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How to Record Face-to-Face Podcast Interviews: The Full Guide

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I’ve covered how to record face-to-face podcast interviews before, showing how you can get decent results with just a small digital recorder and a couple of lavalier microphones.

It’s a good low-cost setup, still, but there are a fair few disadvantages to that configuration. These include the lack of any ability to set volumes individually per speaker, and a little bit higher background noise due to the splitter.

In the coming series, though, we’re going full quality. We’re going to forget about the budget, and overcome the disadvantages of the lower-cost system.

I want to offer a no-nonsense description of the gold standard equipment you need for face to face interviews, assuming you have a bit of budget to play with.

I’ll give a couple of lower cost options, but this is really assuming that you want the pro-level kit that’ll deliver results and last you a long time.

I also want to cover setup and the exact little extras you need. At the end of this series you’ll know what you need, down to the last cable, and you’ll know how to use it to capture the best face to face interviews or co-hosted podcasts possible.

But I Do My Interviews Online!

Online or “remote” interviews dominated podcasting, even before 2020 hit us the way it did. They’re quick and they’re easy to organise, with no travelling required. On top of that, the tools on the market for recording remote conversations continue to improve at a steady pace. There are a lot of excellent options out there today.

But a remote call often doesn’t deliver the quality of a face-to-face sit down, either from a technical point of view, or a human interaction standpoint.

A face-to-face conversation is in a league above in terms of flow and back-and-forth, thanks to the visual and physical cues that guide a conversation. People can segue, interrupt, banter and add-to so much more naturally when they’re sitting or standing right in front of each other.

It also takes a lot of other issues out of the equation. Dodgy internet connections, microphone issues, and a complete lack of control over your guest’s gear and recording environment.

With that said, remote recording obviously has a lot more pros than cons. But if it’s possible to do so, we should aim to include some face-to-face interviews in our podcast. It can lead to some fantastic sounding and engaging content.

Recording Context

Before we dive in, what’s the context here? These are the two most common possibilities:

  1. Co-hosting a podcast in person
  2. Recording an interview in person

Either option involves the exact same setup – two people (or more) in the same room speaking to each other, and recording the conversation.

Others may be recording an event, perhaps a workshop or a presentation, and you want to record the speaker, plus people asking questions. Or perhaps even a ’roundtable’ where you want to record a group of people all having a conversation.

If any of these appeal to you, then this series should prove useful. I want to help you in making sure that, when you decide to treat yourself to better interview kit, your hard-earned cash gets spent on the right equipment.

If you need more details, about planning, content creation, and editing, we have all of this waiting for you in Podcraft Academy. That’s where you’ll find all our courses, downloadable resources, and our weekly live Q&A sessions.

With all of that in mind though, let’s dive into the first part of this series, where we’re going to talk about the digital recorder.

How to Record Face-to-Face Podcast Interviews: The Full Guide

If you want to jump to a specific article in this series, here’s the full list, too…

  1. How to Record Face-to-Face Podcast Interviews: The Full Guide
  2. Zoom H5 Vs Zoom H6 as a Digital Recorder: Which to Choose?
  3. Shure SM58 Review | The Apocalypse Survival Mic
  4. The In-Person Podcast Interview Equipment Setup Guide
  5. Full Audio or Podcast Interview Equipment Shopping List

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