Why Editing Matters (But Not As Much As You Think)
The goal of editing is not perfection — it's removing friction for the listener. Long silences, filler words, and technical glitches create friction. Everything else is optional.
The Essential Editing Workflow
Step 1: Listen Through and Mark Problems (15–20 minutes)
Listen to your recording at 1.5x speed with headphones. Mark every section that needs attention: long pauses, stumbles, background noise.
Step 2: Remove the Obvious (10–15 minutes)
Cut without hesitation: false starts, long silences (over 2 seconds), technical glitches, and excessive filler words.
Step 3: Level and Clean the Audio (5–10 minutes)
Noise reduction: Sample background noise, then apply noise reduction to the entire track.
Normalization: Normalize to -16 LUFS for podcast distribution.
Compression: A gentle compressor (ratio 2:1 to 4:1) evens out volume differences.
Step 4: Add Intro and Outro (5 minutes)
Keep the intro under 30 seconds. Use royalty-free music from Epidemic Sound or Artlist.
Tools to Speed Up Your Workflow
Descript: Edit audio by editing text — revolutionary for interview shows.
Auphonic: Automated leveling and normalization. Upload raw file, get back polished audio.
The 80/20 Rule
80% of your audio quality comes from 20% of your effort: a quiet room, good mic technique, and removing obvious problems. Start with the 80% and publish.