How To

A Beginner’s Guide to Recording Video Podcasts Using Zoom

This post goes into detail on how to record your remote video podcasts with Zoom and other equipment that you already have at home.


As we all know, 2020 has been a very trying year, and if anything, it has taught us the importance of being prepared for the unknown. So if you had decided to create a video podcast series but were discouraged because of the lockdown situation then you are in for a treat because this post is going to show you how to create your very own remote video podcast show using Zoom and other equipment that you have lying around the house like:

  1. An additional camera (phone camera or otherwise)
  2. A sound recorder application

 

Video podcasts are beginning to gain traction and there are a lot of things to consider when starting one such as the financial implications involved and what kind of value they will bring to your business. Well, the good news is you can actually start a vodcast series for less than $100 but that’s not all. You can also start a vodcast series for FREE using things that you already have access to and that is what we are going to be talking about today. 

So, I’m sure we all know Zoom but even if you don’t, Zoom is a platform where you can have audio and video communications with anyone, even people that are thousands of miles away. Zoom has a lot of advantages, it's super easy to record, it's free and the only challenge that some people may have with it is the level of quality whether it's the webcam quality or audio quality. However, what most do not know is that if you just play around with some of the Zoom settings and add a few external things, it would be so much easier to create high-quality remote shows that make everybody look good, from you as the host of the show, your company, down to the guests that you invite on to the show.

Using an additional camera

Okay, so the first thing to note is that if you're going to be the host, you should consider using your smartphone or even a regular camera as an additional camera. This would be ideal for you to record on and obviously way better than using a simple webcam.

Using a sound recorder application

Another thing that you want to keep in mind is the Sound recorder application. This is a really good app because the audio from it is fairly high quality and for most phones, it's really the next best thing beyond having a microphone. You could get your guests to turn on the sound recorder app on the phone from their end while you would be video recording with your phone and at the end of the call, all they would have to do is just send you the voice recording file as it has a much better quality. Depending on how flexible your guests are, you could also get them to do the same thing from a video perspective as well so instead of using the sound recorder application, they could video record themselves using their phones.

Using Zoom recordings

Now, if using the sound recorder application isn't really feasible for some reason, there is a fallback option that you can use which is going to Zoom and just tweaking one of the settings. So here it is:

Sign in to Zoom > Go to Settings

 

Select In Meeting (Advanced) > Scroll down to Allow users to select original sound in their client settings and turn that on.

 

So what this does is it basically turns off all the audio signal processing that Zoom does while you are on a call and just gives you the clean audio signal that you and your team can then start to edit and post-produce from. This is a really clever option that not a lot of people may know about and it helps you bypass all the weird processing that sometimes happens in recordings. Now it's not as good as using the sound recorder app and it's definitely not as good as using a microphone but it definitely makes the audio quality better.

Something to take note of is that you have to give your guests access to turning on this feature so what you want to do is:

Go to Zoom app on your computer> Go to the window on the top right > Click on Settings >Click on allow option for using original sound for microphone meeting

You want to make sure that this is checked, and you may need to just confirm that every time before recording a new podcast show episode using Zoom because this will allow your guests to enable original sound. Performing this step on your end makes sure that your guests can see the option to turn on original sound and they will see it as soon as the call starts because you as the host have enabled that.

So basically, we have looked at everything that we need to do to successfully record a video podcast and the main idea is just that we have to be resourceful with the things we already have because you are not just using Zoom by itself but also other things that are available to you and your guests. Not everyone has a microphone or a camera, although these are things that you should consider investing in if you want to take your show seriously. But if you are just starting and are eager to get the ball rolling, then you can definitely just use your smartphone to get audio and video for your show.

Parting Thoughts

One last thing to keep in mind is that when you record audio only using your phone, the audio comes out a lot better than if you were to record audio and video at the same time. A reason for that is the microphone will naturally be a lot closer to you if you are recording only the audio when compared to how far the phone would be from you if you were to record a video as well. It definitely affects the recording of the sound so you could consider having one smartphone close to you as a microphone for the sole purpose of recording so that you can capture a crisp and clear sound for yourself and your guests as well. The result of doing all this is that you will have great content to edit so that you can produce your video podcast regardless of how far apart you and your guest are from each other.

 

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