Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most musicians starting or growing a podcast, begin with StreamYard for browser-based multitrack recording, live shows, and easy repurposing. If you prioritize in-person multi-mic setups and maximum per-track specs above everything else, a Riverside-based workflow can make sense alongside a dedicated DAW.

Summary

• StreamYard gives musicians a simple browser studio for live shows, interviews, and podcasts with local per-participant tracks and automatic recording on paid plans. (StreamYard Help Center)
• Paid plans support unlimited local recording hours per month, which suits bands and hosts who record often or run long sessions. (StreamYard Help Center)
• Riverside emphasizes high-spec local multitrack (up to 48 kHz WAV and 4K video) and hybrid in‑person recording with monthly multitrack hour caps. (Riverside)
• For deep audio editing and mixing of instruments, pairing either tool with a DAW (Logic, Pro Tools, Ableton, etc.) is still the most flexible approach.

What do musicians actually need from podcast recording software?

Musicians usually care about three things more than anything else: clean, reliable audio; a workflow that doesn’t get in the way of creativity; and recordings that are easy to repurpose into clips, trailers, and social content.

In practice, that means your recording tool should:

• Capture each speaker clearly, without dropouts.
• Make it easy for guests (non-technical bandmates, collaborators) to join.
• Give you separate audio files when you need them for mixing.
• Offer basic editing or clipping so you can publish quickly.

This is where StreamYard’s browser-first studio fits musicians well: you send a link, everyone joins, you record or go live, and on paid plans your session is automatically captured in the cloud for later download. (StreamYard Help Center)

How should musicians prioritize multitrack and audio specs?

Musicians love specs: 48 kHz vs 44.1 kHz, WAV vs MP3, 4K vs 1080p. Those numbers matter, but not equally in every situation.

StreamYard supports 4K local recordings and uncompressed 48 kHz WAV audio per participant on supported plans, giving you high-fidelity masters that drop comfortably into a DAW for post-production. (StreamYard Plans & Docs: pricing, local recording) For many musician podcasters—who often publish in 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube—this is more than enough headroom.

Riverside also focuses heavily on specs, offering up to 48 kHz WAV audio and up to 4K video per participant on paid plans. (Riverside) It’s a solid choice if you care deeply about squeezing every possible bit of resolution out of remote recordings.

For most day-to-day episodes, the bigger differentiator is not the spec sheet; it’s whether you consistently capture clean performances from each voice. That’s why per-participant local recording and good mic technique usually matter more than chasing marginal sample‑rate gains.

How can I capture live instruments and multiple mics with remote guests?

A common musician scenario: you’re in a rehearsal space with a couple of mics and instruments, talking through songs and then jamming a bit, while a remote guest joins from home.

There are two practical paths:

1. Treat the room like a mini studio.

   • Route your mics and instruments into an audio interface.
   • Create a blend in your DAW or interface mixer.
   • Send a stereo mix into StreamYard as a single input while you record or go live.
   • Use StreamYard’s local recordings per participant so your remote guest is captured on their device as a clean, separate track. (StreamYard Help Center)

2. Use a recording-first tool for hybrid sessions.

   • Riverside supports hybrid and in-person sessions, including setups where two microphones connected to one machine are recorded as distinct tracks. (Riverside Support)
   • This can be useful if you want each in-room mic as its own stem without relying on a DAW.

For most musician podcasts, path #1 with StreamYard is simpler: let your DAW and audio interface handle the instrument complexity, and let StreamYard focus on getting reliable, separate voice tracks and a polished video feed.

StreamYard or Riverside: which fits musician-friendly multitrack workflows better?

Both tools can serve serious podcasters, but they lean in different directions.

StreamYard is built for live-first podcasting.

• You can record sessions, go live to multiple platforms, and auto-record your live streams on paid plans.
• Local recording captures each participant on their own device, and all paid plans include unlimited local recording hours per month (subject to storage). (StreamYard Help Center)
• On higher tiers, you also get cloud-based separate audio tracks per participant, which arrive as WAV files designed for post‑production. (StreamYard Help Center)

Riverside is more recording-first.

• It emphasizes local multitrack up to 48 kHz WAV and 4K video for each participant. (Riverside)
• Multi-track hours are capped per month by plan (for example, 5 or 15 hours), which is something to watch if you record long or frequent sessions. (Riverside Pricing)

For a band that wants to host weekly live shows, repurpose them into audio feeds, and slice them into short clips, StreamYard’s unlimited paid local recording and live-first design typically results in less friction than managing monthly multitrack quotas.

What audio interfaces and routing setups work best for musician podcasters?

Because both StreamYard and Riverside run in a browser (with Riverside also offering apps), your choice of audio interface is mostly about your operating system and DAW rather than the recording platform itself.

A practical checklist:

• Pick an interface with enough mic inputs for your typical session (e.g., 2–4 XLRs for two hosts plus instruments).
• Use direct monitoring or a DAW to create a headphone mix that feels natural while you talk and play.
• In your OS audio settings, route either the interface directly or a virtual mix bus (from your DAW) into the browser as the “microphone” source.

From there, StreamYard’s color presets and grading controls help you match the visual tone of your video to the vibe of your music—warm, moody, high-contrast, or anything in between. (StreamYard Plans: pricing)

How do I get WAV stems into my DAW from browser recordings?

If you’re mixing your podcast like a record—EQ, compression, maybe even a little bus processing—you’ll want clean stems.

With StreamYard, here’s a common workflow:

1. Host and guests join from their browsers; you enable Local Recording.
2. After the session, you download per-participant local audio as WAV plus the main MP4/MP3 from the cloud. (StreamYard Help Center)
3. Drag those WAV files into your DAW, line them up at the start, and mix as you would a remote band session.
4. Export a stereo master for your podcast host and optional alternate mixes for YouTube.

Riverside follows a similar “record locally, upload, then download WAV stems” pattern; the biggest difference is not the presence of stems, but the way its monthly multitrack limits and in-app editing tools are packaged. (Riverside Pricing)

StreamYard’s philosophy is to keep in-app editing intentionally lightweight. AI Clips focuses on fast highlight creation and repurposing—perfect for social snippets, teasers, and promo reels—while leaving deep mastering, structural edits, and frame-level tweaks to your DAW or NLE.

What about cost, plans, and getting started?

For US-based musicians watching their budget, subscription pricing matters—but so does the time you spend wrangling software.

At StreamYard, the Free plan lets you try the studio and basic local recording, while paid plans unlock unlimited local recording, automatic recording of live streams, and higher-end features like separate audio tracks and advanced branding. (StreamYard Pricing) New users can often access discounted annual pricing in the first year, plus a 7‑day free trial, which keeps the initial commitment low.

Riverside’s pricing is structured around monthly multitrack hour caps and higher-resolution media on paid plans, and the Free plan includes limited multi-track time and lower quality. (Riverside Pricing) This can work well if your sessions are shorter and you like the integrated editing features.

For many musician podcasters, the deciding factor is simple: would you rather optimize for recurring live + podcast workflows with generous recording usage (StreamYard) or for tightly specified multitrack hours and built-in editing tools (Riverside)?

What we recommend

• Start with StreamYard if you’re a musician who wants to run live shows, capture reliable per-participant audio, and quickly spin up clips for social and promo.
• Pair StreamYard with your favorite DAW for deep mixing, especially if you already know how to engineer your own records.
• Consider adding Riverside if your top priority is hybrid in-person sessions with multiple in-room mics and you’re comfortable managing monthly multitrack hour limits.
• Whichever route you choose, invest in good microphones, a solid interface, and consistent room sound—those upgrades will matter more than any single line on a feature grid.