Author: Chris Curran

This is an excellent video made by Allen at Sound Speeds:

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Watching YouTube videos to get quick answers to simple podcast production questions is very handy, but those types of videos don’t cut the mustard when a person wants to become a true audio professional by learning everything about podcast audio production in the greatest depth possible.

For professional in-depth training it’s best to attend Live classes with an accomplished instructor so you can ask questions on the fly, ask follow-up questions on the fly, and ask questions about a previous class, previous topics, etc.

That is how I conduct Podcast Engineering School and I wouldn’t have it any other way. And of course students can watch replays of all the classes, too.

Many people have told me over the past 4 years that I could make A LOT more money and do A LOT less work if I made the course “on-demand” so that people could purchase it and watch a bunch of videos without me ever meeting them or talking with them, etc.

I will NEVER do this. It is NOT the best way for people to learn – BY FAR. The depth at which I teach always stimulates deep, important questions from students, and you’re telling me that I’m just supposed to let them watch videos and wallow in confusion instead of helping them directly?!?! No way Jose.

My one goal is to help every students become a world-class podcast engineer and enjoy a wonderful career producing podcasts and earning a great income. And I’m proud of the MANY students who are actually creating that reality for themselves after attending PES.

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

There’s a balance to be struck in the high-mid frequencies (roughly between 2 kHz and 4 kHz).

If these frequencies are accentuated too much the audio will sound harsh, grating, and potentially cause actual pain when listening at higher volumes.

If these frequencies are too absent the audio will sound dull and unclear — kinda like people sound when wearing COVID masks, actually! (which dampen high and high-mid frequencies the most).

If these frequencies are set to the optimum level the audio will sound clear, crisp and articulate while maintaining it’s size and fullness.

Do you struggle with mixing these frequencies?

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

When I’m doing my fine-tuned editing on a podcast episode I use TwistedWave or Sound Forge Pro because they allow me to VERY QUICKLY zoom in, highlight very small things like single mouthclicks, and delete them.

When I try to make the same kind of edit in a DAW (Reaper and others) it takes forever.

What say you?

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

If and when you want to add a little processing in post for the purpose of making your audio sound better, I would recommend using compression to make your voice more up front and perceptually louder. Compression also makes your voice much easier to understand for listeners in environments where there is considerable background noise like driving in a car, jogging, working out, washing dishes, etc.

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

I’ve recorded many guests who had a dog with them in the room during the recording session.

Before pressing record, if I hear the dog I always ask the guest if they feel they should remove the dog from the room before recording. Sometimes they say that if the dog is outside the room it will bark more than if it is inside the room.

On many occasions in the middle of an interview I’ve heard the guests dog moving around, jingling it’s collar and occasionally barking or yelping or whining. Obviously all these noises can distract the listener from the conversation (unless you’re actually talking about the dog!). Note: It’s virtually impossible to remove those sounds in post-production.

On other occasions the dog remained completely silent for the whole interview. Whew!

What has your experience been with recording with dogs in the room?

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

You don’t want extraneous sounds disturbing your listeners concentration, so before recording be sure to enable “Do Not Disturb” and/or turn off notifications on your phones and computers. This applies to hosts and guests alike. Put a reminder for this on your pre-show soundcheck list.

Be prepared to help guests navigate to and adjust their “Do Not Disturb” and/or notifications settings. Note that the location of these settings controls is different for various phones and computers, and the location of the settings controls sometimes change with new operating systems and apps.

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

Would you rather fewer clients at higher rates or many clients at lower rates?

When starting a business producing podcasts for clients it’s easy to offer low rates because you want to onboard some clients as soon as possible. However in the long run charging low rates can make it very tough to be profitable AND have a life.

Some producers decide to charge much higher rates and only work with a smaller number of clients. This way they can work less hours and enjoy life more.

Which strategy do you currently use? Which do you think is better for you in the long run?

FYI, I offer a course called Getting New Clients at Higher Rates, so if you want to invest in yourself to learn how to do that check it out.

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

This is a new initiative. Details below. Also download the White Paper.

Summary: Podcast Taxonomy is an international, multidisciplinary collaborative standard for recognizing roles and credits in podcast production. It consists of a list of roles/credits and their respective description. This is a living, breathing document intended to be routinely updated via a convention of partners throughout podcasting known as the Podcast Taxonomy Consortium.

Goals of the project include adopting a standard set of roles in podcast creation as well as helping with job search and creation in podcasting, giving networks and independent creators a common list of known roles and job descriptions.

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

There’s a balance to be struck in the low-mid frequencies (roughly between 200-500 Hz).

If these frequencies are too prevalent the audio will sound muddy, indistinct, dull, muffled, not clear, etc.

If these frequencies are too absent the audio will sound thin, wimpy, weak-bodied and small.

If these frequencies are set to the optimum level the audio will sound full, strong and big AS WELL AS clear, crisp and articulate.

Do you struggle with mixing these frequencies?

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

A listener of The Podcast Engineering Show, Gary (host of the Audio Tidbits podcast), commented on the sound of my voice in episode 208 in which I demonstrated my voice on two microphones which I normally don’t use.

Gary: “It didn’t sound to me like you were too far away from the microphone, but I kept wanting you to pull your chair up a little closer. I guess the only words I have for it is “a little thin.” I kept wanting one of us to scoot a little closer. I had the same feeling both on my Bose computer speakers and on my iPhone. Thanks for your great podcast. I keep learning.”

My response: “Very good observations! I agree, those two microphones sound thin on my voice. Regarding sounding not-as-up-front-as-usual, this is because I didn’t use any compression in post-production on my voice in that episode (because I wanted the sound of the mics to come through un-processed). In general, compression makes audio sound closer, more in-your-face and more intelligible over background noise or music, etc., and it’s invaluable when producing professional audio. Good ear, Gary!“

Did you feel the same as Gary?

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”