Step 1: Open Your Recording in Riverside’s Editor

After recording, navigate to your episode in Riverside’s dashboard and click “Edit.” The editor loads with three synchronized views: the video player, the audio waveform, and the auto-generated transcript. The transcript is synchronized to the timeline — each word corresponds to a specific timestamp in the recording.

Step 2: Review the Full Transcript for Unwanted Content

Read through the transcript to identify sections you want to remove: long tangents that stray from the topic, repetitive statements, false starts where the speaker restarts a sentence, and any content that doesn’t serve the episode’s purpose. Highlight these passages in the transcript editor.

Step 3: Use AI Silence Detection for Automatic Cleanup

Click the “Magic Editor” button to activate AI-powered cleanup. Riverside automatically identifies: silence gaps longer than 2 seconds, filler words (“um,” “uh,” “like,” “you know,” “so yeah”), and repeated phrases. Review the detected segments — Riverside shows them as highlighted suggestions. Accept all with one click, or review each individually and selectively approve. This single feature alone typically tightens a 60-minute recording by 5-8 minutes of dead air.

Step 4: Make Manual Transcript-Based Cuts

For content-level editing (removing tangents, restructuring segments), use manual transcript cuts. Select a passage of text in the transcript, right-click, and choose “Delete.” Riverside removes the corresponding audio and video segment instantly, with smooth transitions at cut points. This is dramatically faster than traditional timeline editing — you can remove a 3-minute tangent by selecting and deleting the text in 5 seconds rather than finding and cutting the timeline segment in 2 minutes.

Step 5: Restructure Episode Flow

Riverside’s editor supports more than deletion — you can rearrange segments. Select a transcript passage, cut it, and paste it at a different position in the transcript. The audio/video timeline reorders accordingly. This enables structural editing: move a compelling anecdote from the middle to the opening, reorder Q&A questions for better flow, or group related discussion points together.

Step 6: Generate Show Notes and Social Clips

Once your edit is complete, use Riverside’s AI to generate supporting content. Click “Generate show notes” for an automatic episode summary with timestamps and key topics. Click “Magic Clips” to let AI identify the most engaging 30-60 second moments and create shareable short clips with animated captions for social media promotion. These AI-generated assets save additional hours of manual content creation.

Step 7: Final Quality Check and Export

Play through your edited episode in the Riverside editor to verify flow and quality. Check that transitions at cut points sound natural — Riverside applies crossfade transitions automatically, but verify they’re smooth. Listen for any remaining filler words or awkward phrasing the AI might have missed. Once satisfied, export your final episode with one click in MP3, MP4, or WAV format, along with the edited transcript for SEO and accessibility.

Step 1: Set Up Your Riverside Studio Session

Log into Riverside.fm and create a new studio session. Enter your episode title and select recording quality settings: Audio quality (choose 48kHz WAV for maximum quality), Video quality (4K if guests have capable cameras, or 1080p as default). Configure your session layout — choose “Separate Tracks” recording mode so each participant gets individual audio and video files for flexible post-production.

Step 2: Invite Your Remote Guest

Riverside generates a unique guest link. Send this link to your interview guest via email or messaging. When they click it, they enter the virtual studio directly — no software installation, no account creation required. Before the session, ask your guest to use headphones, sit in a quiet space, and position their camera at eye level for professional framing.

Step 3: Conduct a Pre-Recording Tech Check

Once both parties are in the studio, run a quick tech check. Riverside displays each participant’s connection status, microphone input level, and camera feed. Adjust microphone levels to ensure consistent volume. Have the guest speak a test sentence and verify their audio waveform looks clean and consistent. Check that both video feeds display properly.

Step 4: Record Your Interview

Click “Record” to begin. Riverside records each participant locally — your audio/video on your device, the guest’s on theirs. Even if the internet connection wavers, local recording continues uninterrupted. The progressive upload ensures files reach the cloud without data loss. Conduct your interview naturally; Riverside captures everything at studio quality.

Step 5: End Recording and Review

After the interview, click “Stop Recording.” Riverside processes the local recordings and uploads them to the cloud — this may take a few minutes depending on recording length and quality. Once processing completes, you’ll see separate tracks for each participant, the mixed track, and the automatically generated transcript.

Step 6: Edit Using Transcript-Based Tools

Open Riverside’s editor and review the auto-generated transcript. Edit by highlighting and deleting unwanted passages — filler words, awkward pauses, false starts. Riverside removes the corresponding audio/video segments automatically, creating a smooth final edit without timeline scrubbing. Use the AI silence detection feature to identify and remove dead air with one click.

Step 7: Export and Publish

Export your edited episode in your preferred format: MP3 for audio podcast distribution, MP4 for video podcast platforms, WAV for archive-quality audio. Riverside also generates SRT subtitle files for video accessibility. Download the separate tracks if you want to do additional processing in a DAW like Logic Pro or Audition. Upload the final episode to your podcast hosting platform and publish.