How to Record an Interview for Radio or Podcast
Get Clear Audio From a Q & A Conversation for Web Video
Jun 15, 2009
The voice of someone who knows a subject intimately will add confidence and gravitas to an interview. Experience and enthusiasm comes across, engaging the listener, provided that the speaker is not microphone-shy. However, far too often much of the effect is lost in murky sound or excessive background noise, which makes the sound fatiguing and hard to understand.
This is worse on the Web, where audio compression is used, because compression makes poor audio worse as it tries to reduce the information sent. If the original signal is polluted with noise as well as the wanted audio, the compression has to try and package both up, leading to larger files sizes or poorer audio.
Modern digital recorders a good, inexpensive and can produce excellent interview recordings is used correctly.
Preparation is Key to Making a Clear Sound Recording
Choosing where to record is the way to get a good interview recording. Indoor locations are best , with the lowest amount of background noise possible. If possible, scout the location first - listen for background sounds such as noisy air conditioning, clocks and other noises that can spoil the recording.
A face to face interview is nearly always better done indoors rather than outdoors, particularly if non-broadcast gear is being used. The main reasons for this are wind noise and background noise.
A professional wind protection system, like a Rycote Zeppelin can reduce wind noise to very acceptable levels but this is not cheap. The foam rubber wind shield which many microphones are supplied with only reduces breath noise, they do not perform well in winds above a very slight breeze. It is not possible to filter out wind blast after recording, as the poor audio quality of many YouTube videos shot outdoors can testify. Professional users also have the advantage of being able to use highly directional microphones which can minimise some off-stage noise.
For all these reasons recordists not using pro gear should avoid recording outdoors where possible.
Interview Recording Techniques
To get a good recording without too much reverberation the microphone should not be more than two feet (60cm) from either talker's mouth.
For a face-to-face interview a single omnidirectional microphone set about midway between the two speakers will pick up a good mix. The mic can be moved closer to the quieter speaker to balance the sound levels if necessary, and should be slightly higher than the speaker's mouth to reduce the effect of breath noises and popping on consonants like p and b.
If available, the classic studio two-way radio interview microphone is a figure of eight microphone set between the interviewer and interviewee. This will pick up less of the room reverberation giving a drier sound quality, which is usually an advantage in rooms that have not been acoustically treated.
A good alternative is a single-point stereo microphone, set slightly off from the centre-line between the speakers, with the speakers either side of the mic. This will give a lot of stereo separation, possibly too much on headphones, so it may be worth reducing stereo separation in post-production, using something like Audacity.
If there will be a table between the speakers it is a good idea to put a cloth or towel on the table to reduce sound reflections from the surface. The table must not be touched, and the recordist should beware of having papers on the table - these will rustle dreadfully if picked up or fiddled with.
Record Room Tone to make editing the Interview Recording Easier in Post Production.
If the recording will be edited for more than just trimming the beginning and end of the interview, it is a good idea to get a recording of about a minute of 'room tone' - the sound of the room in the absence of anyone talking.
Any room other than a recording studio normally has some background noise, the rumble of distant traffic and building air conditioning etc.. If a mistake needs to be cut out, the fade to silence will sound odd, whereas if the mistake is trimmed and cross-faded to room tone then the recording will sound much more natural.
These tips for audio interview recording deal with the technical aspects of recording an interview. Good preparation on the subject and knowing a bit about the interviewee will set them at their ease which helps with the artistic side of doing a good radio or podcast interview.
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