Warm Up Your Voice for Podcasting

Before You Record...
Did you know that you can prepare your mouth for podcasting? If your mouth is dry, you may inadvertently make unattractive mouth sounds, such as tongue clicks. And that doesn't sound nice!

Before you speak into the microphone, drink and swish your mouth well with warm water, not cold water (which will constrict your vocal chords), and not hot water. Don’t drink milk, which will cause mucus, and avoid bubbly soda or sugary fruit juices. Don’t eat right before you podcast, and use lip balm, to keep you from smacking your lips.

Did You Just Say "Um?"
Do you say "um" a lot? I know I do. I've noticed if I slow down and try to relax, that I don't say "um" quite as much. But it's still a challenge for me. I'd love to hear what other people do to not say "um."

Bruce Sharpe, the inventor of the Levelator, says it's important to edit out distracting sounds, such as “um” or other mistakes in the sound editing process. After you have identified the segment of sound you want to delete, he recommends using a cross fade on the volume next to the cut sound section so that the sound cut-off doesn't sound quite so abrupt.

I use Garage Band for audio editing, so I haven't tried it out this plug-in, but if you’re using Audacity to do post-production editing, you can download Bruce Sharpe’s handy plug-in to smoothly handle cross fades with Audacity. This plug-in can be found on http://www.singularproductions.net.

Happy Podcasting!