How to record multiple people at the same time

Jamie from the The Smash Quiz podcast asks, "What are the best practices for recording multiple hosts for a podcast?"

TL;DR
Recording a podcast with multiple hosts is a lot of fun. You're able to lean on one another to create the content, and the fun banter and chemistry you get with close friends definitely increases the entertainment value.

But there are some technical hurdles you have to deal with in a multi-person podcast recording that you don't if you were doing a solo podcast. So in this episode, we'll explain the best practices for recording multiple people.

Recording Tips

• 2-Person Rule
• Use Non-Verbal Cues

Podcast Gear

• Every person should have their own Dynamic XLR microphone
• Choose an audio interface that supports multitrack recording

Editing Tips

• Put each person's recording on its own track
• Remove silent portions to reduce microphone bleed/spill

Gear We Recommend

• Samson Q2U
• Scarlett 2i2
• Scarlett 18i20
• Rodecaster Pro
• Zoom H6

Record your podcasting question at Speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout to be featured on a future episode.

Review Podcasting Q&A in Podchaser to let us know what you think of the show.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, Buzzsprout may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Travis : 0:00

In this episode, you'll learn how to properly manage a multi person podcast recording. So you can keep the fun banter and eliminate a lot of the wasted editing that you typically have to do. Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, where you learn the best tips and strategies to launch grow and monetize your show. This week's question comes from Jamie.

Jamie : 0:22

Hi, guys, thanks for all the shows you're putting out super helpful. Our podcast is called the Smash Quiz. It's five best mates in a room riffing off each other. And we regularly praise for the jokes and the natural group chemistry. But during recordings, we interrupt talk over each other and have more than one conversation at a time, which is unsustainable, and it's an absolute nightmare to fix during editing. So other than practice and self discipline, do you have any tips to keep us in check was maintaining the natural chemistry? Thanks a lot.

Travis : 0:51

Thanks for your question, Jamie. Making a podcast that has multiple hosts is a lot of fun. But there are certainly some hurdles you have to overcome when you're managing multiple people all talking during an episode that you don't have to in a solo podcast. So in this episode, you'll learn how to manage that podcast recording process, and also some tips for how to edit the final episode. First, let's talk about some best practices for when you're actually having the discussion. And you're actually doing the recording, Jamie, you have five people on your podcast. So if you have all five people talking at once, it can be hard to understand. So the best practice for a multi person podcast recording is no more than two people talking at a time. So at that level, it's more conversational. And if you're a listener, you can understand what's going on. Now, if you have five people on the podcast, and three of them are cracking up in the background, that wouldn't really qualify that's more of like a laugh track for a sitcom show. But you don't want five people all interjecting their ideas. At the same time you want some way to manage the conversation so that it flows in a intentional forward direction, and that you don't have people constantly talking over each other. And that does take practice. But the best way to approach it is by learning to use nonverbal cues to communicate with one another especially if you're in the same room recording together is going to be a lot easier. So you can lean back from the microphone when you're not talking. And then when you want to say something you can lean into the microphone. Now if two people start talking at the same time, one of you has to give up the baton to the other. This happens all the time in Buzzcast. By the way, when we record three to four people all at the same time, two people will jump in with their thoughts and start talking over each other. One person has to defer to the other person to start talking. Now. In the actual recording, we will say okay, you go first, and then I'll follow up. But then when we edit it, we take out that part. So when you're listening to the final episode, it just sounds like we have this really nice flow and chemistry and we can finish each other sentences. But that's all done in the editing. That's not actually done in the recording process. So when you're recording, the important thing is to get a really clean, clear recording where people aren't talking over each other.

Travis : 3:03

Now let's talk about the gear that you should use. If you're recording multiple people on your podcast, there are some things to stay away from and some things to invest in. The first thing that you will want to do is make sure that every person speaking has their own dynamic XLR microphone. So what does all that mean? A dynamic microphone is simply a kind of microphone that is very good at picking up the sound right in front of it and rejecting background noise. So this microphone right here, the pod mic that I'm speaking into is a dynamic microphone. If somebody was having a conversation in the next room, this microphone would not pick it up. If you were using a condenser microphone, which is a very popular kind of microphone. In music recording spaces, it's very good at picking up all the flavors of your voice all the various frequencies, but it picks up a lot of ambient background noise. And so if you have lots of people talking in the same space, it's going to pick some of that up. But if you have dynamic microphones is gonna be much better at isolating that one person who is speaking. And the reason you need an XLR microphone is that if you get the opposite a USB microphone, which is the other way that you can connect a microphone to a recording device, it's notoriously difficult to record multiple USB microphones on the same computer. It can be done, but it's not super reliable. And there's a lot of ways that it can break. And so if you're consistently going to be recording multiple people. Instead, you'll want to invest in an XLR microphone set up with an audio interface or recorder. So you can use something like a scarlet recording device. You can get them from two microphone inputs all the way up to eight microphone inputs and beyond. You can use something like the road caster pro or if you're on the go and you need something portable, you can get something like the zoom h6. All those will record multiple XLR microphones and record them all on their own individual tracks. That's the last piece of the puzzle. Not only does every single person need their own microphone, but whatever device As you're recording into needs to support multitrack recording, there are some mixers out there that typically are more on the budget side of things that even if they have six microphone inputs, they only give you one stereo track, which is going to make editing a little more difficult. Now let's jump into some editing tips. The first tip is to place every person's audio on its own track. So if you recorded for people in the podcast recording process, you'll want to create four tracks in your audio editing software, one for each person. The reason this is valuable is that if one person has a cough, or if they're speaking softer than the rest of you, you can isolate that one person's recording and adjust it so you can bring up the level to make it equal with everybody else's, you can cut out that cough, so it doesn't distract or interrupt the rest of the podcast episode, it gives you a lot of flexibility for manipulating the audio to make it sound like you're all equally loud. And you can remove mistakes very easily. And then if you want to absolutely eliminate microphone bleed or spill, which is when somebody else's audio gets recorded in your microphone, then what I like to do is cut out sections of someone's audio when they aren't speaking. So we do this with Buzzcast, where there'll be three to four of us recording at the same time. And when one person is speaking, I will mute or delete the audio for the other two to three speakers. And the reason is that even with dynamic microphones, you're still going to get some level of bleed or spill, you're still gonna get some level of ambient background noise, even though it's less than if you're using a condenser microphone like a Blue Yeti. It's still there. But if you mute it, or delete it, then it's not and it sounds like each of us are recording in our own little sound booth. Now you don't want to get carried away with this early on in the Edit process. Because if you delete something and something shifts accidentally in the timeline, it can be difficult to line it back up to where it was. So I like to do this at the very end of the Edit, but it's a really great way to further reduce the amount of spill or bleed that you're picking up in your podcast episode. Thank you so much for your question, Jamie. Now if you have a question you'd like us to answer in a future episode of the show, just head over to speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout or click the link in the show notes and record a brief audio message. Podcasting Q&A is available in both video and audio formats. So if you like watching videos, make sure you subscribe to the Buzzsprout YouTube channel to get new videos every single week. And if you like listening to podcasts, Podcasting Q&A is available in your favorite app. Well that's it for today. Thanks for listening and as always keep podcasting