Why Do Podcasters Wear Headphones?


You must have noticed that almost all podcasters wear headphones when producing a podcast.

If you are wondering why do podcasters wear headphones?

Then here is a short and sweet answer:

The primary reason podcasters wear headphones is that they help them monitor audio, giving them real-time feedback on how the podcast would sound to a listener. Headphones also help podcasters prevent echo and sound quality issues and make the editing process easier.

Table of Contents

Reasons why should you wear headphones when recording a podcast

Besides looking cool, you should wear headphones when recording a podcast because of the following reasons:

Audio Monitoring

Audacity DAW

Being a professional podcaster, you should always check your audio levels and audio quality before the beginning of an interview to make sure everything is Okay! Checking the audio levels, sound quality, etc., is extremely crucial.

Monitoring all these will become trouble-free and straightforward if you use headphones.

With a good pair of headphones, you can catch any minor sound errors and improve them on time before creating any problem during your podcast.

The least amount of sound mistakes will definitely improve the audio quality of your podcast.

Being aware of your voice can help you improve the way you speak, your speaking habits, etc.

Hence wearing headphones can help you know exactly how you will sound to your listeners and will allow you to adjust your voice, tone, and sound accordingly.

Filter out Ambient noise

headphones filter noise for podcasters

By wearing headphones, you can listen to some of the ambient noises like wind, etc., that might have made it to your microphone and avoid it from getting recorded any further.

Listing and carefully removing ambient noises is extremely important if you want your podcast to be more professional and stand out.

Popping

mic pop

Generally speaking, popping refers to rough sounds created by words that begin with hard consonants, such as ‘pop’ etc. This unpleasant sound mainly occurs when you say words too close to your microphone.

Popping is hard to deduct, especially without headphones, and even harder to edit. You can use a pop guard to avoid it. Thus, headphones help podcasters figure out the popping that might occur in the podcast.

Bleeding and Echo Prevention

microphone with tripod photo

If you are doing a podcast without wearing headphones, then your audio or the guest’s audio may get picked by the mic from the speaker and cause an echo sound, as each of you would have a microphone in front of you.

This will make the sound quality of your podcast feel cheaper and unprofessional to your listeners no matter how expensive your setup is and the microphone you are using.

To avoid this minor yet serious problem, you should add decent headphones to your gear to stop the sound from traveling further than your ears.

Makes Editing Easier & Faster with Better Sound Quality

editing podcast

Editing takes forever. We all know that.

You won’t even realize you’ve spent a good few hours doing post-editing work, as you can’t just release a podcast without editing.

Doing everything you can to save some time while editing is always a good option.

A headphone can help you make the editing process much easier and faster because by wearing headphones, you can pick up the minor sound quality issues you would not have noticed otherwise.

Like while producing a podcast, you can listen to any fluctuations in the audio and adjust the audio levels to avoid any further problems in recordings.

Doing so will ultimately make the editing process much easier as you don’t have to do it later on while editing.

Wearing Headphones Makes your Guest feel comfortable

comfortable podcast guest with headphones

If you are using an additional microphone, you must also provide your guests with a pair of headphones since they will have an easier time knowing if their voice is getting recorded.

As you must have noticed, when a guest is not wearing headphones, they don’t know if they are speaking too loud or too low; the host has to interrupt them to tell them to get close to the mic or speak loudly, etc.

Giving your guests headphones lets them know if their voice is recorded correctly. They know if they need to adjust their sound or not, which makes them feel more comfortable.

To Eliminate mic placement concerns

man singing with microphone in wrong spot

Some podcasters also wear headphones because they don’t want to be bothered by the microphone placements every time they record a podcast.

You would have to place a mic at a perfect distance, i.e., neither too far nor too close from your mouth; if it is too far, the voice will not get recorded properly. Whereas if it’s placed too close, you may register your breathing.

Hence, if you are using expensive quality headphones, you would generally get a built-in microphone that would work perfectly.

The inbuilt mic in some popular headphones is at a perfect distance for recording voice without any problems.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve tried to answer the most asked question, i.e., Why Do Podcasters Wear Headphones?

Although, the main reason is that it helps the host identify any significant sound quality issues in their recordings before they create a problem.

There are other important reasons why a podcaster must wear headphones whenever producing a podcast, like filtering out ambient noises, making the editing process more manageable, etc.

With that said, we hope that we have answered your question about why podcasters wear headphones.

Juan Louder
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Juan Louder

I started SoundStudioMagic to learn how to record my own audiobook at home, and now I'm addicted to all the latest techniques and gear.

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