How to Record Your Very First Podcast Using Riverside FM (Even If You've Never Done It Before)

Go to riverside.fm and click the 'Get Started Free' button in the top right corner. You can sign up with your Google account or enter your email address and create a password. The free plan in 2026 includes up to 2 hours of recording per month, which is more than enough for your first episode. Once you confirm your email, you'll land on your Riverside dashboard. This is your home base — everything you record lives here. You won't be asked for a credit card to use the free tier, so there's no risk in getting started. After signing up, take two minutes to look around the dashboard. You'll see a 'Create a New Studio' button prominently displayed — that's your next step. Riverside also offers a Standard plan at $19 per month and a Pro plan at $29 per month if you need unlimited recording hours or advanced features like AI-powered editing, but the free plan is perfect while you're learning the ropes.

From your Riverside dashboard, click 'Create a New Studio.' You'll be asked to give your studio a name — this could be your podcast name or just 'Test Episode 1' for now. Next, choose your recording type. Select 'Audio Only' if you just want a podcast, or 'Audio and Video' if you want to record video as well for YouTube or social clips. You'll also see options for whether you want to allow audience members to join and watch live — leave that turned off for your first recording to keep things simple. Once you click 'Create Studio,' Riverside generates a unique link for your studio. This is the link you'll share with any guests you invite. Your studio persists — you can reuse it for future episodes or create a new one each time. For your very first episode, try a solo recording with no guests so you can get comfortable with the interface before adding anyone else to the mix.

Before you record a single word, you need to make sure Riverside is using the right microphone. When you enter your studio for the first time, your browser will ask for permission to access your microphone and camera — click 'Allow' on both prompts. Once inside the studio, look at the bottom of the screen for the microphone icon. Click the small arrow or settings gear next to it to open your audio source options. From the dropdown, select your USB microphone or headset. If you only have your laptop's built-in mic, select that — it works fine for a first episode. Next, do a quick test: speak at your normal recording volume and watch the green audio level bar next to your name. You want it hitting the middle of the bar during normal speech, not pinning to the top (which means you're too loud and will distort). Adjust your physical distance from the mic — about 6 to 8 inches away is ideal. Turn on 'Echo Cancellation' in Riverside's audio settings if you're not using headphones. This prevents your speakers from feeding back into your mic during the recording.

If you're recording an interview-style podcast, this step is for you. From inside your Riverside studio, click the 'Invite' button — it looks like a person icon with a plus sign. Riverside gives you two options: copy a direct guest link or send an email invitation. The guest link is the easiest — just paste it into a text message, email, or DM to your guest. When your guest clicks the link, they'll open it in their own Chrome or Edge browser. Riverside will walk them through the same microphone permission setup you just completed. Crucially, remind your guest to wear headphones. Without headphones, their speakers will bleed sound back into their microphone and ruin the audio. Your guest does NOT need a Riverside account to join — they join as a guest with just the link. On the free plan you can have up to 1 guest. The Standard plan ($19/month) allows up to 7 participants, and the Pro plan ($29/month) allows up to 9. Once your guest is in the studio and you can both see each other's audio levels are active, you're ready to record.

Never skip this step. Before starting your actual podcast recording, do a short test run so you can catch any audio issues before they ruin your real episode. Click the red 'Record' button at the bottom of the Riverside studio interface. You'll see a countdown — 3, 2, 1 — and then recording begins. Speak for about 30 to 60 seconds as if you were doing the real episode. Talk at your normal volume, not louder or quieter than you would naturally. Then click 'Stop Recording.' Riverside will process the test recording and show it in your dashboard within a minute or two. Click play and listen back. You're checking for: is the volume comfortable and consistent, is there background noise like air conditioning or traffic, is there echo or reverb in your room, and does the audio cut out at any point. If you hear echo, move your mic closer to your mouth. If there's background noise, close windows and turn off fans. If volume is too low, move closer to the mic or check your mic is selected correctly. Only start your real recording once the test sounds clean.

You've tested your audio, your guest is in the studio (if applicable), and you're ready to go. Click the red 'Record' button. After the 3-2-1 countdown, you're live. A few things to keep in mind while you're recording: You'll see a red recording indicator and a running time counter at the top of the screen — this confirms recording is active. Don't close your browser tab or navigate away during recording or you'll interrupt the session. If you make a mistake, keep going — don't stop the recording. Simply say 'let me redo that' out loud, pause for two seconds, then repeat the section. This makes mistakes easy to find and edit out later because the pause creates a visible gap in the audio waveform. Riverside records each speaker's audio as a separate track on their local device and uploads it to the cloud in real time. This means even if the internet drops for a moment, your audio isn't lost. When you're done, click 'Stop Recording.' Riverside will show you a progress bar as it finalizes and uploads all the tracks — do not close the browser until this is 100% complete.

Once the upload progress bar hits 100%, your episode is ready to download. Go to your Riverside dashboard and click on the recording you just made. You'll see separate audio tracks for each speaker — these are your individual, uncompressed WAV files. For most beginners, the simplest path is to click 'Export' and choose 'Separate Audio Tracks' as WAV files. WAV files are uncompressed and give your audio editor the best quality to work with. If you want a quick merged file without editing, choose 'Mixed Audio' as an MP3. The free plan allows you to download your recordings. File sizes vary — a 30-minute stereo WAV file is roughly 300MB, so make sure you have storage space and a stable connection before downloading. Once downloaded, your audio files are yours to edit in any software you choose — Audacity (free), Adobe Audition ($54.99/month), or Descript ($24/month) are popular options. If you used Riverside's video recording feature, you can also download separate video tracks for each participant in up to 4K resolution on paid plans.

Open Audacity (free download from audacityteam.org) and import your downloaded WAV files. Go to File > Import > Audio and select your speaker tracks. Each track will appear as a separate waveform in Audacity. To remove a mistake: find the section in the waveform, click and drag to select it, then press the Delete key. To remove background noise: select a section of silence at the start of your recording, go to Effect > Noise Reduction > Get Noise Profile, then select the whole track and apply Effect > Noise Reduction again. This dramatically cleans up room noise. Add your intro music by importing the music file as an additional track. Fade it out using Effect > Fading > Fade Out after your intro section. When your edit is finished, go to File > Export > Export as MP3. Set the bit rate to 128 kbps for spoken audio (or 192 kbps for music-heavy episodes). Name your file clearly — for example, 'MyPodcast-Episode01.mp3.' This MP3 is your finished episode, ready to upload to a podcast hosting platform like Buzzsprout ($12/month), Podbean (free plan available), or Spotify for Podcasters (free).