Speaker 1: What's the best podcast recording software in 2024? We've tested all the leading podcasting software and narrowed it down to the top four that we recommend. So you'll know how to start a podcast using the best software for you. I'm gonna run through both free and paid options as well as some of the key features that each one has so that you can find the one that fits your needs the best. And of course, soon you'll be recording. So I wanna share three recording tips that will save you hours on editing later. So make sure you stay until the end of this video for that. By the way, my name is Jerry Potter. Yes, it rhymes with a boy wizard. And our first option today is called Wave Room. Wave Room is a browser-based tool that's really great for recording high quality audio and video. Here's what I love about Wave Room. First of all, it records locally. And what we mean by that when it comes to podcasts is that instead of recording over the internet, which is reliant on a strong internet signal, which even the best ones occasionally drop out, it records locally to your computer as well as the computer of any guest or guests that you bring onto your show. Now, no need to worry that it's gonna be complex for your guests. All they have to do is click a link. It all happens in their browser. And at the end, all of the high quality recordings get uploaded to the cloud. Now, I do wanna point out that all of the options we're talking about today offer this local recording option because I think it's a non-negotiable. If you are gonna bring on guests, you can bring up to five people total. And as I mentioned, this is browser-based, which means there's nothing to download for you or your guests. It's just ready to go. Quality-wise, it'll record up to 2K. And just for reference, we have 1080p on one side and 4K. Those are the two that we hear about. This is kind of in between there. Now, what's not to love about WaveRoom? Well, first of all, it doesn't do much else yet. It looks like they're building out some of the other features, but there's no built-in editing, really. You have to download your files and then load them into whatever editing software you're gonna use for your episodes. And personally, I like a cloud-based recorder because then I don't have to take up all my hard drive space and it's backed up in the cloud. And they will store your recordings in the cloud, but only for a limited time. The best thing about WaveRoom, though, it's free. So WaveRoom is a great option for anyone looking for a free tool, as well as anyone who already has another editing program that they love and they're gonna edit in that anyway. However, not a good option for anyone who wants to record in higher quality, like let's say 4K, so it's easier to repurpose clips from your podcast into YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels or other types of content. And it's not for anyone looking for a nice all-in-one tool where you can record, edit, and publish all in one place. Our second suggestion for best podcast recording software is StreamYard. Now, StreamYard started as a streaming tool, hence the name, but it's actually gotten to be a pretty great content recording tool as well. What I love about StreamYard, it records locally, just like we talked about. It also can have guests, up to 10 guests. So if you've got a very busy show where people come in and out, this can be a cool option. And there's nothing to download. It all sits in the browser. StreamYard also lets guests join from their phone. So maybe you're gonna have guests that aren't necessarily at a computer all the time. This is a cool feature that StreamYard has. And it has some built-in features to, say, produce your show as you go. So you can upload music or create graphics in there or add maybe a produced video intro for your show. And you can play them in real time as you're recording. That way, you don't have to add them in later in post-production, which saves time on editing, which is always a good thing. They do have a feature called AI Video Clips, which is designed to find the good parts and turn them into clips that you can repurpose on social media. And of course, what StreamYard does, as well as anybody, is live stream. So if you do a lot of live streaming, or maybe you plan to live stream your podcast as you're recording it to one or multiple social networks like LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, this can be a great option for that. Now, StreamYard's pricing, they do have a free plan, and that's just basically for testing it out. It's gonna have a StreamYard logo, which really not gonna serve you long-term, but their basic plan starts at $25 a month, or to get full 1080p, it goes to $49 a month. Of course, you can save by paying for a year upfront. And then if you're all in, they've got some business plans as well. StreamYard is a great option for anyone that is looking to live stream their podcast as they record it, or maybe you just do a lot of live streaming in your business anyway, and you want a better tool. And this is kind of a two-in-one. And for anyone who is just planning to basically trim off the front and the back and publish it, you're gonna do very minimal editing, this could be a good option. However, StreamYard, not your best choice for anyone who wants to record in 4K, or if you're looking for an all-in-one where you can record, edit, and produce, and do all of the things in one tool, which takes us to our next option. Our third suggestion for best podcast recording software is Riverside.fm. Riverside was one of the original tools to do the local recording for you and your guests to get the highest quality without having to worry about the internet connection, but they've added so much more. Here's what's to love about Riverside. In addition to recording locally, it will record in 4K. It's browser-based, so again, you can do it all in a browser, same thing for your guests, although they do have a Mac app that's downloadable that they are testing right now as of this recording. You can bring on guests, up to eight people total can join your recording session in your studio in Riverside. Also, editing is built in, including transcript-based editing. This is where you get a transcript of your episode, and you can just highlight the sections that you don't need the outtakes or anything that you did more than once, and it automatically deletes it from the audio or the video recording. This is a massive time-saver, and if you are planning to edit a podcast, this is the way to go no matter what tool you choose. The good news is these days, lots of different tools offer this, including now Riverside. They've got AI tools, of course, that will help generate show notes and find and produce high-quality clips based on AI that you can repurpose for social media, which is nice. While you're editing, you can easily change the layout of the screen or the look. So for example, you can feature the person who's speaking in a big screen and the person who's not speaking in a small screen, and then have them switch when the other person starts speaking. They've got a teleprompter feature and a mobile app if you like to edit on the go, and it looks like they're adding more and more features to the mobile app as time goes on. And as a bonus, Riverside also does live streaming like StreamYard does with the ability to add lower thirds graphics, put a logo on the screen, change your layout, colors, different things like that. And recordings are all stored in the cloud, so that keeps your hard drive nice and clean, which of course makes your computer run better for everything else that you're doing and creating. So what's not to love about Riverside? Just one main thing, and that is that the editor, even though it keeps getting better and better, is still limited. If you want control over everything that you do and the way everything comes out, then Riverside is limited there. They do have a feature though, where if you are used to editing in a more advanced program, you can export a file from Riverside once you've done some of the basic edits that you can then import into Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro. Pricing for Riverside, they do have a free plan, but again, that's just to kind of test things out. The standard plan is pretty good. You get 4K recording for $19 a month. And if you wanna go pro, which is just $29 a month, you get all these other AI features, the teleprompter, and lots more. Now it is worth mentioning, if you are gonna livestream with Riverside, it is an add-on as of right now. So that's an additional $15 a month. And as expected, they have annual plans where you can save money by paying for a year upfront. Riverside is a great option for you if you're looking for an all-in-one tool where you can record, edit, and publish all in one place, all cloud-based. And if you're looking to do livestreaming or perhaps livestream your show while you're recording it, Riverside has all of that built in, which is really, really nice. However, probably not the best option for anyone who wants to get very specific with their edits, maybe a recovering perfectionist, if you know anyone like that. And it's also not for anyone who wants to be able to do stuff offline. These three tools we've talked about so far are all browser-based, no internet connection, no software, which takes us to our fourth suggestion for best podcasting software, and that is Descript. Descript does so many things well, including podcast recordings. In fact, I know a lot of people who use Descript for editing, and they haven't even realized that you can record right inside of Descript as well. Lots to love about Descript, it will record in 4K. It does record locally for the highest quality for you and your guest or guests without having to rely on an internet connection. You can have guests up to 10 people at a time. It has transcript-based editing where you edit the text and it edits the audio or video to match. In fact, Descript was like the original on that, and they do it very, very well. And they have a ton of AI tools built in where you can generate show notes, find good clips, have them auto-edit just like Riverside does. But unlike Riverside, in Descript, after the AI does its thing, again, if you're a recovering perfectionist like me, you can make additional edits because occasionally, you know, the AI doesn't always get things right, right, in all of the AI tools. Three more killer features in Descript that I want you to know about. One is called automatic multi-cam. And so if you have guests on your show, it will go through and it will chop it into scenes, automatically showing the person who's talking and then switching to the other person when they start talking. Kind of like you see happen on a Zoom call if you have a speaker view going, except because it's recorded, it actually does it a little bit better. They also have a feature they call eye contact, which is either amazing or super creepy. But as you are recording your video, you could be looking away from the screen at your notes, at your outline, at your script, and it will reorient your eyeballs to be making eye contact with the camera. So studies have shown eye contact with a camera builds trust a lot faster. It's a good thing to do. However, sometimes in a longer piece of content, like a podcast, we've got to look at our notes. So it, again, a little bit creepy, but it is quite effective. I've found it works best if your notes are right below your camera, and then it will reorient your eyeballs to be looking at the camera. And finally, and this is the thing that I love about Descript most, is in Descript, you can create custom templates. Now they have a bunch built in already, but you can create custom templates and automatically apply them. So for example, let's say you cut out a chunk of your podcast and it was 60 seconds, and you said, okay, I want this to be a YouTube short. And in the podcast, you and your guest are side by side, you apply the template, it will automatically reorient them to be one on top of the other, captions in the middle, in your brand colors. You can also do it to add banners and other graphics. This really is a killer distinct feature that Descript has that we're just not seeing in any of these other tools. Now, that being said, there's a few things not to love about Descript. First of all, it is cloud-based, but there's also a downloadable version, which I use, because at least in my experience, that works better, but it fills up your hard drive. And you have to remember to go in and remove the downloads in Descript. Now we'll still keep them in the cloud, which is nice, but there's no bulk remove, so I find this to be very, very time-consuming. Also, Descript does no live streaming, so keep that in mind. And it has no mobile functionality for you or guests, so everything is based on being on a computer. When it comes to Descript's pricing, they do have a free plan, they sort of tucked it down here at the bottom, but it really is just for trying it out. If you're gonna be creating a podcast on a regular basis, you want at least the creator plan, this is what I use, which is $15 a month, or you can get triple the transcription hours, 30 hours a month for $30 per month, and you can actually go down here and see all of the other features that get unlocked when you go to the pro level. Personally, I haven't needed it yet, and of course, you can pay annually and save that way. Descript is a great option for anyone who wants an all-in-one tool where you can record, edit, and publish all in one place, and wants lots of control over how the edits turn out in the end. And it's also a great option for anyone who maybe creates lots of other content, like I use it for my YouTube videos, for my course lessons and membership lessons, all kinds of things like that. But it's not the best option for anyone looking for something simpler. StreamYard or Riverside might be the best options for that, for an all-in-one tool. It's not for anyone who wants to do stuff on their phone. It's like we said, it's all on the computer. And again, Descript has no live streaming, so if you do a lot of live streaming or you wanna live stream your show, might wanna check out one of the other options. But right now, knowing what you know, which one are you leaning towards? Or maybe you already use one of these tools and love it, we'd love to have you give them a shout out in the comments right now. Other than WaveRoom, I've used all of these tools extensively in my business. And the great news is they're all pretty good. It's hard to go wrong. Just choose based on your budget and your features. If you're looking for a free option, then WaveRoom is a great way to go. Want a great tool that also live streams? StreamYard is great for that. If you want a little bit more editing built in, then Riverside is great to look at. And if you aren't planning to use this for live streaming, then Descript is fantastic and has lots more editing features all built in. All right, three powerful tips for when you start recording that will save you hours when you start editing. And the first one's gonna sound super obvious, but it is simply do a test recording. Podcasts tend to be longer content, usually a minimum of eight to 10 minutes, but especially if you're recording 30 minutes, 60 minute, 80 minute, 90 minute episodes, you don't wanna finish the whole thing and then find out you had the wrong microphone selected, your microphone was turned up too high and it distorted, nothing like that. So do a test recording. It'll be well worth it. Next, if you're doing video, be okay looking at your notes. We feel like we have to be perfect and make eye contact all the time, but the truth is we're human. There's nothing wrong with looking at your notes and even pointing it out. If you're on camera, you can say, I wanna check my notes really quick because I wrote this out exactly the way that I wanted to say it to you so that it made the most sense. You know, you can acknowledge your notes, nothing wrong with that. And the third tip is treat your recording session like a live stream and tell your guests the same thing. This will save you hours on editing over the course of months and years, simply by knowing in your own mind, if you stumble on a word, you're just going to keep going. And if your guests stumble on a word, they'll do the same thing. Now it is recorded, so if somebody has a massive coughing fit or something you still have the luxury of being able to edit, but approach your recording session as though it's live, you'll save lots of time on editing later on. If you are new to podcasting on the screen right now, we've linked up to best podcast microphone for beginners, as well as how to start a podcast on YouTube. So click on whichever of those would be most helpful for you right now. There's also a link to my channel on the screen where I help online entrepreneurs achieve more time freedom in their business by getting more efficient with video and podcast content creation. So if that sounds interesting to you, we'd love to see you over there. And as always, there's tons of links and resources to help you out in the description of this video. We will see you in the next one. Take care.