Sound design is an essential element of podcast production that can enhance the mood, atmosphere, and storytelling of your audio content. But how do you match the sound design to the tone and style of your podcast? In this article, you will learn some tips and tricks to create a coherent and engaging sound design that suits your podcast's genre, theme, and audience.
Different podcast genres have different expectations and conventions when it comes to sound design. For example, a comedy podcast might use upbeat music, sound effects, and transitions to create a fun and lively vibe, while a true crime podcast might use dark and suspenseful music, ambient noises, and dramatic pauses to create a tense and immersive atmosphere. To match your sound design to your genre, you need to research and listen to other podcasts in your niche and identify the common elements and patterns they use. You can also look for inspiration from other media forms, such as movies, TV shows, or video games, that share your genre.
Match the music to not just your niche, but especially your brand identity and the way you want your listeners to feel. The websites where you can preview and purchase royalty-free music categorize everything according to genre/mood, too, making it simpler to find what suits you: adventure, inspiration, pensive, smooth, dramatic, bright, you name it. It's just as important to consider the voiceover artist's sound, too. Do you want a woman, a man, a deep voice, a cheerful voice, etc.? Some of the same sites offering music let you preview voiceover artists' tone, too.
Customize the music to what the brand stands for and the impact you need to create. Complete what you cannot say in words through music. Make it as an extension of the text you use...
Your theme is the central idea or message that you want to convey through your podcast. It can be a specific topic, a question, a problem, a perspective, or a value that you want to explore or communicate with your listeners. Your sound design should reflect and support your theme by creating a consistent and relevant mood and tone. For example, if your theme is about innovation and creativity, you might use modern and futuristic sounds, such as synth music, digital effects, or glitch sounds, to convey a sense of innovation and creativity. If your theme is about history and culture, you might use traditional and authentic sounds, such as folk music, historical recordings, or cultural sounds, to convey a sense of history and culture.
Even if your podcast is an extension of your brand, it doesn't have to be exactly the same. For instance, our Megayacht News Radio podcast started out as a long-form interview of influential yacht builders, designers, and consultants, similar to interviews we published on MegayachtNews.com. These days (10+ years later), while our podcast still features these conversations, they all focus on one central theme: What do owners want? We zeroed in on this because it's the question everybody in yachting tries to answer with their products and services, but isn't necessarily succeeding in doing. It also differentiates us from a growing number of yachting podcasts.
Your audience is the target group of listeners that you want to reach and engage with your podcast. You need to understand who they are, what they like, what they expect, and what they need from your podcast. Your sound design should match your audience's preferences and needs by creating a sound that appeals to them and resonates with them. For example, if your audience is young and hip, you might use trendy and catchy sounds, such as pop music, slang expressions, or meme sounds, to create a sound that attracts and entertains them. If your audience is older and professional, you might use classic and elegant sounds, such as jazz music, formal language, or subtle sounds, to create a sound that impresses and informs them.
Your sound design consists of various elements that you can use to create your desired sound. These elements include music, sound effects, voice, silence, and transitions. You need to choose your elements carefully and strategically to match your sound design to your tone and style. For example, you can use music to set the mood and emotion of your podcast, sound effects to add realism and detail to your podcast, voice to convey your personality and message to your podcast, silence to create contrast and emphasis in your podcast, and transitions to connect and separate different segments of your podcast. You can also use different types of music, sound effects, voice, silence, and transitions to create different effects and impressions in your podcast.
Many podcasts, including our Megayacht News Radio podcast, incorporate intro and outro music with voiceovers. The intro naturally sets the mood, plus sets the stage for listeners who are new to you. We use it to explain what our podcast is about, and why. The outro should first and foremost thank listeners for their time. Then, give them a call to action: encourage them to follow you on social media, plus check out your website. You can also tease an upcoming episode if you wish.
Your sound design is not a fixed or final product, but a dynamic and evolving process that you can improve and refine over time. You need to experiment and test different sound design options and combinations to find the best match for your tone and style. You can use various tools and techniques to create and edit your sound design, such as software, apps, plugins, libraries, or online platforms. You can also get feedback and suggestions from your listeners, peers, or experts to evaluate and improve your sound design. You can also listen to your own podcast and compare it with other podcasts to assess and enhance your sound design.
Just like riding a bicycle, getting comfortable podcasting and falling into a good rhythm take time. Your first few episodes may sound nothing like your 10th, 20th, etc., nor should they! You learn better techniques as you go along. Remember, too, that you are your own harshest critic. Just when you think you sounded awful or could have done something a whole lot better, you may be surprised at the positive feedback you receive, and the statistics of listeners and downloads. There's nothing wrong with deciding you can do better in the future; just be gentle in allowing yourself to figure out how to to get there.
Your sound design should not only match your tone and style, but also be consistent and coherent throughout your podcast. You need to maintain a clear and recognizable sound identity and signature that distinguishes your podcast from others and creates a loyal and engaged audience. You need to avoid sudden or drastic changes or variations in your sound design that might confuse or distract your listeners or disrupt the flow and continuity of your podcast. You need to follow some basic rules and guidelines to ensure your sound design is consistent and coherent, such as using the same music, sound effects, voice, silence, and transitions for each episode, segment, or season of your podcast.
When sound designing for a podcast, it is important to remember that the hero is the content and not the sound. The sound design should support your hero, and not the other way round. Don't forget that: - music can be used as a filler and it can be used to create spaces; use the spaces to let the content sink in) - more isn't always nice; busy sound design can make the listening experience repelling - sometimes, it's best to let two people talk without any background distractions. Bonus: It always helps if you can get the creator of the podcaster to speak with the sound designer (or vice versa) to see if they have a vision or any ideas that can make the podcast better.