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The Ultimate Guide to Recording Remote Podcasts for Free

Picture of Jay Lippman

Record remote podcasts for free

I've been running podcasts off and on for over ten years, and I'll be the first to tell you — it can be a costly endeavor. Equipment, hosting, editing software, distribution — it adds up fast. And that's before you factor in the additional challenge of recording remotely, where now you're not just responsible for your own audio quality but for getting the best possible recording out of every participant on the call, regardless of what gear they're using or what their recording environment looks like.

The go-to solutions for this are Riverside and Streamyard. And honestly, they're great. Easy to set up, reliable, and packed with features — automatic transcriptions, AI clip creators, built-in sound pads, the works. If you can fit one of them into your budget, do it.

But not everyone can. Some people are just starting out and don't want to commit to another subscription before they know the show is going to stick. Some people are bootstrapping and every dollar has to work harder. Some people just don't want another recurring charge on their credit card, full stop. I'm one of those people — I spent three days figuring out how to record the Club 937 Podcast remotely without paying for anything, and this is what I came up with.

It works. It's just not simple. If you hit a wall at any point, VDO.Ninja's own documentation is thorough and worth bookmarking.

What You Need

Hardware:

  • A computer that can run a browser and OBS simultaneously
  • A microphone — USB or XLR through a basic audio interface
  • A webcam or any camera that feeds your computer

Software (all free):

  • VDO.Ninja — handles video conferencing and recording. Each participant records locally on their own device, which means you get isolated tracks per speaker — exactly what you want for post-production
  • OBS Studio — records a low-quality group scene as a sync reference only. Not your final audio
  • VB-CABLE — a free virtual audio cable for routing sound effects to their own isolated track
  • Resanance — a free hotkey soundboard for playing intro music and sound effects
  • Google Drive — auto-upload destination for guest recordings

Step 1: Create Your Room

  1. Go to vdo.ninja
  2. Click "Create a Room"
  3. Give the room a name — add a password if you want one
  4. Click "Enter the room's control center in the director's role"
  5. Click "Customize" in the "Invite a Guest" box
  6. Turn on: Pro-audio mode, Ask for display names, Show display names, 1080p60 Video if Available
  7. Click "Copy link" in the "Invite a Guest" box
  8. Send that link to your guests

Step 2: Get Your Push Link

You need this for the audio fix in the next step.

  1. In your Control Room, click "Enable director's microphone or video" at the bottom of the screen
  2. Click the gear icon at the bottom of your screen — a panel will open on the right side
  3. In that panel, choose your video and audio source
  4. Look at your browser's address bar — it now includes &push= followed by a random code
  5. Copy the full URL and save it somewhere — you'll edit it in Step 3

Step 3: Add Pro-Audio Mode to Your Push Link

  1. Take the push link from Step 2
  2. Add &proaudio to the very end of it
  3. Paste the edited link into your browser's address bar and hit Enter

&proaudio disables VDO.Ninja's built-in noise suppression, echo cancellation, and auto-gain — all of which will work against the processing you've already done on your mic. You want this on every session, no exceptions.

If a guest ever tells you you're only coming through one ear, also add &monomic directly after &proaudio so it reads &proaudio&monomic. This fixes a quirk where some audio interfaces send your mic signal through only one channel of a stereo pair. You may never need it, but it's good to know it's there.

Bookmark the edited link so you always launch from it.

Step 4: Set Up Sound Effects as an Isolated Track

If you want to play intro music or sound effects during the recording, don't route them through your microphone. If they're baked into your voice track, anything that happens at the same time — a cough, a comment, crosstalk — is impossible to separate in post.

  1. Download and install VB-CABLE
  2. Download and install Resanance, load your clips, assign hotkeys
  3. In Resanance's audio output settings, set the output device to "CABLE Input"
  4. Open a new incognito browser window
  5. Join your own room using the guest invite link from Step 1 — camera off, mic on
  6. When the browser asks for microphone permission, select "CABLE Output"
  7. In your Control Room, find the settings for this guest and turn on "Hide audio-only sources" so it doesn't show as a blank video tile

Test it: hit a hotkey in Resanance. Your guests should hear it play through the room, and it'll record as its own isolated track.

Step 5: Record Your Episode

Get every guest connected and visible in your Control Room before you start recording anything.

  1. In your Control Room, copy the "Capture a Group Scene" link
  2. Open OBS and add your group scene link as a Browser Source
  3. Start recording in OBS — this is your sync reference, not your final output
  4. Back in your VDO.Ninja Control Room, click "record" on your own source box
  5. Clap on camera — this is your sync marker for post-production
  6. For each guest, one at a time:
    • Click "record remote" on their box — not "record local." Record local pulls their audio over the internet to save on your machine. Record remote tells their device to save locally on their end, which is what you want
    • Visually confirm the red recording indicator is actually running before moving on — don't assume the click registered
    • Click "Google Drive" on their box if you want their file to auto-upload after the session. This doesn't work reliably on phones — for mobile guests, plan to grab the file from them manually
    • Ask them to say their name, then clap
  7. Click "record remote" on your SFX guest box from Step 4
  8. Start your episode

If you want to start everyone recording at once instead of one at a time, click the two-people-with-a-gear icon at the bottom of your screen and select "Remote record - start all." Note that this doesn't trigger Google Drive uploads — you still need to turn those on per guest individually.

Step 6: After Recording

  1. Stop recording everywhere — click "record remote" again on each guest to stop, or use "Remote record - stop all"
  2. Stop OBS
  3. Make sure each guest waits until their Google Drive upload is complete before signing off. It's usually quick, and VDO.Ninja will let you know when it's done
  4. Retrieve files manually from any guest without Google Drive auto-upload
  5. Files save as WebM — if your editor won't open them, run them through Handbrake or use isolated.vdo.ninja/convert
  6. Sync all your tracks against the OBS group scene reference using the claps as sync points
  7. Edit with fully isolated tracks per speaker

A Few Things to Know Before You Start

Google Drive auto-upload doesn't reliably work on phones. Plan to grab those files manually. Both the remote record and Google Drive features are marked experimental by VDO.Ninja — run a dry test before you use this for a real episode.

What Comes Next

Once your recording is done, the next challenge is making remote recordings sound like everyone was in the same room. Different microphones, different rooms, different noise floors — remote podcasts almost always need more post-production work than studio recordings. If you want to hand that part off, Riot Anthem Studios handles podcast mixing and mastering for independent creators and production teams.