During the Call
When you begin a call with your interviewee, it's important to ensure that Call Recorder has begun recording and has saved a working file that will ultimately store your interview. It's always better to take time to make sure that everything is working the way you expect it to, rather than have to conduct your interview a second time due to tech problems!
Call recorder will begin recording as soon as you start the call, so you may begin with your interview as soon as you'd like. However, it's usually a good idea to use the pre-interview discussion to accomplish a number of things:
- Set your interviewee at ease with some off-the-record chit chat
- Ask them how they'd like their name / job pronounced on the podcast
- Let them know that everything is editable, and that you'll take care of mistakes in post-production
- Ask them if they have any questions about what you're planning to ask
- Quite often, your interviewee will suggest other people for you to speak to, or they'll want to know how you found them in the first place
- Make sure that you both turn your video off to save bandwidth
While this is happening, it's a good idea to check the sound quality. If they are rattling their microphone or speaking too closely to it, use this time to let them know.
Finally, let your interviewee know that you'll record an introduction in post-production, and that you'll jump right into the questions as soon as you've welcomed them to the podcast.
Before you begin the interview, pause 4-5 seconds.
This is important. You will need a few seconds of recorded "room noise" in order to remove it from the whole recording in post-production.
Begin by welcoming your interviewee to the podcast
During the recording
While your interviewee is answering questions, try to avoid making too many affirmative noises like "hmm" and "yeah". This feels natural, but it can sound distracting to listeners.
Do not type or click on your computer, as the mic will pick this up.
If you or your interviewee make a mistake, try to back up to a natural starting point so that you can delete the mistake in post-production. Although it's a normal thing to do in everyday speech, try not to correct yourself by quickly jumping back to your error (as in, "Well, thanks you... I mean THANK you for stopping by"). This makes it almost impossible to make a natural edit later.
Finish by thanking your guest
Save your audio file immediately after you finish.
It's also important to back-up your interview in the cloud, via a service like Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive.
The file format does not matter, as Audacity can handle almost any (including FLAC, WAV, MP3, MP2, AIFF, and PCM). You may also record in WMA, MP4, MOV, or M4A, all of which can be converted using an Audacity
FFmpeg library add-on. (Of course, you can use Audacity as your recording software, thereby eliminating any question regarding compatibility.)