Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about reverb or echo - and - how to get rid of it. Excess reverb can make even the best podcast sound amateur. This unwanted echo effect happens in smaller, boxy rooms with a lot of hard surfaces. Here, the soundwaves of your voice will bounce around the room like a ball. Typically poor-sounding environments include caves, the bottoms of wells, and in the average person’s bathroom. It’s unlikely you plan to record in any of these, but the room you’ve set aside for your recordings might actually sound like it’s one of them. So, what can we do about it? Well, you could simply record somewhere else. Typically, bedrooms are softer sounding environments. Some podcasters swear by recording in their closets, for example. Alternatively, you can create temporary recording havens by using duvets, towels, or dedicated acoustic blankets. The beauty of these is that they can be tidied away afterwards, if space is at a premium in your home. If you have the luxury of a more permanent setup, you can buy acoustic foam tiles at a reasonable price and stick them to the walls, and even, the roof of your room. The thing is, though, you don’t actually need to sound treat entire rooms - you only need to deal with the small area where you and your mic are set up. Our favourite trick here is to buy a cat bed. You’ll get one of these in the pet shop for less than $15, and they make excellent little “studios” to place your mic in. Then, you just talk into it, and your audio will be free from reverb - even if you *are* recording down a well. For a more detailed look at podcast recording environments, go to http://thepodcasthost.com/homestudio