If you have similar goals and want to record your very first podcast, it is always recommended that you use specific tools that will give your podcasts a very professional touch and will take it to the next level. These podcasting tools are versatile and perfect for streamlining the entire recording process, editing, and marketing your podcasts. So, without further ado, let’s check out the essential podcasting tools for every podcaster!
Planning and Creation Tools
An impromptu podcast is never the best if you want to sound professional and authoritative to your listeners. It is always recommended that you plan your dialogues, monologues, and everything you are likely to cover in the entire podcast beforehand. Here are a few useful tools that will make your podcast content planning easier.
Capturing Ideas: Evernote
For starters, you need to take notes of every idea and topic you will discuss in your podcast. Nothing beats Evernote when it comes to taking notes seamlessly without any hindrances. Evernote has been the top-rated tool for note-making and has multiple functionalities that are perfect for quickly capturing every idea for your podcast.
Evernote has been highly popular due to its simple UI, which makes it very beginner-friendly and hassle-free during those rush hours when something suddenly clicks on your mind, and you want to note it down instantly!
Features:
- You can effortlessly sync all your notes across multiple devices for better accessibility.
- Evernote also has a browser version which is a plus point for people who do not prefer installing the application.
- You can access your notes even without an internet connection.
- You can also scan your business cards and save them in your Evernote database.
- Powerful search feature to locate the required notes with a few clicks
- You get massive storage for storing your notes starting from 60MB monthly uploads in the free version, which increases up to 20GB monthly uploads in the paid plans.
- You can view the past version of the notes to review any changes that you have made in your notes.
Cost: Free with optional paid plans starting from ₹249.00/month for extra benefits.
Script-writing and collaboration: WriterDuet
When you have captured all your potential ideas in Evernote, it is time that you create a flawless script out of it. Nothing beats the good old WriterDuet to write scripts for your podcasts. The additional collaborative benefits make it even simpler for your scriptwriting process since multiple writers can collaborate together for a single script.
You can outline, format, or edit your scripts easily with WriterDuet. Additionally, if you have certain scripts stored in other applications, you can easily export them to your WriterDuet account seamlessly.
Features:
- You can write your scripts without an internet connection. The edits get synced whenever you go online again.
- Multiple participants can check the edits live through the writer duet. Everybody can comment and add feedback in the same file in real time.
- The UI is simple and organized.
- The entire application is cloud-based. Hence there is no requirement of downloading anything to your device.
- You can sync your previous scripts to WriterDuet with just a few clicks.
- Create virtual notecards with different color codes for a better arrangement
Cost: You can sign up for free and write your scripts with limited features. The paid plans start from $9.99/month with additional benefits.
Scheduling: Doodle
Schedules can get overwhelming when you have a long list of episodes to record. In such cases, tools like Doodle are a lifesaver! Doodle makes scheduling way easier in terms of regular pen and paper notes. You can easily allot time slots for every task and shift it wherever you want to at your convenience.
This will ensure that you have all your schedules right in front of you, ready with no chances of forgetting essential meetings or schedules. Also, you must maintain a specific schedule for your podcasts which is when Doodle comes into the picture and sets your schedules beforehand. You get alerts and reminders before your tasks to get you mentally and physically prepared for your recordings and uploads.
Features:
- You can view all the tasks real quickly with the Glance view of Doodle
- You will not experience any ads if you purchase the premium version
- Automatic and manual reminders
- User-friendly interface
- Only available for IOS and web.
- Integrate different applications such as Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, etc.
- SSL encrypted for additional security
Cost: The paid plan starts at $6.95/month with a free 14-day trial!
In-studio Tools
Now that you have your scripts and schedules ready, it is time to record your podcasts. Here are some tools which will provide you with the best quality that will set you apart from the other podcasters.
Sound Dampening: Soft Furniture
While recording your podcast, it is an absolute necessity to take the necessary measures to reduce possible echoes or reverberation during the podcasts. You can either choose a soundproof studio or choose soft furniture for your room wherever you are recording. This will ensure that you eliminate any echoes or reverberations during your recording duration and achieve pristine sound quality for your podcasts.
Interviewing/co-hosting: Skype
Skype is one of the top-rated and most popular applications for interviews for years. If you are either looking to interview a guest or are going to get interviewed, skype is the perfect choice for recording the entire episode! You can easily interview anybody from any location through skype, provided you take care of the time zones.
Features:
- Record audio and video in HD quality
- Record your conversations with a single click
- Screen Share your notes or scripts to keep everything handy during the recording
- Your conversations are completely private until aired.
- The calling rates are highly affordable and perfect for regular usage.
- You can sync your skype account across multiple devices.
Cost: Skype is mostly free for its users, but you can upgrade to a subscription plan at $2.99/month for additional skype credits to call other users who do not have a skype account.
Live-streaming: Google Hangouts On Air
If you want to go all raw and no edits for an episode, live streaming via Google hangouts on air is the way to go! Google hangouts on air help you live stream, record your videos on youtube, and sync with your Google+.
This is the perfect tool if you are in a one-on-one interview for an episode wherein your viewers can either see it live or also see the recording later on your website.
Pro tip: You can also record video or audio trailers with google hangouts on air beforehand to mark the event for your listeners.
Features:
- You can do a video or audio conference with up to 10 people at a time with no issues.
- You can share and view your notes or scripts in real time, which is excellent if you have already jotted down some points that you will cover in the episode.
- The instant messaging application ensures that your audience is engaged in the conversation. They can shoot questions that you can answer live for them, making it a more interactive episode.
- You can screen share and portray essential pdf or pictures to validate your words if required.
Cost: Free.
Call Recording: Google Voice
Sometimes you find the podcast guest available only for calls for pretty much any reason. In such cases, you need to make sure that you can record the highest quality to minimize the cuts in the conversation. Also, you have to get a good-quality recording that is clear enough for your listeners. Google Voice is a fantastic tool wherein you can call any region at competitive rates.
Features:
- Call and record conversations in the best quality
- Calls are also stored and backed up in the Google database for easy accessibility
- You can use it across multiple devices
- Lower international calling rates
Cost: Free except for the international calling charges.
Voicemail service: SimpleVoiceBox
Even though you can always gain feedback or take up queries from your listeners via the regular textual comments and pools, adding a voice messaging feature for your listeners will give you an additional benefit as a podcaster.
With SimpleVoiceBox, you allow your listeners to leave voice messages in the comments for any queries, feedback, or opinions, which will yet again help in the interactivity of the episode. While recording your podcast or even when aired, simply use the simple-voicebox, and your listeners can leave quick voice messages and comments which you can later answer and add value to your listeners.
Features:
- Pristine sound quality
- The user interface is beginner-friendly
- You will receive instant alerts whenever you receive a voice message
- You have full control to filter out the unnecessary comments and messages in your podcasts
Cost: SimpleVoiceBox is completely free until you need a private dial-in number starting at $4.95 per month.
Editing and Post-production Tools
One of the everyday struggles that most podcasters witness is the hassle of editing their podcasts. While editing, you need to ensure that you filter out every unnecessary and irrelevant aspect from the recording and bring only the best. However, you cannot really achieve quality editing without using specific tools. Hence, let’s jump right onto the editing and post-production tools.
Recording and Editing: Audacity
Audacity is a trendy tool that allows users to record and edit audio clips professionally. It offers cross-platform compatibility and can sync through multiple devices together, which is an incredible advantage.
Hence, whenever you are done recording your episode, you can easily edit your audio and tweak them with Audacity until you get the desired quality.
Features:
- Record live audio sound and playback in the best quality
- Import or export previous audio files with just a few clicks
- Supports 16-bit, 24 bit and 32-bit sound quality
- Supports many useful plugins like LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VST, and Audio Unit effect plugins.
- High-quality resampling and dithering
- Spectrogram view mode to analyze the edited audio
Cost: Audacity is completely free for its users.
GarageBand
Another very popular editing software for podcasters is GarageBand, which is yet again free and can transform your raw recordings into professional podcasts with just a few tweaks. You get a wide range of functionalities with Garageband, which will help you edit your recording however you like and achieve the desired quality.
Features:
- You can download third-party plugins
- You can save the dynamics with different processors like compression, EQ, or limiters
- A quicker sampling of your raw audio files
- Easy sharing among apple users.
Cost: Garageband is completely free for its users.
Audio Post-production: Auphonic
Auphonic is one of the top-rated audio optimization tools that help polish your audio recordings and enhance the quality of your episodes. Multiple helpful audio algorithms help to fine-tune your episodes with ease and customize your final files. You can tweak the volume levels between segments of your show and reduce the overall noise or background sound, if any.
Features:
- Intelligent leveler to balance between the speaker, speech, and music
- Loudness normalization with true peak limiter
- Automatic noise and hum reduction
- Automatic filtering of low unnecessary low frequencies
- Noise gate and cross-talk removal
- Automatic speech recognition with over 80 languages
- Automatic content deployment across multiple platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, SoundCloud, Zapier, etc
Cost: It is free for 2 hours of processed audio every month. For longer durations, the paid plan starts from $11 per month.
Music and Sound Effects: Freesound
Suppose you want sound effects for your podcast, preferably during the beginning and the end of the podcast. In that case, Freesound has an amazing collection of intuitive sound effects and music suitable for podcasters. There are over 500,000 music samples in the repository of free sound to choose from.
Features:
- Carry out a similarity search to narrow down specific sound effects
- CC licensing
- Add sound bookmarks to the music samples
- Remix tree to mix multiple sounds
- Quick Search
Cost: Freesound is completely free for non-commercial uses. However,r you might need to pay for some music effects, which comes at a price.
Free Music Archive
If you want free music to be added to your podcasts, free music archive is an open-source platform wherein you can access a massive directory of free music, which you can use in your episodes and transform them.
Features:
- Create music mixes as per your interests for your podcast
- Create and save your favorite playlists to use later
- Connect with many more like-minded podcasters and people in the community
Cost: Free music archive is completely free to use.
MP3s, Tagging, and Transcribing
For perfection, podcasters also prefer to tag or transcribe the recorded episodes with various tools that can help make the session spotless! Let’s check out the common tools for MP3s, tagging, and transcribing for podcasters.
MP3 encoding: iTunes
If your podcast is recorded in any other format other than mp3, you need to encode it to mp3, which is far more accessible to the maximum population of listeners. However, instead of using random tools that can degrade the sound quality, use iTunes and encode your audio files seamlessly.
Features:
- Import your files from your mac or ios in a single click
- Multiple encoding formats like AAC, AIFF, WAV, etc. for people who are looking for more options, including MP3
- Enhance the overall sound quality while encoding the audio file
Cost: There is no separate pricing plan for MP3 encoding in iTunes. However, the regular charges for iTunes are applicable.
ID3 Tagging: EasyTAG, Podcast Tag Editor
Just like websites, every podcast has metadata tags in the form of ID3 tags. You need to include and optimize the ID3 tags to enhance the exposure of your podcasts and give more information to users about the episodes.
EasyTag and Podcast Tag Editor is a popular tool that helps portray all the necessary information stored in the ID3 tags to the audience while listening to the podcast. These are generic tags that are relevant to the content of the particular episode.
Features
- Automatically updates every tag
- Change file names as per the tags
- Add, or delete the image to the tag
Cost: Easytag and Podcast Tag Editor are completely free to use for their users.
Transcribing: Express Scribe Free
It is important that you have transcriptions of every episode since it can significantly help in the SEO of your podcast. Search Engines mostly crawl and pick up the podcast title, description, and tags for their ranking and not the audio. Hence, ExpressScribe Free is an excellent tool to create a blog post or an article of the entire episode effortlessly.
Features:
- Foot pedal control
- 45+ supported formats
- Change the speed of the playback as per your requirements
Cost: Free.
Marketing and Promotion
Now when you are all done with the recording and editing of your podcast, publish it for your listeners and get ready to market it to attract maximum listeners across the globe with these tools.
Social Media Scheduling: Buffer
You can gain a massive chunk of listeners and traffic for your podcasts right from your social media handles. Buffer helps you connect your social media platforms such as Twitter, and Facebook. Google+, etc., and schedule the posts beforehand.
Features:
- Plan your future content to be published beforehand
- Publish across various platforms with a single click
- Analyze the social media performance via inbuilt metrics
- Quicker engagement facility
Cost: Most of the features in Buffer are available for free. Yet, for extra benefits, $6 per month.
Emailing: MailChimp
Regular newsletters are always the foolproof mode of marketing your podcasts to your audience. You can either promote your newly launched episodes, gather feedback from your audience, direct people to your previous episodes, and many more with MailChimp.
Features:
- Send up to 12,000 emails or more to a minimum of 2,000+ subscribers
- Identify and reach the right audience
- Create better-personalized emails
- Automate sending emails
Cost: You can either use the free plan or upgrade to the paid plan starting from ₹770 with even better features to help grow your podcast audience.
Final Thoughts
These podcasting tools are a necessity to achieve perfection in your podcasts. Most of them are free at affordable rates. Hence, choose the preferable tools for your podcasts and ace your very first episode.
