Author: Chris Curran

At times it can be quite tricky to balance a loud projecting voice with a very quiet voice. And mixing the two to make them equally audible and intelligible to listeners is very important.

Here’s the main problem that often arises during this process: When you make the quiet voice as loud as the loud projecting voice, the quiet voice sounds MUCH too loud. But in reality that level is what’s needed to provide a good listening experience to the listeners in interview podcasts and radio.

It’s a psychological phenomena really, because in real life when someone is yelling and another person is whispering, that disparity sounds natural when you’re in the room with those two people – the louder voice is loud and the quiet voice is quiet. But when producing audio for playback in a multitude of listening situations, these drastically different levels must be made equal, more or less, in order to make every word of both participants audible to the listener.

Of course in narrative/dramatized audio productions you may want some of the audio to be drastically louder/quieter than other audio for the sake of emotional impact. But always be aware that anyone listening in a loud environment will have great difficulty following and understanding the “story” because much of the audio may not be audible because it’s below the noise floor.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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 is almost never a need to use plugins in the recording process.

Many plugins introduce latency, and latency causes audio delays in monitoring.

Also, it’s much better to use plugins in post-production when you have more time and attention to adjust each plugins settings optimally.

Note: This also applies to apps like Sonarworks and others that flatten the frequency response of your monitors because you don’t need to hear perfectly flat playback when you’re recording.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

How to send custom mixes to online guests on using Audio Hijack and Loopback (Mac only)?

1. Create a virtual instrument in Loopback. Call it something like “To Guest”
2. Then in Audio Hijack, route both your mic block and any other relevant blocks to a virtual instrument block which is set to “To Guest”).
3. Then in Skype/Messenger/Teams/Squadcast/etc., select “To Guest” as that app’s input device.

Booyah 😉

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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 pre-ordered the True Dynamics compressor plugin from Kazrog several months ago and it just because available, so I installed it yesterday and played around with it a bit. (btw, True Iron is the other awesome plugin they make)

First impressions: Very good! I’m not yet able to articulate my experience with it so far, but after I mess around with it for some weeks/months I’ll give you all my opinions about it.

From their website:

True Dynamics emulates the Presto 41A and ITA LA1B – two of the most sought after and hard-to-find vintage tube compressors in all of pro audio. These are the rare secret weapons of some of the world’s top mixing and recording engineers, and now they can be in your DAW for a tiny fraction of the cost of owning the real units (assuming you can even find those!)
The emulation technology behind True Dynamics incorporates the same industry leading analog-modeled DSP behind Kazrog’s renowned True Iron plugin.

Features:

• Highly accurate emulations of the Presto 41A and ITA LA1B compressors, inside a single plugin.
• Toggle between compressor models with a single click.
• Unified Gain Reduction, Recovery Time, Mix percent, and Out Level controls.
• VU meter.
• Standard Kazrog preset manager with A/B compare.
• Compensated internal bypass.
• Advanced drawer with power user options such as oversampling control, sidechain LPF/HPF, and Zero Latency mode for realtime tracking.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Hear 50 vocal microphones side by side here 😉

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Here’s a real nice video from Fabfilter explaining sample rates, oversampling, harmonics, and other stuff in depth. Enjoy!

Were you shocked by anything in this video? Let me know in the comments below.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Filepass was designed for audio professionals to help them share files with clients for approvals, etc.

Here’s an article with more details.

Subscription plans start at $8 per month.

Note, I have yet to try Filepass.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

FYI, here’s a nice in-depth article by iZotope titled What is Mid/Side Processing?

Basically Mid/Side processing allows you to process (EQ, compression, etc.) the middle/center of the stereo spectrum (“Mid”) separately from processing the sides (“Side”) of the stereo spectrum (stuff panned hard left and right).

It’s handy in many situations in music production, but it’s definitely not necessary for everyday podcast production.

Note, not all plugins have mid/side processing functionality.

Have you ever used Mid/Side processing?

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Using a de-click process on an entire track can remove some of the clarity of transients in addition to removing clicks.

Therefor, sometimes you don’t want to de-click an entire track, especially when the raw track is already lacking clarity due to the mic, mic positioning, and/or the audio limitations of the app used to remotely connect the person, etc.

Solution: Manually use the de-click processing only on very small sections where individual clicks occur. This works well when there are not that many clicks throughout the entire track, but if there are a zillion clicks on the track then it’s better to apply the de-click to the entire track and live with the slight reduction in overall clarity.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

One technique used when mixing music is to put a compressor on the master buss at the beginning/middle of the mixing process, and then mix “into” that compressor. Meaning, that compressor is constantly active and affecting your entire mix WHILE you’re processing and mixing the individual tracks together – instead of waiting until the mix is done and THEN adding a master buss compressor.

The effect of the master buss compressor will influence how you process each individual track in the mix. As you EQ and compress individual voices, they will simultaneously be compressed a bit more and “colored” by the master buss compressor.

This technique actually makes it a bit easier to balance the levels of all the voices in the episode so that they are all around the same volume.

FYI, currently I’m mixing “into” my Aquamarine 4 plugin suite from Acustica, which I really like a lot. A real lot. Like, a lot a lot.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Recording several participants in the same physical space is very common in podcasting.

But be careful…

If you slide one concurrent track without the other(s), you will hear some echo/delay of mic bleed and reverb, and possibly phase issues as well.

So, if you need to slide one of several concurrent tracks (or a portion of a track) in your DAW, be sure to select all tracks/clips in that time selection and slide them all simultaneously.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Of course all microphones can pick up stomach growl sounds, but condensers can do it extremely well.

In a recent session the guest hadn’t eaten and at times his stomach growls were pretty loud.

When it growled in between sentences it was easy to remove them, and if/when it happened while he was speaking the growls were mostly masked by his voice and therefore virtually inaudible.

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

Here’s a nice video from White Sea Studio explaining analog emulation plugins, etc.:

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

The PreSonus ioStation 24c is a 2×2 USB-C compatible audio interface and production controller. It costs around $300.

Another interface I’d like to try but who knows when…

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.

In the spirit of learning more fundamental audio knowledge, here’s a nice article explaining different types of reverb: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/5-types-of-reverb-explained-hall-chamber-room-plate-and-spring/

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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 had a blast with these guys! Wild Traxx is a great show!

Part 1 (trading music production war stories): https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=554810275125865

Part 2 (going deep into podcast audio production): https://www.facebook.com/soundeffectswebsite/videos/186525932682632/

Enjoy!

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

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.”

.