Is editing optional?
As a general rule, if you want your audience to get the best possible version of your show (which you do) then editing is essential.
I don’t think there’s a professional I’ve worked with in my 20+ years working in audio that could record a podcast episode that requires no editing at all.
Editing isn’t a measure of “Am I good enough and can I record something that doesn’t need any editing?”
It’s a measure of professionalism.
Editing is a podcast host’s best friend
It’s important to think about editing as a fantastic tool in your podcasting toolkit that allows you to sometimes, in all honesty…polish a turd.
You’re never going to get terrible content back from the brink with editing.
But if the vibe is off between you and your guest, or their answers are a little long winded or you had to ask something multiple times to get the right answer you can cut all of that unnecessary faff out in the edit.
Which means, what your audience is left with, is the most compelling, engaging, succinct and high-quality version of that conversation.
What if you don’t know how to edit?
If you haven’t done any editing before, it makes sense that you’d be intimidated by it.
Becoming a good editor doesn’t take five minutes but it also doesn’t take forever, and all you need to do is practice and tune your ear.
What does tuning your ear mean?… You need to be able to recognise when something sounds edited.
You might think that would be simple but this is something A LOT of people don’t nail and it’s the difference between your audience thinking “This sounds like a seamless conversation that happened in one take” and “This sounds a bit weird.”
Even if they can’t immediately pinpoint that the reason it sounds weird is due to editing, they’ll know it doesn’t sound like a normal conversation.
Good editing allows a listener to listen to your content without thinking, because they can just relax and take it all in.
To achieve this you need to be able to hear when something you’ve cut has impacted the natural flow of conversation so you can fix it.
Sometimes fixing it will be as simple as copying a bit of silence or a breath from another part of the interview and pasting it in so the words aren’t too close together.
There are lots of tricks you can use but you have to be listening out for when you need to use them.
(If you’d like to learn some of these tricks come and join me in my online podcasting course, PodSchool)
Do you have to do the editing yourself?
If editing isn’t your thing or you don’t have time to do it you can always hire someone to do it for you.
The cost will depend on how much experience your editor has but it can be anywhere from A$50-$100+/hour (you can find someone who will do a great job for a price on the lower end of that scale).
Whether you’re going to get someone to do it for you or give it a crack yourself it has to be part of your podcasting process so you can make sure the product your audience gets is the best quality it can be.
Remember, your audience has no idea what’s on the cutting room floor
One thing that can impact people’s ability to edit well is the fact they get attached to EVERYTHING they’ve recorded.
When you’re editing you’re probably going to be listening to a piece of audio at least three times and if on the third time something isn’t as compelling as it was when you listened to it the first time, cut it out.
Ideally you only want content in your show that’s compelling no matter how many times you listen to it and your audience has no idea what was left behind so keep that in mind if you’re having trouble letting things go.
Got a podcast question you’d like answered? Submit it here.
Need some help starting your podcast? Download my “How To Start A Podcast” guide or sign up for my online podcasting course, PodSchool.
Hello there. In today's episode, I'm going to be answering a question from Angie. She has asked a very simple question, but I think it's really important.
And that is, is it okay to edit an interview down? What I would say about editing in general is you would never, ever, ever show ship out an episode of your podcast that didn't have some editing.
I don't think there is a professional I have worked with in the business that could record a tight 20 minutes with no mess, no fluff, that requires no cutting whatsoever. It's not a measure of am I good enough and can I record something that doesn't need any editing? It's a measure of professionalism to edit a show.
So it is really important to think about editing like a fantastic tool in your podcasting toolkit that allows you to sometimes polish a dirt.
Now, you are never going to get terrible content back from the brink with editing, but I have certainly had some episodes where either I've been on shows or we've produced shows and the vibe's not quite right. Between the talent, something's a bit off in the studio.
It feels like this ain't working, but then a little nip and a tuck afterwards and it sounds like everybody had a great day. The same happens with an interview. Sometimes it might take you a little bit of time to warm up.
Your guest might be really long winded in their answers. They may not answer the questions that you've asked them in the way that you would hope they would answer them.
And that might mean that you might ask a question multiple times to get the right answer. And nobody needs to hear all that. That is for sure. So editing is such a great tool and it is used by everybody.
And sometimes I feel like when you're starting out a, you'd be really scared of editing because, yeah, it's a thing that you have to get your head around. It is not super difficult, but it does take practice. You need to understand the lay of the land, and then you need to really give it a try.
And becoming a good editor is not something that you can get good at without really tuning your ear to becoming good at it. And you need to hear, when you're listening to something, does this sound edited?
That's the basic sort of thing behind becoming a good editor and being able to hear that. It's like does this sound like this happened as a single seamless conversation? Or can I hear.
These words are too close together and no one would talk like that. Or this really needs a breath in between it, because that is not a normal cadence of a conversation. Or like the phrasing is off, you know.
So those are kind of some of the things that you need to be really mindful of. But you absolutely have to edit. It's essential.
And you need to make sure that your audience is getting the best possible content when you press release on your episodes. So editing is in a really important part of that. The other thing I always say is that your audience has no idea what's in the cutting room floor.
Sometimes you can get very attached to things as you're listening to them and you're editing them. And if you are editing properly, you are going to be listening to a track multiple times.
The first kind of pass, you sort of cutting out big chunks of things and you go back to a bit more of a fine edit. You probably give it a third listen through. And if on that third listen you're like, I'm not really that jazzed about that bit anymore, cut it out.
If you found it interesting in the first bit and you don't by the third bit, ideally you want to be hearing content that is going to be great to listen to no matter how many times you listen to it. So you need to be quite brutal sometimes with some of the stuff. And it is hard to not be attached to things that you have created.
But that is a part of the editing skill as well, to be able to be comfortable, to say goodbye to things that your audience don't even know exist. So if you say goodbye to them and it means a great end product, all they know is listen to this great end product that I've got.
What an amazing interview. I can't believe it happened like this in one go. And it just sounds interesting from start to finish and I'm loving every second of it.
And the reality is it didn't happen like that. You edited it so it had happened like that. And that is very important.
So make sure if you are going to be starting your podcast or you are doing a podcast currently, that editing is something that you are really putting time and effort into. You don't have to do it yourself. If that's not a skill, you can outsource that to somebody else.
But you do definitely need to make sure that that is a part of the process of creating and releasing your podcast. If you want your audience to get the best of the best.
And if you want to learn a bit about editing, I actually teach quite a bit about it in my online podcasting course, Pod School, which you can find out more at podschool.com.au if you have a question that you would like me to answer, please head to the link in the description of the episode and I will add it to the list. Because there's lots of little questions that people have and I love it.
It's so good because if you are not doing this every single day, it is natural that there are things that you would want to know more about. So no question is too big or too little. Some of these episodes I there will be a lot to dive into.
Others it will just be a kind of tidbit advice that is a bit shorter.
But all of this stuff is so important to be adding into your knowledge when you're creating a show if you want to be really shipping out the best show possible. So I'll see you next week.
