Where to record a podcast in Barcelona

Three places to record a podcast in Barcelona

Anyone looking for somewhere to record a podcast in Barcelona usually ends up with one of three options. The first is hiring a studio by the hour: you arrive, record and leave with the footage. The second is recording in your office or at home, with a set built for the occasion. The third is recording remotely, each person from where they are, and putting it all together afterwards.

None of them beats the others on its own. It depends on how many of you there are, whether the podcast is on video and how often you will record. A law firm that wants one episode a month with a partner and a guest does not need the same as a creator who records four episodes back to back every two weeks.

And yes, you can record for free. With a phone, a lavalier mic per person and a room with furniture and curtains, you can make a decent first episode. Some community centres, libraries and universities have rooms or gear for their members, so it is worth asking at yours. To test an idea, that is plenty. The problem comes when the show gets serious and the picture and sound have to match your brand.

Audio studio or video set: what to ask before you book

Many of the places that come up when you search for a podcast studio in Barcelona are audio studios: a soundproof booth, good mics and not much else. For a podcast people only listen to, that is fine. But today almost every show grows on YouTube and social media, and there the picture is what counts. If your podcast is on video, what you need is a set.

Before booking, ask a few questions. First, how many cameras there are: the minimum to edit with rhythm is one per person plus a wide shot, so that whoever is speaking is the one on screen. Second, whether there is a technician for the whole session or they hand you the keys and leave you to it. Third, whether each voice is recorded on its own track; if not, a laugh over someone else or a cough can no longer be fixed. Fourth, when and how you get the footage. And fifth, whether the set can be dressed in your brand colours and logo, and whether they will show it to you before you pay anything.

If any answer is a vague «it depends», ask again. A cheap studio where you end up fighting the cameras gets expensive the day you lose half an hour with the guest waiting.

How much it costs to hire a podcast studio, and what it depends on

It is one of the most common searches. We do not give figures here, because they change with each session, but we can tell you what drives the price so you can compare properly.

The first factor is time. Almost every studio works in blocks, because setting up, checking sound and packing down take time even if you only record for twenty minutes. The second is how many of you there are: each extra person usually means an extra camera and an extra mic. The third is whether the technician is included or charged separately. The fourth is what you leave with: a card full of loose files is not the same as everything synced, with each voice on its own track and ready to edit.

One tip that saves time and money: record several episodes in the same session. With the set built and the lights dialled in, the second and third episodes go much faster than the first, and it is common to record a whole month in one morning.

And look at what comes next. Recording is one part; the edit, the clips and the thumbnails are another, and they usually take longer than the recording. If the same team can do both, you avoid passing the footage from hand to hand and explaining twice what you want.

Recording in your office or over a video call

You do not always need to go anywhere. If your company has a quiet room, with furniture and no glass walls, you can build a set that stays in place and record every week without leaving the building. We explain how in how to set up a podcast set in your office. Another option is for the crew and gear to come to you: to the office, to an event or to a location you choose.

The third route, more and more common, is recording remotely. It works when the guest is in another city or another country. The key is not to rely on the video call recording, which is compressed and breaks up as soon as the connection drops. What works is each person recording their own picture and voice on their own computer or camera, then syncing everything in the edit.

That is how we work with shows recorded a long way from here. The Sage Steele Show, a US interview podcast with more than 220,000 YouTube subscribers, reaches us as raw footage and we post-produce it together with our partner Dull Light: intro, edit, colour and thumbnails. We go through it step by step in how remote post-production works for a video podcast.

The Bostak studio, 20 minutes from Barcelona

The Bostak Films studio is built for exactly that: recording a video podcast should mean arriving, sitting down and talking. It is in Viladecans, at Carrer de Girona 43, 20 minutes from central Barcelona on the C-32 and 10 minutes from the airport, which helps when your guest is flying in. You can also get there by Rodalies train (R2 Sud, Viladecans stop), and there is street parking with the gear right next to you.

It has three sets: a talk show with two facing armchairs for interviews, a talking-head set for speaking to camera, with a teleprompter if you ask for one, and a green screen with custom backgrounds. A technician runs the whole session, with one 4K camera per person plus the wide shot and one Shure SM7B per voice, each on its own track. Within 24 hours you get the synced raw files to download. It is booked in blocks of 2, 3 or 5 hours, and the footage is yours.

If you also want the finished episode, with intro, cuts, reels and thumbnails, we do it with the same method that took the Aladetres channel from around 100,000 to more than 800,000 subscribers. You can see the studio and ask for availability, or come and visit by appointment before you decide.

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