A Guide to Adding the Best Sound Effects to Your Podcast

Do you intend to include sound effects in your podcast?

Consider your favorite film or television. Sound effects are often deployed to promote the plot and introduce personality. For example, you can lend your podcast an identical production value with the appropriate sound effects.

Background noises, little riffs, or even whole jingles can be used as sound effects. In some instances, all you require is a short, quiet tune to augment emphasis or assist your audience in recognizing a shift.

This blog post will cover all you need to know about adding the best sound effects to your podcast.

Where Best to Add Them?

As a creative, you may deploy podcast music in three ways: as an intro or outro, break up long segments, or as a background track for interviews.

• Intro / Outro

Your podcast opening is the most critical piece of audio you’ll ever make for the podcast to acquire new listeners. Hence, it is critical to keep your audience in mind while producing your show’s pre-roll or intro to explain what the podcast is all about swiftly.

• Segment Divider

Story-like podcasts benefit tremendously from sound effects. They help mark critical events, and they also give an added layer of emotion to the content of your show. Another creative idea of using sound effects is introducing new parts, such as flash news reports.

• Background Music

Although we may not realize it, great podcast background music adds to the delight of listening to a beautiful voice. So when you’re trying to convey a tale or go in-depth on a topic, you need to have an excellent soundtrack to go along with it.

Bundyville is an excellent example of this: the gentle strings in the back for its primary narration and an ominous electronic tone accentuating a dark scene.

Alternatively, think of the Top Story Tonight. The show deploys modern media and upbeat piano music to underscore modernity is a particularly effective way of reinforcing the historical context.

Getting the Appropriate Podcast Sound

Since we know where to install the music, the next step is picking the perfect sound!

What do you have to work with? Copyrighted music, Royalty-Free, and Royalty-Free (Paid) are the only options.

When using copyrighted music, you must get permission from the copyright holder before using their music. However, there are legal consequences to this kind of activity! First, you’ll need royalty-free music if you want to use music in your works that weren’t composed by you. In exchange for a one-time payment, royalty-free music can be used for the rest of your life, and there are also free variants of the license.

Nonetheless, hiring a musician is also possible if you’re searching for something unique. Of course, you won’t have to deal with any of these legal difficulties, plus you’ll also have something original for your podcast in the bargain!

Selecting your Sound Effects

Choosing the best sound effects for your podcast is essentially a matter of depending on your instincts. Consider your target audience, your podcast, and the issues you want to cover. How do you want to sound to them? Any ideas you’re trying to reinforce might be promoted or weakened by the appropriate sound effects!

First, decide if your podcast will be severe or humorous before thinking about the sound effects you’ll use. Second, do you have a consistent theme, or do you rotate your topics? Third, how many separate conversations are included in the 2-hour podcast?

By looking at these questions, our creative thinking is aided.

How many Sound Effects do I use and when?

This question does not have a simple solution, but there are several suggestions that you ought to consider:

• Please, not too much! Keeping things simple is always preferable. Blunder on the side of more minor sound effects, especially if you’re new to podcasting.
• Sound effects usage is not necessary. You can utilize several seconds of the same sound effects at the beginning and end of each episode.
• Instead of detracting from your podcast, sound effects should always serve to improve it. Adding sound effects to your podcasts augments the pleasure of listening to them. So, while selecting music for your show, ensure it doesn’t distract from the speaker’s voice.

We aimed to provide you with a guide to help you add the best sound effects to your podcast. Hence, start integrating sound effects in your shows by getting from the internet or creating your own. We hope you have an excellent time podcasting!

Andrew Fox