Removing “ums” from an interview is a foundational skill of podcast and radio editing, right up there alongside finding the right place to start the show and boosting the volume when it’s too quiet. But not all “ums” are equal.
The um as a stand-in for another word:
I’ve heard “ums” in audio used intentionally and absentmindedly as the words “or” in a list and as the word “I” at the beginning of an answer. These examples are times when “um” is a word. Cutting these out would unbalance the sentence and make the speaker sound strange.
The emotional um:
I swear that I might have lost a paying gig trying to explain this to a client, but there are times where all of the emotional weight of a voice is expressed in an “um,” and removing the word would be like telling a sad person to smile so they stop bringing everyone down. This particular “um” came at the heart of a pregnant pause when the speaker had just referenced their dead father.
Um, the next part is really important:
When a well spoken person who is comfortable talking into the mic says “um” for the first time in an interview that’s when I sit up and take notice. They are using that word to build tension and drama and they know what they are doing. Don’t second guess their skills, leave that “um” alone.
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- I wrote more about editing audio in a previous post:
