How To Record A Podcast With An iPhone & On-The-Go

Given podcasting’s spontaneous nature, it’s more than likely that you’ll run into a time where you want to capture a conversation that needs to be heard, but you don’t have your usual equipment with you. That’s where recording a podcast on your iPhone comes in.

On this episode of Audience, we’re shifting gears to highlight Castos creators who are podcasting in unique ways. Rob and Jill from Fearless Camping are the first to join us to talk about how they record their podcast on-the-go.

From the mountains of Pine Valley, Utah, the duo fills us in on how they produce the show from hotel rooms, the car, and campsites. Listen to the full episode to learn why you might not need the latest gear to create an incredible podcast.

Top Tips For Podcasting With An iPhone

Recording a podcast outside of a standard studio presents a new set obstacles. More noises, environmental factors, and finding a stable internet connection to name a few. But we learned from The Fearless Camping hosts that they share similar challenges to others who record inside.

Here are their top tips for podcasting in general and on the go:

• Don’t forget to outline: no matter where you’re recording from, you can’t forget to outline what an episode is about. It takes Rob and Jill no more than 10 minutes to figure out what they want to talk about before hitting record.
• Don’t let the learning curve stop you: the beauty of recording a podcast with an iPhone is you don’t need much equipment. The Fearless Camping is Rob and Jill’s first try at podcasting and they found the process surprisingly easy! At just two months into their journey, they’re already seasoned hosts consistently publishing new episodes.
• On-the-go doesn’t mean unedited: just because you’re recording in the wild, doesn’t mean you can’t go back and edit. You’ll likely remove less of the ambient noise since that’s part of the charm, but go ahead and cut out some of those um’s and ah’s.
• Bring online passions offline: a perk of podcasting from unique places is meeting others who share your passions. For Fearless Camping, that means educating a community of outdoor lovers about how to bring the whole family outside. Building these connections is the main goal for Jill and Rob.
• Planning versus serendipity: when you can record from anywhere, there is a balance between planning activities you know you want to record and letting things happen organically that become perfect podcast moments. Depending on your show’s topic, you’ll have to be ready for a bit of both.
• Bring some humanity to the show: for Fearless Camping, showing their human side came in the form of bloopers. Getting comfortable in front of the mic meant some outtakes. But rather than shelve the mistakes, they put together a short blooper reel for the end of each episode. Check out an example from their recent episode.
• The goal doesn’t haven’t to be big numbers: when you’re just starting out, generating huge download numbers might not be your primary goal. For success, consider other accomplishments like educating your niche audience or creating more personal connections with them to fuel audience participation episodes.

The Best Equipment To Record A Podcast With An iPhone

With the podcasting market booming, a quick search on Amazon will return over 200 pages of equipment to help with recording. So we broke down what we believe to be the best options for recording on your cell phone based on versatility, transportability, affordability, and, of course, sound quality.

Fill up your cart today so you can take your podcast on the go tomorrow.

Backpack Studio

There are an endless number of apps that record audio, but only a few that do so with professional sound quality, and even fewer that will record two mics simultaneously (a critical feature if you plan to do any interviews).

That’s why Backpack Studio is considered by so many to be the holy grail of pro-quality recording on the go. It’s only $10 and lets you export directly to your audio files and save them as an .mp3, all the while delivering killer sound quality.

iRig Mic Lav

When looking for a mobile microphone, you want it to be compact, durable, and capable of recording high-quality sound. The iRig Mic Lav meets that criteria and then some.

It’s a hands-free mic that literally fits in your pocket and provides professional-quality recording for an iPhone, iPad, and Android. It’s also “chainable”, which, in human speak, means you can easily link two mics to the same device, making it super easy to record interviews.

TwistedWave

You’ve got your app to record awesome content, you’ve got your mics to make it sound great, now all you need is an editor to polish it up for publishing.

For $10, TwistedWave offers detailed editing capabilities with a super simple, intuitive interface. Using just your fingers you can make precise, accurate selections on the screen of your phone or tablet.

Summary

Oh, the liberation!

No longer bogged down by big bags of expensive equipment, with these three products in your pocket (literally), you can take your podcast to any conference, campsite, coffeehouse, or hotel and produce professional results.

While these tools are capable of producing a high-quality podcast, they’re not miracle workers. A fully-equipped studio will give you marginally better results than any mobile apps can deliver, but that’s no reason to miss the ample opportunities that come with being able to record on the go.

A lot of folks tend to get caught up in perfect production when that energy is better spent on quality content. Mobile podcasting will inevitably come with certain limitations but it provides an air of rawness that you might not get in a studio.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Subscribe to the Fearless Camping podcast
• Get in touch with Rob and Jill at fearlesscamping[at]gmail.com
• Subscribe to Audience
• Apply to be in our Creator Spotlight program