Mexico Over the Wall

Here’s how I go about trimming down an interview I’ve recorded to turn it into something more intelligible. Many thanks to Rich Varney for asking the questions that inspired this blog post.

The interview I’m using as an example was done over FaceTime, but the same principle applies to phone or Skype interviews.

You start off with a stereo recording, with your guest on one channel and you on the other. This is very useful for editing, as it means both tracks are already synced up for editing. However, you should never ever put out a podcast like this! Having one person talking in one ear and someone else in the other will drive your listeners insane.

Here’s what the file looks like when you put it into an audio editing program, or digital audio workstation (DAW). I’m using Hindenburg Journalist, but they all work in pretty much the same way.

Then, you split that stereo track up into two mono tracks.

The next step is to go through each track and take out all the silences, yeahs, ums, ers and OKs that distract from the interview.

After that, I go through in more detail to take out fluffs, repetitions, and unintelligible audio.

Now it’s ready for uploading to your podcasting host, right? No, not really. Your listeners probably don’t want to hear everything you and your guest said to each other. They probably just want to hear the most interesting bits. That’s when you have to edit for content, which will be the subject of the next article.