138: How To Record An Interview Podcast In High Quality Audio: Squadcast

Get your free 7 day trial of Squadcast at https://Squadcast.fm OR if you use my affiliate link here you can say “thanks” to me for making the introduction.

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Way back when I started podcasting — it was 2013 or so — I recognized very quickly that whoever could solve the problem of recording conversations over a distance and do so with high quality audio, would have a leg up on everyone else.

I’m glad to know the two guys who did it. On this episode I walk through Squadcast (affiliate link) with co-founders Rock Felder and Zach Moreno. We dig into the tech they created that makes the app work so well, how they solved for quality and reliability, and even go step by step through the features and how the platform works.

You’ll also get to hear what’s coming down the pike that goes WAY beyond recording an interview podcast in audio - High Def Video recording through the same platform. It’s Squadcast, folks. Learn about it on this episode.

• [2:10] Experience on the Google Chrome team that translates DIRECTLY into this app
• [8:55] Why Skype-type audio recordings are NOT the best quality
• [11:45] How the Squadcast team addressed quality and reliability in distance recordings
• [14:22] The tech details of what these guys did to address distance recording issues
• [21:08] My Squadcast walk-through with Zach and Rock explaining it to me
• [29:04] Lots of choices for the host to get better audio for them and guests
• [41:18] Squadcast pricing: from a 7 day free trial to huge networks
• [46:10] High quality VIDEO is on the way!   

Resources mentioned during this conversation

• Edison Research Infinite Dial Report 2020

Connect with the Squadcast team

• On Twitter: @SquadCastFM
• Follow on LinkedIn
• Check out the Squadcast YouTube Channel

Audio drift on podcast interview recordings is a thing of the past

You know what I’m talking about, right? You get the audio from your online recording platform, toss it into your audio editing software (DAW) and discover that it isn’t synced. So you spend tons of time trying to connect the dots and make it sound normal.

That shouldn’t happen. It’s called “audio drift” and one of the most PAINFUL parts of using any distance recording solution (when it happens). The Squadcast guys (Zach and Rock) KNEW it was an issue and took the time to figure it out. Don’t you love people who just figure it out?

If you decide to try out Squadcast you’re doing to discover that audio drift is no more. Really, NO. MORE.

The best way to control the audio quality of interview guests

It’s pretty typical for a podcast host to have great audio. She’s the one who’s invested a bit of dough in the right equipment and who has learned how to record effectively. But the guest… now that’s a different story entirely.

It’s just as typical for the guest’s audio to atrocious. They don’t understand audio, don’t know what to do to get good recordings, and don’t always see why it’s important. So what can a host do?

Number one: Help them get good audio the moment they come onto the recording platform. Zach and Rock over at Squadcast.fm got a suggestion from podcast guru Harry Duran (Podcast Junkies) that they should built out a way for the host to see the status of the guest’s audio setup — What mic are they using? What bandwidth do they have on their internet connection? And that was a BRILLIANT idea, Harry. Why? Because the host — the one who knows about how to get good audio — can now peek through the keyhole at the guest’s setup to help them tweak it into a reasonably good-sounding audio track. Listen to this episode. Rock and Zach explain how it works.

What if I told you that high quality distance video recording is almost here?

It’s currently late August, 2020. The guys at Squadcast.fm are ALMOST done putting together one of the most in-demand apps I can think of. It’s the ability to not only record stellar audio for podcasts, but to also do it with stellar quality video footage at the same time.

Podcasters who have been limping along with Skype and Zoom call recording solutions are about to get a treat. When this thing comes put it’s going to have the same commitment to quality and reliability behind it that the audio app has had all along. And it’s going to be VIDEO.

Watch out YouTube. A whole lot of podcasters are about to be creating channels.