Recommended resources
The freely available resources this lesson will direct you to.
Hello! This course starts with the recording system itself: what captures each voice and image, how a remote guest joins the conversation, and what files an editor can expect afterward. Later lessons will cover Riverside settings, room preparation, recording-day checks, and delivery. For now, the aim is to make the signal path unambiguous before connecting equipment.
Your planned setup has three people in one room, one shared microphone, and one camera showing the group, with the option to add a remote guest. The key distinction is that three people do not necessarily mean three audio tracks. With one shared microphone, the room’s three voices become one room audio source. A remote guest can provide a separate audio and video source.
Start with sources, not participants
A source is a device supplying a signal to Riverside. A microphone supplies audio; a camera supplies video. A participant is a connection to the Riverside studio, which may supply one or both. Keeping these ideas separate prevents a common hybrid-recording problem: connecting both a computer and a phone from the same room, then accidentally recording their microphones at once.
For your setup, the intended recordings are:
| Recording source | What it should contain | What it cannot provide |
|---|---|---|
| Room microphone | All three in-room voices together | Separate controls for each voice after recording |
| Group camera | One continuous view of the three in-room speakers | Individual close-up shots |
| Remote guest’s microphone (if present) | The remote guest’s voice | Clean recordings of the people in your room |
| Remote guest’s camera (if present) | The remote guest’s image | Footage of your room |
This is a workable starting system, but its main limitation matters to the editor. If one in-room speaker is much quieter than another, both voices are already combined in the room microphone’s recording. The editor cannot adjust them as independently as they could with one microphone per speaker. Good microphone positioning and a rehearsal will therefore matter especially much; those come later in the course.
The following reading explains the difference between a master voice recording and camera reference sound. It describes a more elaborate, multi-microphone workflow than yours, so read it to understand the distinction—not as a shopping list.
The Best Podcast Microphone Setup for Multi-Camera Interviews
Read Insta360’s explanation of recording sources and editor handoff. Its recommendation for individual microphones helps clarify the trade-off you accept when three speakers share one.
Under “How to Set Up Microphones for a Multi-Camera Interview,” read “Routing Audio to Multiple Cameras” from master recording. Then read “Managing Individual Audio Tracks in Post,” beginning with the paragraph about labeling tracks and ending with the discussion of disabling camera reference audio: track handling. Finally, under “Frequently Asked Questions” and “How Many Microphones Do I Need for a Podcast Interview?”, read the comparison. In your plan, apply its master-audio principle to one combined room recording, not three individual room tracks.
A camera may also capture sound, but that does not make its microphone a second desirable podcast microphone. Such sound can sometimes help an editor synchronize independently recorded footage. It should not quietly become another active room voice source in the Riverside conversation.
Map the room’s capture path
Think of the room recording as two parallel paths, one for sound and one for picture.
For sound, follow these stages:
- The three speakers talk within range of the shared external microphone.
- That microphone connects to the Windows computer, either directly (for example, by USB) or through an audio device that the computer recognizes.
- The computer uses that device as Riverside’s microphone input.
- Riverside receives and records the resulting single room audio source.
For picture, the group camera must frame all three speakers and supply its image to a Riverside connection. If the camera is a phone, there are two possible arrangements. Which one is available depends on the phone, computer, and supported connection method; do not assume Riverside will automatically recognize a phone camera as a Windows webcam.
| Arrangement | Camera path | What appears in Riverside |
|---|---|---|
| Phone used as a computer camera | A compatible connection makes the phone’s camera available as a camera input on the Windows computer. | The computer can supply both the room microphone audio and group video through its studio connection. The phone does not separately join the studio. |
| Phone joins the studio separately | The phone enters the same Riverside studio and supplies the group video. | The computer supplies room audio; the phone supplies a second, in-room video connection. These represent one room, not two sets of speakers. |
In the second arrangement, the phone’s microphone and speaker need separate attention. Muting its speaker stops remote audio playing aloud from that phone; it does not by itself prevent the phone microphone from capturing the room. Likewise, do not assume a studio mute control determines what is or is not retained in every recorded file. Before relying on this arrangement, make a short test recording and inspect both the live sound and the resulting tracks. The intended result is one usable room audio recording, without a second phone-microphone version of the same conversation.
The pre-join screen is a useful reminder: camera, microphone input, and speaker output are three different choices. Seeing the group in the video preview does not prove the external microphone is selected. Seeing a moving audio meter does not prove it is responding to the intended microphone rather than the computer’s built-in one. A later lesson will cover those selections and tests in detail.
Riverside’s hybrid demonstration shows why the second-phone arrangement requires care. It uses two active in-room device microphones for a different setup. Your plan instead calls for one shared external room microphone.
Easy Guide to Hybrid Podcasting: In-Person + Remote Guests
Watch Riverside’s “Easy Guide to Hybrid Podcasting: In-Person + Remote Guests” to see how a computer and a mobile device can join the same hybrid studio. Treat its two-microphone demonstration as a contrast with your one-microphone plan.
Watch two local devices for how the computer and mobile device join, and why the mobile device’s speaker is silenced. Then watch the remote connection. Notice that the example keeps both local microphones active at points; in your setup, that would risk duplicating the room sound.
Add the remote guest—and a return path
A remote guest supplies their own microphone and, if video is wanted, their own camera. Their device sends those sources into the Riverside studio from elsewhere. Riverside can provide the remote guest’s recording separately from the room source. The guest also needs to hear the room, while the three people in the room need to hear the guest.
That listening requirement creates a path you must map even though it is not an intended recording source: remote-guest playback. It arrives at the Windows computer through Riverside and leaves through the computer’s selected speaker output. Ideally, it reaches headphones for the people in the room rather than a loud room speaker. A suitable distribution device, such as a headphone amplifier, can provide multiple headphone feeds; the exact connections depend on the available equipment.
Why keep that playback out of the room microphone? Imagine the guest speaks, the computer plays their voice through a loudspeaker, and the shared microphone hears it. The remote voice now appears both on the guest’s own recording and inside the room recording, possibly delayed. The guest may also hear an echo of their own voice. Software echo cancellation can help in some situations, but it is not a substitute for checking the actual recording.
The guest should likewise listen through headphones where practical, so the room’s voices do not play from the guest’s speakers back into the guest’s microphone.
Riverside’s overview separates these listening and camera concerns. Its examples use different hardware from your proposed setup, but the return-audio principle is the same.
How to Record a Podcast with In-Person and Remote Guests
Watch Riverside’s “How to Record a Podcast with In-Person and Remote Guests” for the listening path and the purpose of a wide group shot. Focus on the principles rather than its more complex, multiple-microphone equipment example.
Watch shared listening for why in-room participants need a way to hear the remote guest, and how headphone distribution can work. Watch group framing for why the camera should show everyone to the remote guest. Finally, watch speaker bleed and output routing: the latter shows how the selected playback device sends remote voices to local headphones. Your room has one microphone, rather than the multiple inputs demonstrated.
With a remote guest, the complete map therefore has two directions. The recording direction carries room and guest sources into Riverside. The listening direction brings the guest’s voice back to the room and carries the room’s voice to the guest. Confusing the two directions is how playback accidentally becomes part of a microphone recording.
What the editor should expect
A useful signal map ends with the files—not merely with everyone appearing in the studio. For the planned setup, the target handoff is:
- One room audio recording containing all three in-room speakers.
- One group video recording showing those speakers.
- If a guest joins, their separate audio and video recordings, according to what they used and what the session successfully captured.
- A note identifying the sources: which file is the shared room microphone, which is the group camera, and which belongs to the remote guest.
Depending on how the phone is connected, room audio and group video may come from one Riverside connection or from separate computer and phone connections. Separate connections do not turn the three room voices into separate audio tracks. Nor should you count a duplicate phone-microphone recording as a useful extra track simply because a file exists.
Riverside may show participants together during the call, but that live view is not the same question as which original recordings are available to the editor. A short test should establish the answer for your chosen phone arrangement. If audio and video are captured on separate devices, an obvious shared event—such as a clap visible to the camera and audible to the room microphone—can also provide a synchronization reference. You will rehearse and evaluate this later.
Before moving on, keep this compact specification for the system:
| Function | Intended device or source | Check that prevents a wrong recording |
|---|---|---|
| Capture three room voices | One external microphone selected on the Windows computer | The intended mic responds; unwanted built-in or phone mic audio is not part of the usable room recording |
| Capture three room faces | One stable group camera, potentially a phone | All three remain visible; the selected video reaches Riverside |
| Hear the remote guest | Computer playback distributed to the room listeners | Guest playback does not audibly return through the room mic |
| Capture the remote guest | Guest’s own microphone and camera | Guest can be heard and seen; their source is distinguishable from the room’s |
| Supply the editor | Completed room and guest recordings, if applicable | The files and source labels match what the test session actually produced |
Key takeaways
Your intended system has one combined room audio source, one group video source, and—if present—a separate remote-guest source. It also needs a playback route so the room can hear the guest without feeding that sound back into the shared microphone. A phone used as a camera may feed the computer or join Riverside separately; those are different signal maps, and the second requires particular care with its microphone and speaker.
The next lesson turns this map into a Riverside studio and recording choices suited to editor-ready raw material.