How to Clean Up an Interview Recording

The short version

Clean the whole recording once, gently, before you edit.
Level the interviewer and the speaker so neither is too quiet.
Cut ums and long pauses, but leave the natural breaths and the thinking pauses.
Always keep the original and check every cut by ear.

Clean first, edit second

Clean the whole interview before you cut it. Editing first can leave the background noise changing at every cut, which sounds worse than one steady clean.

Level both voices

An interviewer often sits closer to the mic than the speaker. Bring each voice to a similar level, so the listener does not have to adjust the volume between questions and answers.

Cut carefully

Remove ums, long gaps and repeated words, but keep the pauses that let a thought land. A speaker who sounds too quick and too smooth often sounds less like themselves. The edit by words guide covers the process.

Check the speaker

Play the edited interview back and check that the speaker still sounds like themselves: the same pace, the same warmth and the same breath. Keep the original file in case a cut sounds wrong later.