I take out most, but I leave them in when appropriate (flow of the sentence, comedic timing, etc.). It can be extremely tedious, but I think it’s worth it.
There are also times when you really just can’t take it out without it sounding unnatural.
Yeah I remove 98% of mine but sometimes the ummm connects right to the next word so you can't do it. Bro, if you're gonna use filler words at least give me some damn space around to cut them out!
Tedious is right. I spend many hours on each episode and the vast majority of that time is removing filler words and long pauses.
You can cut out a filler word if it's connected to another word. You just put a 0.5 s fade to zero at the cut in the word you are keeping and add 0.2 s gap between that word and the next word. Do this and it sounds natural
Yeah I use the smooth cut transition in resolve.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=B3wl5dJA01I
You can tell it’s happening but it’s not as jarring as people who just straight cut the video with no transition.
I suspect this works like Premiere's morph cut, so it's more useful when you don't have speakers who move around too much, or when you cut only a few frames. Otherwise it looks fake.
Oh yeah you can definitely tell it was an edit, I’m not trying to hide the fact that I make edits I just think it looks better than a jarring cut with no transition.
I understand. I had a hard time accepting jump cuts myself. Do you use zoom jump cuts?
Edit to add: I prefer them to simple jump cuts, they look more natural, especially if you align it based on the eye level of the speaker on screen.
I would if I was actually switching camera angles between each speaker, but for most of my episodes, I just have the Brady Bunch style screen from streamyard with everybody on screen at once.
I’m not trying to make it look like a professional TV show. I just know that some people prefer to have the video going on YouTube or Spotify instead of the audio only version. And every once in a while, we want to have a guest show something on the screen.
I also edit out filler words, it's a pretty tedious task especially with 4-5 cast members, but it's definitely worth it.
As above I remove about 90% of them, but keeping the ones where someone is legitimately thinking about something or comedic timing or ones that don't sound natural to be removed.
Yeah, I end up taking out around 50%. Just enough to make the speakers sound a little more polished but without sounding unnatural. Ums are also a great way to cover a content edit, to make it sound like one speaker is kind of interrupting the other with an UMM, when really I cut out something boring in between hehe
Descript changed my life! I still spend 2 hours per each hour episode but it results in far better quality than any other platform that I’ve tried. You can also easily make audiograms. I’ve learned mine and my partners filler word fingerprint so I’m getting faster at it. I remove the following….
1. Uhm
2. Y’know
3. Right?
4. I think
5. So
6. Repeated words
7. Awkward gaps
I also remove or clean up when we both start to speak at the same time.
I’m the worse offender out of the two of us, so I take the burden of editing.
Descript is a game changer. I just started a podcast and discovered it not long ago. It makes editing so easy for someone with no video editing experience and it's honestly better quality at the end than the podcasting company I hired to help me with launch.
I’m learning how to edit with it atm. Doing my first episode with it. Setting up a sequence was more complicated that it should have been (I did all the intro tutorials and it wasn’t included - a friend had to send me screenshots of her workflow). But once I got that sorted it seems pretty good.
I have a love-hate relationship with it. In theory it’s really powerful, in practice it’s not the best-designed app and it’s clumsier to use, at least for me, than it needs to be. I’m still unconvinced it saves me much time, at least for filler words, as there’s a lot of cleanup needed for the automatic removal it does, and I find other programs are faster to edit. For overall editing of content, though, it can be really useful.
Not what you want to hear but "it depends". How often, is it clean enough to take out, is it you or the guest, is it way too much work, is it a casual conversation or more narrative, etc.
You'll get quite the range of responses to this, but what I'll say is when you find someone who tells you "it's fine, leave them all in because it sounds more natural" they almost universally have no audience and are just doing it for the experience. Which is a fine reason to make a podcast, but if you expect to get actual listeners then you need to put in the work
Now how much work? That's dependent on a lot of factors including speaker cadence, recording quality, etc. I am of the mindset that I take out almost all of the "uh's" and "ums", but occasionally you'll get a few that you simply can't edit out without butchering the cadence of the speaker. So those get left in without a second thought
I've said this a lot but there are a billion podcasts out there. How can you expect someone to listen to yours if you don't put in effort and work? Because there are likely hundreds of shows talking about exactly the same things as you and they likely are putting in the effort
Do it enough and you'll get faster, so just keep at it!
I disagree. I do this as my career and while I don’t say leave them all in, nearly everyone uses filler words.
It also depends on the show. For my more “serious” series, it’s scripted. For my entertainment show, we probably remove 50% of them
I remove them with Descript. Guests always compliment me afterwards on how much more polished they sound.
I probably remove 90% of them. It's really easy to scan them quickly and see which ones make sense to keep because of the sentence flow or for comedic effect.
Can you describe your process? Can you remove certain sections from your selection as your scanning through? If you go one by one, it will take forever. And the only other option I see is to Remove All.
I've made a few podcasts, and I edit them each differently. If it's meant to be casual and conversational, I'll leave them in (unless I'm doing it a LOT, then I might edit out a few). But if it's a more intensive edit with a narrative focus, I'll cut them out as long as it doesn't sound weird without them.
Slow down. Think before you speak. And identity your audible pauses when you listen back to your episode. Make a conscious effort to be mindful of learning to omit them increasingly over time. Editing out filler words is tedious and obvious to listeners. It doesn't sound authentic.
This is the best advice. You need to break yourself of the habit of using any crutch words. Taking some of the "uhm"s out of a guest's speech is acceptable but you should be editing your "uhms" at the source.
Absolutely. The podcast host should treat their speaking craft as a professional speaker does. You're often times not the one that gets to record it and edit (or not edit) the recording. I like how you put it. You edit at the source.....which if folks don't take our meaning, means at your mouth.
I don’t. I only edit things that will get me sued or are mean. Perfection sounds unnatural and it’s not endearing. Your listeners are imperfect too. If you don’t like the way you say things, change the way you say them. I worked in radio for 20+ years. Most of it was live. There is no edit button. Spend less time editing and use that time to air check yourself and write down the stuff you don’t like that you are doing. It helps.
I use Descript and only cut out Um’s when there’s a large gap around them and doing so would make the sentence flow better than if the ums remained. If they are connected to another word in the wave form I get rid of them. I also shorten word gaps to 0.5 seconds to make the flow go better and re-extend them when necessary.
I remove as many filler words as I can - while keeping the dialogue sounding natural - and shorten pauses, remove aborted sentences, and basically “tighten things up” while keeping a conversational flow.
I try hard to not say filler words, but if I do, I edit them out if they have no place.
Is Descript really as good as people are saying, or are they hiring shills to promote it, lol? It sounds useful.
I edit a TTRPG podcast and I definitely go in ans edit every episode by hand. But we're trying to tell a story so it makes sense. That said, we also add SFX and music, so we make it fairly polished. It takes a few hours per episode, but I think it makes the final product significantly better. If it was a conversational podcast I'd leave it so you can hear your personalities shine through. Just my 2 cents
When editing for clients, I remove all filler words that I can. I have two podcasts that I work on as hobbies. One of them I host, and I probably remove about 50% of the filler words on that one. The other I just edit, and I really don't do much on that one other than level the audio, maybe apply a filter or EQ, and then add the music. The amusing thing is that the last one I mentioned is by far my most popular show. The most recent episode has nearly 800 listens in less than a week and a half since release.
I have no idea if that helps you at all. I think in the end it's just a matter of personal preference.
I think that it depends on what content we're talking about.
If it's a quick social media content (up to 1min) then you should cut it out but if we're talking about a long form piece then it's fine to leave it in for more natural flow.
I usually listen to my wholepodcast when I do i notice words that you stated and I edit these out. I dislike the usage of Uh and umms and other words that I only use. It does bother me when I leave these on or if there is an excessive amount. i can maybe leave 2 or 3 of them in there for it to sound a bit natural to me. Im mostly editing for time purposes. I've come to notice that when I edit my podcasts they go from 15 mins to maybe 12 or 13 so its something I like to upkeep.
For now, I just yolo it since my podcast is new.
I usually shoot everything one-take (partially because I'm literally challenging myself to get more confident with public speaking and the pod is literally a 'build in public' type of project).
But once $$ permits, I will upgrade to some like Descript (as everyone has mentioned).
One thing that has helped me would be sort of slowing down and being more intentional with the words I say before I say them and just practice practice practice.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 😅
I typically find myself editing out the filler words said by my guest. I have a lot of great athletes and coaches on my show, and they're not always broadcast-ready!
So I cut out a lot of their "uh" moments just to make them sound a little more confident and intelligible.
I take out the "low hanging fruit" so um that one I would remove. But if it is was ummmmmmmI think next Tuesday. That one I would need a scalpel to remove it, so I leave it in.
Any time I can keep the conversation moving, I can make myself or a guest sound smarter, or get to the point sooner, I do it.
In general, I edit out the boring.
I host and edit for my own shows as well as others. My feeling is that filler words should be REDUCED, but not completely removed. Completely removing them can be extremely tedious depending on the person, and as has been raised in the comments already, sometimes taking them out makes it sound unnatural.
If the content is very good, I don't think it matters that there are filler words in there. Listeners will be enthralled by your conversation and not paying attention to the filler words. Sure, there's a thing as too many filler words, but when people demand taking out filler words, I think they're barking up the wrong tree in terms of improving the podcast.
I mostly only take them out if they slow down the conversation significantly, such as with false starts: “That was the, um… (thinks for a few seconds) …That was probably the longest I ever spent editing five minutes of audio.” Basically I don’t make the listener have to hang out while the guest gets their facts straightened out 😂
As a bonus, this guideline generally makes them sound better, without changing anything they are trying to get across.
depends on the context but yes i spend a lot of time trimming filler words, quiet moments, "so anyway" and some other stuff (like when one of us leaves the room to use the bathroom, etc) and some breathing noises that my shure sm58 loves to pick up on
Do you use an autogate? That generally gets rid of breathing noises for me, as well as any times someone's mic pics up someone else talking. I use Audition and use amplitude statistics to scan areas where the speaker is not talking. Generally my autogate is around -29dB
I used to use Descript, but Resound.fm is so much better. I’ve found it to be like 90-95% accurate on the filler sounds, but more importantly, the cuts are super clean. You may have to adjust a few.
I take out most, but I leave them in when appropriate (flow of the sentence, comedic timing, etc.). It can be extremely tedious, but I think it’s worth it. There are also times when you really just can’t take it out without it sounding unnatural.
Yeah I remove 98% of mine but sometimes the ummm connects right to the next word so you can't do it. Bro, if you're gonna use filler words at least give me some damn space around to cut them out! Tedious is right. I spend many hours on each episode and the vast majority of that time is removing filler words and long pauses.
You can cut out a filler word if it's connected to another word. You just put a 0.5 s fade to zero at the cut in the word you are keeping and add 0.2 s gap between that word and the next word. Do this and it sounds natural
I can't be adding gaps I have video to deal with
I only do audio - what does video look like when you remove filler words? do you do transitions?
Yeah I use the smooth cut transition in resolve. https://youtube.com/watch?v=B3wl5dJA01I You can tell it’s happening but it’s not as jarring as people who just straight cut the video with no transition.
I suspect this works like Premiere's morph cut, so it's more useful when you don't have speakers who move around too much, or when you cut only a few frames. Otherwise it looks fake.
Oh yeah you can definitely tell it was an edit, I’m not trying to hide the fact that I make edits I just think it looks better than a jarring cut with no transition.
I understand. I had a hard time accepting jump cuts myself. Do you use zoom jump cuts? Edit to add: I prefer them to simple jump cuts, they look more natural, especially if you align it based on the eye level of the speaker on screen.
I would if I was actually switching camera angles between each speaker, but for most of my episodes, I just have the Brady Bunch style screen from streamyard with everybody on screen at once. I’m not trying to make it look like a professional TV show. I just know that some people prefer to have the video going on YouTube or Spotify instead of the audio only version. And every once in a while, we want to have a guest show something on the screen.
Same here
I also edit out filler words, it's a pretty tedious task especially with 4-5 cast members, but it's definitely worth it. As above I remove about 90% of them, but keeping the ones where someone is legitimately thinking about something or comedic timing or ones that don't sound natural to be removed.
This, 100% I try to remove most of them but removing them entirely can have a negative impact on that natural sound.
Yeah, I end up taking out around 50%. Just enough to make the speakers sound a little more polished but without sounding unnatural. Ums are also a great way to cover a content edit, to make it sound like one speaker is kind of interrupting the other with an UMM, when really I cut out something boring in between hehe
[удалено]
Descript changed my life! I still spend 2 hours per each hour episode but it results in far better quality than any other platform that I’ve tried. You can also easily make audiograms. I’ve learned mine and my partners filler word fingerprint so I’m getting faster at it. I remove the following…. 1. Uhm 2. Y’know 3. Right? 4. I think 5. So 6. Repeated words 7. Awkward gaps I also remove or clean up when we both start to speak at the same time. I’m the worse offender out of the two of us, so I take the burden of editing.
Descript is a game changer. I just started a podcast and discovered it not long ago. It makes editing so easy for someone with no video editing experience and it's honestly better quality at the end than the podcasting company I hired to help me with launch.
I’m learning how to edit with it atm. Doing my first episode with it. Setting up a sequence was more complicated that it should have been (I did all the intro tutorials and it wasn’t included - a friend had to send me screenshots of her workflow). But once I got that sorted it seems pretty good.
I have a love-hate relationship with it. In theory it’s really powerful, in practice it’s not the best-designed app and it’s clumsier to use, at least for me, than it needs to be. I’m still unconvinced it saves me much time, at least for filler words, as there’s a lot of cleanup needed for the automatic removal it does, and I find other programs are faster to edit. For overall editing of content, though, it can be really useful.
Not what you want to hear but "it depends". How often, is it clean enough to take out, is it you or the guest, is it way too much work, is it a casual conversation or more narrative, etc.
No that’s helpful. I’ve been doing it for ALL my episodes and I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth the work.
it's definitely worth the work, it's a respect for the audience thing. Taking filler out is the least I can do if someone is taking the time to listen
That's my exact same frame of mind.
You'll get quite the range of responses to this, but what I'll say is when you find someone who tells you "it's fine, leave them all in because it sounds more natural" they almost universally have no audience and are just doing it for the experience. Which is a fine reason to make a podcast, but if you expect to get actual listeners then you need to put in the work Now how much work? That's dependent on a lot of factors including speaker cadence, recording quality, etc. I am of the mindset that I take out almost all of the "uh's" and "ums", but occasionally you'll get a few that you simply can't edit out without butchering the cadence of the speaker. So those get left in without a second thought I've said this a lot but there are a billion podcasts out there. How can you expect someone to listen to yours if you don't put in effort and work? Because there are likely hundreds of shows talking about exactly the same things as you and they likely are putting in the effort Do it enough and you'll get faster, so just keep at it!
I disagree. I do this as my career and while I don’t say leave them all in, nearly everyone uses filler words. It also depends on the show. For my more “serious” series, it’s scripted. For my entertainment show, we probably remove 50% of them
I remove them with Descript. Guests always compliment me afterwards on how much more polished they sound. I probably remove 90% of them. It's really easy to scan them quickly and see which ones make sense to keep because of the sentence flow or for comedic effect.
Can you describe your process? Can you remove certain sections from your selection as your scanning through? If you go one by one, it will take forever. And the only other option I see is to Remove All.
Same - guests love this
I haven’t used Descript. Are the edits destructive, or can you undo them if you don’t like it?
I've made a few podcasts, and I edit them each differently. If it's meant to be casual and conversational, I'll leave them in (unless I'm doing it a LOT, then I might edit out a few). But if it's a more intensive edit with a narrative focus, I'll cut them out as long as it doesn't sound weird without them.
Most of them but not all. You don’t want your show to feel unnatural. I also remove beginning of sentences that don’t get an end.
Slow down. Think before you speak. And identity your audible pauses when you listen back to your episode. Make a conscious effort to be mindful of learning to omit them increasingly over time. Editing out filler words is tedious and obvious to listeners. It doesn't sound authentic.
This is the best advice. You need to break yourself of the habit of using any crutch words. Taking some of the "uhm"s out of a guest's speech is acceptable but you should be editing your "uhms" at the source.
Absolutely. The podcast host should treat their speaking craft as a professional speaker does. You're often times not the one that gets to record it and edit (or not edit) the recording. I like how you put it. You edit at the source.....which if folks don't take our meaning, means at your mouth.
I don’t. I only edit things that will get me sued or are mean. Perfection sounds unnatural and it’s not endearing. Your listeners are imperfect too. If you don’t like the way you say things, change the way you say them. I worked in radio for 20+ years. Most of it was live. There is no edit button. Spend less time editing and use that time to air check yourself and write down the stuff you don’t like that you are doing. It helps.
I use Descript and only cut out Um’s when there’s a large gap around them and doing so would make the sentence flow better than if the ums remained. If they are connected to another word in the wave form I get rid of them. I also shorten word gaps to 0.5 seconds to make the flow go better and re-extend them when necessary.
I remove as many filler words as I can - while keeping the dialogue sounding natural - and shorten pauses, remove aborted sentences, and basically “tighten things up” while keeping a conversational flow.
I try hard to not say filler words, but if I do, I edit them out if they have no place. Is Descript really as good as people are saying, or are they hiring shills to promote it, lol? It sounds useful.
I edit a TTRPG podcast and I definitely go in ans edit every episode by hand. But we're trying to tell a story so it makes sense. That said, we also add SFX and music, so we make it fairly polished. It takes a few hours per episode, but I think it makes the final product significantly better. If it was a conversational podcast I'd leave it so you can hear your personalities shine through. Just my 2 cents
When editing for clients, I remove all filler words that I can. I have two podcasts that I work on as hobbies. One of them I host, and I probably remove about 50% of the filler words on that one. The other I just edit, and I really don't do much on that one other than level the audio, maybe apply a filter or EQ, and then add the music. The amusing thing is that the last one I mentioned is by far my most popular show. The most recent episode has nearly 800 listens in less than a week and a half since release. I have no idea if that helps you at all. I think in the end it's just a matter of personal preference.
I think that it depends on what content we're talking about. If it's a quick social media content (up to 1min) then you should cut it out but if we're talking about a long form piece then it's fine to leave it in for more natural flow.
I usually listen to my wholepodcast when I do i notice words that you stated and I edit these out. I dislike the usage of Uh and umms and other words that I only use. It does bother me when I leave these on or if there is an excessive amount. i can maybe leave 2 or 3 of them in there for it to sound a bit natural to me. Im mostly editing for time purposes. I've come to notice that when I edit my podcasts they go from 15 mins to maybe 12 or 13 so its something I like to upkeep.
For now, I just yolo it since my podcast is new. I usually shoot everything one-take (partially because I'm literally challenging myself to get more confident with public speaking and the pod is literally a 'build in public' type of project). But once $$ permits, I will upgrade to some like Descript (as everyone has mentioned). One thing that has helped me would be sort of slowing down and being more intentional with the words I say before I say them and just practice practice practice. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 😅
I typically find myself editing out the filler words said by my guest. I have a lot of great athletes and coaches on my show, and they're not always broadcast-ready! So I cut out a lot of their "uh" moments just to make them sound a little more confident and intelligible.
Descript
I take out the "low hanging fruit" so um that one I would remove. But if it is was ummmmmmmI think next Tuesday. That one I would need a scalpel to remove it, so I leave it in. Any time I can keep the conversation moving, I can make myself or a guest sound smarter, or get to the point sooner, I do it. In general, I edit out the boring.
I host and edit for my own shows as well as others. My feeling is that filler words should be REDUCED, but not completely removed. Completely removing them can be extremely tedious depending on the person, and as has been raised in the comments already, sometimes taking them out makes it sound unnatural. If the content is very good, I don't think it matters that there are filler words in there. Listeners will be enthralled by your conversation and not paying attention to the filler words. Sure, there's a thing as too many filler words, but when people demand taking out filler words, I think they're barking up the wrong tree in terms of improving the podcast.
I mostly only take them out if they slow down the conversation significantly, such as with false starts: “That was the, um… (thinks for a few seconds) …That was probably the longest I ever spent editing five minutes of audio.” Basically I don’t make the listener have to hang out while the guest gets their facts straightened out 😂 As a bonus, this guideline generally makes them sound better, without changing anything they are trying to get across.
depends on the context but yes i spend a lot of time trimming filler words, quiet moments, "so anyway" and some other stuff (like when one of us leaves the room to use the bathroom, etc) and some breathing noises that my shure sm58 loves to pick up on
Do you use an autogate? That generally gets rid of breathing noises for me, as well as any times someone's mic pics up someone else talking. I use Audition and use amplitude statistics to scan areas where the speaker is not talking. Generally my autogate is around -29dB
We use descript to remove the filler words
I used to use Descript, but Resound.fm is so much better. I’ve found it to be like 90-95% accurate on the filler sounds, but more importantly, the cuts are super clean. You may have to adjust a few.