic (noooooo!). In this behind-the-scenes episode, I share an embarrassing tech blunder, what I learned from it, and how I salvaged the audio.

It's a reminder that we’re always learning — whether it’s week two or year two — and that mindset matters behind the mic. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

 Women Who Podcast Magazine (Issue #17, April/Spring 2025)

The Gay Podcast with Everyone, Episode 39: He Played with Dolls. A chat with writer, Luis Ignacio Andrade

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music for episodes 12+: (1960's 2 house) by mobygratis

Transcript

Transcript via Descript. (Semi-edited)

[00:00:00] Angela: Sometimes, no matter how long we've been podcasting, We learned something that we didn't know existed before, and sometimes honestly, those things are a little embarrassing. I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about those things today they're the things that you can file under the umbrella of you don't know what you don't know, , and honestly, until you make the mistake, you really can't learn from it. My name is Angela Briones, and I wanna welcome you to the space where we talk about podcasting, sharing our voice and life behind the mic. 

A look inside ep 39 of The Gay Podcast for Everyone

[00:00:34] Angela: Hello, my fellow podcast friends. I wanted to try something a little different. I wanted to kind of go into an episode, if you will, and talk about a specific episode. I might start doing something like this every now and again. I don't know, Let's see how this goes. I'm gonna specifically talk about an episode I did on my other podcast because you know, that's my main podcast space, right? And this is the space where we talk about podcasting. The space where I wanted to kind of get everything out, and bounce things off of folks, right?

And I wanted to talk about this particular episode because even though I had been podcasting for years.

I had never come across this one scenario and it's really minor, yet really major, but also really embarrassing and I wanted to share that with you guys 'cause it very much falls under like the rookie mistakes we make. No matter how long we've been podcasting, or even if we just started.

And this particular episode was with a fellow writer friend. His name is Luis Andrade. He's a writer, and he's working on a collection of essays called, He Played With Dolls. And he dives into the fact that even though he liked to play with dolls when he was little, he was also shamed for it.

And it was a very small gesture from somebody in his family who made him feel like playing with dolls wasn't a horrible thing, wasn't something to feel shame for, and he wrote about that and I asked him to join me on the podcast.

The mic mistake

[00:01:55] Angela: So I sent him a Squadcast link 'cause that's where I record.

And for whatever reason, we just couldn't get the volume to work he could hear me and see me, but I couldn't hear him. So after a bunch of, you know, trial and error on, both sides. I ended up just sending him a Zoom link. 'cause zoom is always my backup for some reason. I don't use it very often, but a lot of people use it, you know, for work or what have you.

So, I found that people who don't podcast are more comfortable with Zoom because that's what we've been using since 2020. Right. So that's always my backup.

so I sent him the Zoom link and it works. There's no feedback, no nothing. Like we didn't have any of the problems that we had in squad cast and neither one of us really changed anything.

It was just really weird. But it was like, great. Fantastic. We can start recording. The problem was, and here's where the mistake happens. This is one of those things where when it's recording day and you have your guest join you, you're naturally a little bit nervous, right?

I know I am. Even to this day, I’m a little bit nervous in conversations with certain people, especially if I don't know them very well.

And then when things go wrong, you know, it's the worst because you're fumbling and you. you wanna look like you have everything together, you know what's going on, et cetera.

And even if you do, those moments still make you feel like you don't, right? But that's just stuff that's all in our head. So we just need to remember that everybody goes through this,

 so while all those negative thoughts are in my head, I'm not really thinking straight I didn't even think to choose my microphone when I got into Zoom because I'm so used to choosing my microphone like it's a very big option when you open squad cast.

You know, you have to choose your microphone and choose your camera, et cetera. So I'm used to it being like right there in front of me and I kind of took that for granted. And in Zoom it's a little bit different. It's a little more hidden, I guess. so I completely forgot to choose it,

and I was so busy, you know, being in my head for this episode that I didn't even think to make sure both of us chose the right microphone, which is a rookie mistake. Right. You know, big time. so, when we're done recording, the sound is not great. You know, it's not bad,

but it's obvious that both of us didn't choose our microphone well. My guest honestly didn't have a microphone, so they were using their Mac computer, but mine, even though I had a microphone, also defaulted to the Mac computer. So that's even worse, right? Because when you're the podcaster, you're supposed to sound better than than your guest, right?

And the thing is you guys, sound has always been a journey for me. Like it just has. It's something that I've had to learn how to do on my own and kind of figure out along the way.

Even though sound is really important to me, I still don't always, get it right. And I mean, obviously in this episode, in the episode I'm talking about, I very much did not get it right. And it's one thing when you don't get it right and you tried, it's another thing when you don't get it right and you just forgot to choose the microphone.

So that was really annoying and really upsetting.

Fixing audio

[00:04:58] Angela: But that's when I first remembered to use Onic. . I know we talked about that in episode five, but,

I know so many podcasters who use it, it just really helps with your sound and you can do different presets. You can play with the presets,

you know, I don't know how to do a lot of that stuff, and a lot of times you can play with different presets that they already have available or you can kind of play around yourself and kind of create a new preset.

so I threw this episode in there and you guys, it was night and day difference. It was amazing.

We sounded really crisp and really clear. It was so much better.

Even if you make a small mistake, you know, by like forgetting to choose the right microphone. , look into some of the audio enhancers. There's different ones. Um, I know I've mentioned in the, in previous episodes besides a phonic, there's Magic Mastering and Buzz Sprout.

And I know there are others that exist. I just haven't used those.

But they're really helpful for a very minimal amount of money. I think

Export/import settings

[00:05:51] Angela: The only thing you have to keep in mind, and this could be another thing under the umbrella of you don't know. What you don't know is I learned the hard way on this too.

When you export your file, make sure you're paying attention to the format. Like are you downloading it as an MP three or as a Wave file? And then also make sure you're paying attention to your sample rate, your audio bit rate, and your volume level. Like are you at negative 16 lts? Are you at negative 19 lts?

and make sure that whatever those settings are, when you exported it, are the same, you know, phonic.

Because otherwise this happened to me too. I accidentally exported something from the script in a wave file and then in onic I had chosen to output it as an MP three. And I kept getting all these little blips, like little sound skips

Because the bit rate was different.

And that was in this same episode. So in this episode, I went from choosing the wrong microphone.

Fixing it by putting it in onic, but then realizing that I had not paid attention to some very important components. And as I'm listening to it, I get all these like little, little blips and little sound skips and I started trying to take them out individually and it took me forever until I was like, oh,

I totally exported this one way and didn't pay attention to those same, options in onic. So that is another thing that is really important. And I feel like we don't talk about that aspect of podcasting enough. 'Cause it is really important, but you don't realize that it's important until you make a mistake in it. Then you're like, oh, it's really important. But you know, again, we don't know what we don't know. Right. And that can happen in week two of podcasting, or in my case, it was year four.

Always learning

[00:07:32] Angela: So all that is to say, no matter how long you've been podcasting, whether you just started or whether you're well into it, there's always something new to learn. You're always gonna come across something new. You're always gonna learn something you didn't know. One or two episodes prior.

It is a constant state of learning. And sometimes that can feel uncomfortable. You know, we all wanna feel like, oh, I've got this. I knew exactly what to do. Check, check, check, check, check. Well, yeah, the steps are the same, but sometimes some of the hurdles are a little bit different, , and that's just a part of it.

So that's a little inside look into this particular episode that I did where there was that interesting thing that happened where I'm like, how did I not think to choose the mic? Like, that's the most obvious thing in podcasting.

Right? Right. so if that happens to you, you're not the only one. Things happen. There are ways to make it sound better. Thank goodness. And you know, just try those things out. Try onic, try magic mastering. Try any of those. 

And one thing you can do, one thing I've learned to do is when I schedule time with a, guest, even though my episodes are only like 30 to 40 minutes, I usually schedule like an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, and I will tell them, you know, Hey,

i'm scheduling a little extra time here because. If we have any technical issues or anything, we have got some time to kind of iron those out, et cetera. Plus it gives us a little breathing room and I don't feel so rushed and honestly for me, when I schedule an hour, that hour goes by really fast.

So I do like to have like that hour, 15 minutes every now and again just in case we have those technical issues.

The point is, I think so many of us have episodes where things didn't go perfectly.

Mindset matters

[00:09:11] Angela: But we don't often get the chance to share that, and that's what I want this space to be. I want this space to be real. You know

That there are a lot of times that things go wrong and it's such a bummer and I wanna talk about it because for me, all of the stories that I tell myself as I'm podcasting, and especially when things don't go well, really scratch a record and I really have to fight against that because. If I believe those things, I'm gonna stop sharing my story and I don't wanna do that.

So believe me, when I say the struggle to show up behind the mic is. So affected by things that go wrong. By things. Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I did this silly thing of forgetting to choose my microphone,

or not paying attention to the settings when I'm exporting things. You know, if you're in that mindset where you're gonna tear yourself down, those are the things that are gonna, that are gonna stop you from showing up.

So you really have to stay mindful of those things. I have to stay mindful of those things, honestly. Recording this episode, this particular part that you're listening to right now, this is where I had to come back to finish out this recording because I had so many things pull me away from this actual recording you know, things with the dog and things with the house, et cetera, and when those things happen, I really struggle. And then I start the whole, spiral of I don't have time to be podcasting. You know? It's just, it's a lot. And one of the things that I'm so passionate about is talking about the mindset behind podcasting.

It's the thing that I have struggled with the most and that I want to reach out to other people and let people know that you're not alone. Podcasting is not difficult. But there are challenges along the way that are really gonna disrupt things.

So you have to hang in there

At the end of the day, things go wrong in podcasting all the time. The most important thing to do is just to share the story anyway.

if I hadn't been able to fix the sound in that episode, I probably would've done an intro where I said, Hey, you know, the sound didn't work out on this episode, but I hope you'll hang in there anyway. I hope you'll listen. The content is really good. Something like that, you know. There are ways to kinda share with your audience that things didn't go as well as you hoped, as far as technical stuff, but they're gonna enjoy the content.

Because the bottom line is I loved the episode I recorded with my friend Luis,

I loved the conversation. I loved the vulnerability in the episode. Everything was just so meaningful and there were so many good takeaways for myself and for my listeners. I was really proud of it.

And honestly, if I hadn't been able to fix anything, truth be told, I would've just published it as is. You know, it's not my favorite thing to do,

but I think that people forgive sound when it's not perfect. I think when they don't forgive it is when it is just consistently bad sound. Do you know what I mean?

And if you're interested in hearing the episode that I've been talking about in this episode, the episode within the episode, behind the scenes,

i've linked that episode in the show notes. I would love for you to go and take a listen. Because Luis's story is awesome, and the way he shares his story is beautiful.

And I'm also gonna put a link to Women Who Podcast Magazine because not only is it an amazing resource, but I also got to write an article for the magazine and the current issue. And the title of the article is the Stories We Tell Ourselves. And believe me when I say I was writing the article that I needed, especially at the time because we're so good at sharing stories, but we forget that the most important stories are the ones that we tell ourselves. So tell yourself something good. Tell yourself something positive.

You're doing the thing.

All right, you guys, thank you for joining me. I hope these were helpful nuggets. And honestly, I would love to hear what some of the challenges have been in your podcast journey. Was there a particular episode that just went completely wrong and how did you bounce back from it? I would love to hear it and maybe we could share it here on the podcast too. all right, you guys.

Until next time. Y'all happy podcasting.