Podcast Editing 101: A Beginner's Guide to Clean Audio
You don't need a $500 microphone or a professional studio to launch a podcast that sounds clean. What you need is a simple editing workflow and an understanding of basic audio principles.
Step 1: Record in a Quiet Space Closet full of clothes? That's a free vocal booth. The fabric absorbs echo. Turn off fans, AC, and computers if possible. Record on your phone if you have to — a quiet room beats an expensive mic in a noisy one.
Step 2: Run Noise Removal First Before you do anything else, upload your raw recording to VoxCraft's Noise Remover. This strips out room tone, electrical hum, and background hiss. Do this before cutting or compressing — noise removal works best on unprocessed audio.
Step 3: Cut the Dead Air Use VoxCraft's Audio Cutter or any editor to remove:
Long pauses between sentences "Um," "uh," and false starts Coughs, chair squeaks, and phone notifications Pre-roll silence before you start speaking
Step 4: Level Your Volume Your voice should peak around -3 dB and sit comfortably around -12 dB. If some sections are loud and others are quiet, use normalization or manual gain adjustment.
Step 5: Add Music (Sparingly) Intro music: 5–10 seconds, fade out as you start speaking Background music during interviews: 15–20 dB below voice Outro music: fade in as you finish speaking
VoxCraft's Background Music tool generates royalty-free tracks perfect for this.
Step 6: Export Correctly
Mono voice tracks: fine for solo podcasts Stereo with music: better for produced shows MP3 at 128–192 kbps: standard for podcast distribution
Distribution Upload to Anchor, Buzzsprout, or Spotify for Podcasters. All are free to start.
Start editing your podcast free with VoxCraft's audio tools.