How to record a podcast or a call with two people

How the sound flows

The call app needs two cables, one for each direction. It plays your guest’s voice into the cable Call in, and Soundweave reads that cable on the Call strip. The call app listens to the cable Call out as its microphone, and Soundweave plays a bus into that cable. Your microphone goes to that bus. The Call strip is not routed to that bus, which is why your guest does not hear themselves.

• Guestcall app speaker
• Cable “Call in”app plays into it
• Strip “Call”guest
• Bus A1your headphones

• Microphone
• Strip “Mic”you
• Bus B1 “To guest”virtual
• Cable “Call out”bus in, call app out
• Call appmicrophone

Add two cables

On the Devices page, choose Add Cable and name it Call in. Choose Add Cable again and name it Call out. Windows lists each cable twice, as a speaker and as a microphone, with the name you chose followed by (Soundweave 1), (Soundweave 2) and so on.

Set the call app’s devices

In the call app’s audio settings choose the Call in cable as the speaker (output), and the Call out cable as the microphone (input).

If the app does not list the cables, close it and start it again.

Add two strips and two buses

In the Mixer:

1. Add input › Hardware inputs › your microphone. This is the Mic strip.
2. Add input › Virtual inputs › Call in. This is the guest, the Call strip.
3. Add bus, type A · hardware. Set its output to your headphones.
4. Add bus, type B · virtual, name it To guest. Set its output to the Call out cable under Virtual outputs.

Click a strip’s name to rename it. Do not add Call out as a strip, and do not give any bus Call in as its output.

Route: mic to the guest, guest to you

Open Routing and set these routes, and only these:

• The microphone strip to To guest. Add A1 too if you want to hear yourself.
• The Call strip to A1, your headphones.

The Call strip must not be routed to To guest. That route would send your guest’s voice straight back to them.

Check the levels with your guest

Ask your guest to say a few sentences. The meter on the Call strip should move, and you should hear them in your headphones. Then ask whether they can hear you, and whether they hear an echo of themselves. They should not.

Set the faders so both voices have similar loudness. If your microphone needs work, the microphone guide covers noise removal, EQ and a compressor.

Set up the recorder

Click the arrow next to Record in the mixer toolbar to open the recorder.

1. Mode: choose Both. You get one file per line plus one mixed file.
2. Tap: Post-fader records what you hear, after the fader and effects. Pre-fader records before the fader and ignores fader, solo and ducking, which gives you more room to rebalance in an editor.
3. Lines: tick the Mic strip and the Call strip. The Mic file then holds only you, and the Call file only your guest.
4. Save to: files go to Documents\Soundweave Recordings unless you choose Change….

Record

Click Start recording. A timer runs in the toolbar and a REC pill shows in the title bar on every tab, so you cannot forget it. The recorder lists each file being written with its size.

Click Stop and save to finish. All files of a take start on the same sample, so they line up when you drop them into an editor at the same position. The files are FLAC, 24-bit.

Optional: music that lowers under your voices

Add your music player as a strip and use ducking: mark Mic and Call as priority strips and let them trigger a group, then set the music strip to be lowered by that group. While either of you speaks, the music drops, then comes back.

Save it as a profile

Open Settings › Profiles and save this setup as Podcast. Strips, buses, routing, effects and hotkeys come back with one click. Add a global hotkey for mute so you can silence your microphone while a game or another window has focus.

Two people in the same room

With two microphones on one audio interface you do not need a call app or a cable. Add two strips from the interface, for example Mono · in 1 and Mono · in 2, send both to an A bus for your headphones, tick both in the recorder, and record. Each person gets their own file.

Recording a call you are in

The setup is the same. Tick both lines and choose Combined if you want a single file of the whole conversation. Tell everyone that you are recording before you start. Rules about recording calls differ between countries and platforms.

Troubleshooting

My guest hears an echo of themselves

Open Routing and check that the Call strip is not routed to the To guest bus. Only your microphone should be. Then open Devices and check that no cable is used both as a strip and as a bus output: Call in feeds the Call strip only, and Call out is the To guest output only.

My guest cannot hear me

Check that the To guest bus has the Call out cable as its output, that the microphone strip is routed to it, and that the call app uses Call out as its microphone.

A line is missing from the recording

Open the recorder and check that the line is ticked. Lines that are not ticked are not recorded.

My own voice is in my guest’s file

Tick the Call strip, not a bus that also carries your microphone. Then check that the call app’s microphone is Call out and that no bus has Call in as its output.

The call app does not list the cables

Close the app and start it again after you added the cables.

Questions

Keep going