Author: Chris Curran

The microphones on inexpensive old school call-center-type headsets usually don’t sound that good.

But I recently heard one that didn’t sound bad 😉

It was a Plantronics Blackwire 3200 Series Headset.

I’d LOVE to know – do you know of any headsets like this that sound halfway decent?

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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.”

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What is latency in terms of audio production?

Here’s what Wikipedia says.

And here’s an article from Sound on Sound.

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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.”

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Giving advice to anyone is usually very annoying because, for some reason, people don’t follow other people’s advice – EVEN WHEN THEY ASK FOR IT!

Usually people who want to start a podcast don’t know anything about microphones, interfaces, software, etc. and they almost always want to spend AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE. When I’m asked to suggest really cheap gear and/or free services, etc., I always feel so hesitant.

In general, when you spend good money on gear, it works well and it’s easy to use – and that’s why it’s not cheap. On the other hand, in general, when you use cheap gear it’s easier to screw up the sound quality, and it may not be as easy/enjoyable to use.

Going the cheap route is usually more difficult.

Also…

For people who want to look really nice and sleek on camera with an “invisible” microphone and no headphones, etc., please understand, at minimum, good audio requires a decent mic used properly in a decent space.

Let me ask you – what is your experience with giving podcasting audio advice to other individuals?

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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.”

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Clients that understand and obey your audio advice — Thank God for them!!!

Conversely, clients who repeatedly MESS UP their audio are much less fun to work with.

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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.”

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Most podcasters, editors and producers process their final episode audio to make it the proper LUFS loudness level.

But some of these folks, in addition to setting the overall loudness level, also try to do some last minute fancy audio processing like leveling, compression, multiband compression, vocal riding, DE-ESSING?!?!, NOISE REDUCTION??, etc.

My advice: BE CAREFUL when processing audio like this. It is VERY EASY to ruin the sound of the entire episode by trying to use more processing just because other people might use similar processing. GO EASY when processing audio because it is VERY EASY to ruin good sound quality.

As always, use your ears.

You must learn to use your ears, trust your ears, and MAKE SURE that you’re not ruining episode audio just because you want to use 7 cool new plugins, 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.”

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As mentioned in Podnews, CleanCast is software that “assists you while removing unwanted umms and other filler words from your podcast.”

Try it here.

Post-test survey.

Note: Only works with Chrome. May need to wait up to 2 mins while uploading.

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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.”

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*I have not tried Trackspacer yet, but I saw several people online raving about it.

From their website:

Secret mixing weapon

The Trackspacer plugin features a 32 band EQ that reacts to the incoming sidechain signal. It analyses the spectrum of the sidechain and applies a reversed EQ curve to another track. As if by magic, Trackspacer creates space for the primary track by cutting the exact frequencies on other tracks.

No more fighting for space for the vocal in a mix, or any other instrument for that matter. If you have a solo that needs the room to breathe then Trackspacer makes the task easy.

Complicated automation moves on your mix are a thing of the past!

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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.”

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A recent guest on one of my clients shows joined the session remotely using a Samson Meteor Mic.

Because it’s a condenser mic, and because it’s on a tiny stand which ends up ensuring that the mic is very far from the guests mouth, it was picking up a ton of background noise (a loud air vent and significant room reverb).

I asked the guest to try plugging in their earbuds so we could see how that mic sounded in comparison.

The earbuds mic sounded MUCH better.

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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.”

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Sometimes you may have to call a guest’s cell phone from Skype on your computer. Usually their sound is quite bad with no clarity.

In post I usually remove quite a bit of low end and also add some clarity.

Note: I don’t use much compression in post because it’s already being squished/decimated by Skype and the phone lines, 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.”

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The Timeless 2 plugin from Fabfilter has an amazing number of cool effects inside it – delay, chorus, reverb, flanger, distortion, and MANY more. Seriously, there are many hundreds of effects to choose from.

This is the plugin I’ve been using on my intros and outros for that reverb/delay/chorus effect. (The Podcast Engineering Show)

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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.”

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Here’s a helpful Audio Interface Buying Guide from Sweetwater – https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/audio-interface-buying-guide/

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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.”

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Enter to win two expensive pieces of gear from Sound on Sound!

1. Enter by Friday April 3, 2020 — Win yourself an outstanding Zen Tour Synergy Core audio interface from Antelope Audio.

2. Enter by Friday May 1, 2020 — Win a Lauten Audio Atlantis FC‑387 FET microphone.

Good luck, and if you win please let me know!

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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.”

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Many veteran radio hosts lose their hearing later in life because their day-to-day listening volume has been kinda loud all day everyday for their entire career.

Don’t be like them. Keeping your day-to-day average listening volume low. Protect your hearing for the LONG TERM.

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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.”

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Have you been editing/producing podcasts for clients and now you want to earn A LOT more money serving more clients?

Do it! Step up your game, focus and persevere.

FYI, a great Facebook group where you can get a lot of guidance on your journey is the Podcast Editors Club. There have been many posts in that group centered around getting new clients, marketing your services, pricing your services, etc.

And for in-depth audio production training, consider Podcast Engineering School. (see dates for the next semester)

So, have you decided to go for it and create the business of your dreams? (work from anywhere, decide your own hours, decide your own salary, 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.”

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If you use Libsyn you can now create Headliner promotional video clips more easily. From Libsyn: “Headliner.app is a great and fun way to create awesome video clips from your podcast episodes, giving a whole new dimension to your promotion for your show.”

I recently tried this for my show and it worked well, though it did take some time and I’m not convinced that that time is worth it, but I’m not a marketer so I’m probably wrong.

For lots of details on this entire process, check out this article titled Creating a Video Clip Using Headliner and Libsyn.

Are you going to try it?

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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.”

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Which plugins am I currently using for mastering?

Note: I don’t use every single one of these on every episode. And I only use them on the mix of voices, not the music.

My full list of mastering plugins which I currently pick from: (Note: I own many more “mastering” plugins but I’m not currently using them)

• Gullfoss (fyi, I don’t use this often)
• True Iron
• Fabfilter Pro-MB
• Ozone 9
• Aquamarine 4 EQ
• Aquamarine 4 Dual Compressor
• Fabfilter Saturn

The 3 plugins I currently use on almost every episode:

1. True Iron (gently)
2. Aquamarine 4 EQ
3. Aquamarine 4 Dual Compressor (my favorite compressor ever…..so far)

What plugins do you use in your mastering chain?

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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.”

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