Category: Daily Goody

I haven’t tried Hush yet, but check out Allan Tépper’s review to hear examples of how much this app cleans up noisy, reverby audio. It has a free trial and costs $49.

Description of the product: Hush is a macOS app that uses state-of-the-art AI to clean up recorded speech. It automatically suppresses background noise and room reflections — without audible artifacts or loss of clarity. The result preserves all the nuance of the original signal, as if it were recorded in a well-treated studio.

Comment below!

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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.”

Transcript-based audio editing is not brand new (Descript has been around since 2017) but recently Riverside launched this functionality on their platform. In my research I also found another product, EditEddy by Headliner, that also does this.

Personally I haven’t used any transcript-based audio editing software yet, but lots of people absolutely love them. These apps definitely save producers TONS of time in certain types of productions like documentary-style podcasts where the producers have to go through 20-50 hours of raw recordings to pull out small sections or specific quotes, etc. For the majority of regular podcasts that are monologue or interview style, these apps can be helpful to automatically remove umms, etc. but BE AWARE that these apps are not 100% perfect in this regard, so you should always listen back to the edits it makes to ensure that they sound good.

Also note that the upcoming Hindenburg PRO 2.0 release will incorporate transcription in the DAW but I don’t believe it will do transcript-based audio editing, but I’m not 100% sure. If you know for sure, please comment below!

What are your thoughts on transcript-based audio editing in general? Comment below.

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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.”

The title of this post is a joke, but there are some (very few) people who listen to podcasts using only one earbud in one ear (because they’re at work, etc.), and some podcasters/producers refuse to pan any audio left or right because that would ruin the listening experience for the one-earbud listeners. Other podcasters/producers simply produce their audio however they want and don’t take the one-earbud listeners into consideration at all.

Personally, for regular interview podcast episodes I split the difference – I only pan voices a bit away from center so that one-earbud listeners will still be able to hear everything well, while regular listeners get a better listening experience with enhanced separation and clarity between participants.

What are your thoughts on this divisive topic? Comment below!

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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.”

To verify that the audio quality of your podcast episodes is hitting the mark and sounding great, it’s a good practice to compare your mixes with other mixes which you know are objectively very high quality. When you compare your mix to others back to back, you’ll hear things like: One mix has more clarity, one mix has way too much low end muddiness, one mix sounds distant and the other sounds up front and clear, and much more. Then you can use these observations to tweak and optimize your mixes (and your ears) so that the audio you produce going forward is top notch!

Here’s how to use reference mixes:

1. Identify several podcast episodes mixed by other people that sound really good. To help you get started, here are three that I’ve identified: One, two, three.
2. Continue alternating between playing 20 seconds of your mix and playing 20 seconds of the reference mix. Make sure that both play back at the same volume (because if one is louder your brain will usually tell you that the louder one sounds better, even though it may not). Also be sure to jump around to listen to random sections of each episode for variety.
3. Notice what the differences are and how your mixes could be improved.
4. Immediately open up one of your mixes and spend a few minutes tweaking your mix to tweak/remedy any issues you may have identified.
5. Repeat all these steps on a regular basis. If you’re new to producing audio, I suggest doing this once per month. If you’re more experienced, once per year should be fine.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have any helpful suggestions? Comment below!

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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.”

After recently reporting on the RØDE NT1 5G microphone which has 32-bit float capabilities, I discovered the ZOOM UAC-232 which is a 32-bit float audio interface!

By the way, 32-bit float technology is just beginning to revolutionize audio recording. And here’s a nice video briefly explaining 32-bit float —> 32 Bit Floating Point Explained (by Sound Speeds)

Here are the features of the ZOOM UAC-232 interface:

• Dual AD circuitry with 32-bit float recording technology
• High-quality mic preamps, same as the Zoom F6
• 2x XLR/TRS combo inputs
• Headphone output and 2x TRS main outputs
• High-power headphone outputs (100 mW)
• Records up to 192 kHz sample rate
• Compatible with Windows, Mac, and iOS devices (Android not supported)
• Zoom Mix Control software mixer
• MUSIC and STREAMING modes available via the software to optimize I/O
• Loopback available via the software
• Direct Monitor switch for latency-free recording
• Vertical or horizontal use
• MIDI IN/OUT for connection to external MIDI equipment
• Bus-powered operation (separate power required for Lightenting-enabled iOS devices)

I haven’t tried it yet but it looks really nice.

What are your thoughts on the ZOOM UAC-232 or 32-bit float in general? Comment below!

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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.”

Don’t do it.

Yes it saves time, but you’re also ensuring that EVERY participants audio will sound SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than it should. And some participants audio will be destroyed.

It would be like cooking every meal in the oven for the same exact amount of time at the same exact temperature – it would be a small miracle if ANY dish turned out properly.

Each podcast participants recording is unique in so many ways. If you apply the same exact plugin chain with the same exact settings, you’re ensuring that no one will sound as good as they should.

The correct approach is to START with a carefully crafted preset plugin chain and then tweak all the settings to taste USING YOUR EARS.

Yes, it takes more time, but you will quickly get good at it and you’ll be able to dial in someone’s sound pretty quickly. PLUS, each voice you process will SOUND GREAT!

Does this make sense? Comment below!

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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.”

The next cohort of Podcast Engineering School starts on April 4, 2023!

And once you become a world-class professional you’ll be able to work from home, be your own boss and earn a great living. Yeah, that’s a great position to be in 😉

PES will help you develop a set of highly coveted and in-demand skills that no one will ever be able to take away from you.

I’ve decided to leave the tuition fee at the discounted rate all the way up until the start date, April 4. But don’t wait that long to enroll because you and I need to meet 1-on-1 for an hour before we start classes 😉

And if you personally are not a good fit for PES, maybe there’s a 18-25 year old in your life that needs some direction in their life and would LOVE to attend PES, develop a career for themselves and earn lots of money doing something they love.

I appreciate you passing this post along to anyone who may be interested. I’m having the time of my life helping folks become true professionals and reaping the rewards in terms of income and satisfaction.

Thank you!

And if you have any questions always feel free to reach out to me!

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.”

A podcast producer friend of mine offers social media video creation in addition to his regular podcast production services. Recently a potential client asked him specifically about “concrete deliverables” in terms of how many new subscribers the clients’ podcast can expect to gain due to these social media videos. Basically, the potential client wanted to know what his return on investment (ROI) would be — a perfectly fair question!

My friend asked me how I deal with this question from potential clients and I responded:

“Ahhh, …unfortunately this is the major difficulty when dealing with marketing and ROI, which is why I’ve always avoided it — I only ever offer audio production.

“I know how marketing companies usually handle this — they never guarantee anything and they convey that clearly to the prospect, because they simply can’t guarantee any specific results. Every time I’ve tried to hire a marketing company, this is the part that always confused me as well (mostly because small companies like mine can’t afford to invest in marketing and then get little or nothing in return because that would literally put me out of business).

“If you speak with a marketing expert they would probably be able to explain this conundrum in more detail and give you more clarity and options.

“In general, you could:

• Explain that you can’t guarantee anything, and that no marketing company can ever guarantee anything, and that you understand completely if they don’t want to move forward with the marketing aspects of the agreement. You could sign him up as a client for audio/video production only and then recommend several marketing companies for him to contact.
• You could estimate the expected amount of growth in subscribers (in raw numbers or percentage), but not “guarantee” results. And plan on reviewing the actual results of the campaign with your client after 6 months to decide whether or not to continue the campaign.
• Some combination of the above.”

How do YOU handle this situation? Comment below!

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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.”

The mistake? Rolling off WAY too much high end using a low-pass filter. Don’t do it. Because it removes way too much clarity from the person’s voice.

I almost never roll off high end. I suggest not rolling off any high end unless someone’s sound is very sharp in the 16-20 kHz range (caused almost always by a condenser mic), and in those cases I only roll off from around 16-18 kHz and above.

If there’s a lot of sharpness in the 10-14 kHz range I would use an EQ to reduce that a bit, like a shelving EQ starting around 10-12 kHz, and only reducing it by around 1-3 dB to taste. In these cases rolling off the high end isn’t the correct tool for the job.

Do you normally roll off high end? Comment below!

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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.”

In addition to reconnecting with my podcast industry friends and meeting lots of new friends, I was pleasantly surprised by these two companies (below) that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to save podcasters TONS of time.

NOTE AND REALITY CHECK: I haven’t actually tried either of these services yet so I can’t vouch for the quality, but the demo’s they both showed me look really good. Keep in mind, any service providing AI transcription is rarely 100% accurate, and utilizing AI to write shownotes, etc. is very new and evolving so the overall quality of the AI’s output may not be stellar yet, but maybe it is! Try them for yourself.

1. If you use Capsho, you simply upload your episode audio file and automatically get:

• Transcript
• Episode Title
• Episode Description
• Show Notes
• Blog Post
• Emails
• Social Media Captions (For all platforms)
• LinkedIn Article
• Quotes
• YouTube Description

2. If you use Podium, you simply upload your episode audio file and automatically get:

• Transcript
• Shownotes
• Episode Description
• Chapters and chapter summaries
• Highlight Clips: Timestamps and Transcripts
• Social Media Posts
• Keywords

Honorable mention: Hindenburg PRO 2 (coming later this year), which will include automatic transcription and more. Hindenburg PRO is already an excellent DAW for podcast production and the next version promises to be even better.

Which of these services catches your attention? Comment below!

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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.”

To help you manage the loudness of your final podcast episodes, the Youlean Loudness Meter 2 plugin is excellent. There’s a free version and a Pro version with more features (only $39 one-time payment with lifetime free updates).

I haven’t tried this plugin yet but the reviews are great.

You can use this in your DAW to set your episode’s final loudness to the unofficial podcast loudness standards: -16 LUFS for stereo, or -19 LUFS for mono episodes.

Have you tried this plugin yet? Comment below.

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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.”

Sibilance refers to overly accentuated frequencies in the human voice typically between 5-10 kHz. The overly accentuated sound of S’s, Sh’s, T’s, Z’s, etc. can be extremely harsh, annoying and even painful.

NOTE: Each individual human voice is different — some individuals naturally have harsh sibilance while others don’t, and of course every shade in between.

NOTE 2: Particular microphones can exacerbate the sibilance of particular individuals, but it’s NOT solely due to any particular microphones, it’s due to the COMBINATION of a particular persons voice being recorded through a particular microphone. The combination of the frequency curve of a particular person’s voice being captured through the frequency curve of a particular microphone creates a unique resulting sound.

How to remove harsh sibilance from audio? Use a de-esser, but don’t overdo it because the resulting audio will sound like the person has a lisp! You don’t want to remove too much clarity from the sound, you just want to tame those sharp, painful frequencies.

Good de-essers:

• Scheps Omni Channel Plugin from Waves — an excellent channel strip plugin that actually has 2 de-essers built-in!
• soothe2 — My favorite de-esser; it’s a huge step up from traditional de-essers.
• Fabfilter Pro-DS — My favorite traditional de-esser; an amazing de-esser.

If a person’s recorded voice has extreme sibilance I will often use two de-essers in series 😉

How do you handle sibilance? Comment below!

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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.”

In my experience most lavalier microphone recordings are a bit dark, muddy and/or lacking clarity. This happens because the microphone is below the person’s mouth and not in front of their mouth, which means the mic doesn’t capture as much mid and high frequencies because those frequencies are more directional and are mostly projected forward in the direction they are speaking as opposed to down and into the lavalier microphone. I apologize for that horrible Frankenstein sentence 🙁

Here’s how I usually EQ lavalier microphones in post-production:

• Typically to remove 1-4 dB of low-mid muddiness using a bell curve centered around 200-350 Hz with a Q between 1-2.
• Typically I add 1-4 dB of high shelving EQ starting around 2-5 kHz.
• Sometimes I remove 1-2 dB of nasally-ness (is that a word??) using a bell curve centered around 700-800 Hz with a Q between 1-2.

How do you handle lavalier recordings in post? Comment below!

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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.”

Exceptional new microphone just released! It’s a new version of the RØDE NT1 (originally released in 1991).

The RODE NT1 5th Generation Large-Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser XLR/USB Microphone ($249) was unveiled a few days ago and Allan Tépper has written a very good “first look and a first listen” article on it.

Highlights:

• It’s a “hybrid” microphone having analog XLR and digital USB-C outputs
• It’s the first to offer true 32-bit floating with its built-in A-to-D (analog to digital converter)
• It’s the first to have a USB connection inside of an XLR connector
• and more

I own and LOVE my NT1 so I expect this new version to be excellent as well.

Check out Allan’s article for more information.

What are your thoughts on the new features and specifications? Comment below. The 32-bit float definitely excites me 🙂

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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.”

PLEASE NOTE:

1. By compressors I’m referring to traditional compressors like CLA-2A, CLA-76, etc., as well as compressors found within channel strip plugins like the Scheps Omni Channel, SSL G-Channel, etc.
2. By levelers I’m referring to leveler plugins like Vocal Rider, etc. (See full definition below)

Both compressors and levelers reduce/compress the dynamic range of audio but they accomplish this in different ways.

When to use a compressor:

When the raw audio has a fairly consistent level with occasional loud peaks/outbursts, AND the level never gets extremely quiet due to the participant mumbling or trailing off at the end of sentences, etc. I would say this describes about 80% of raw podcast audio.

When to use a leveler:

When the raw audio has a HUGE dynamic range due to occasional loud peaks/outbursts AND occasional extremely quiet mumbling or trailing off at the end of sentences, etc. I would say this describes about 20% of raw podcast audio. FYI, with extremely dynamic audio like this I usually use both a compressor and a leveler, usually compressor first then leveler, also making sure not to use either one too aggressively.

A good definition of a leveler:

A leveler acts a little bit like a compressor in that it changes the level of audio signals it is processing. Unlike a compressor which typically only lowers the level of signals above its threshold, a leveler acts as a sort of automatic level control and will increase or decrease the level of program material to maintain a consistent volume over time. Sometimes levelers are referred to as automatic gain controls (AGC). These devices do not usually need to generate rapid changes in a signal like a compressor or limiter, but will change the material gradually over a specified period of time in order to achieve a near constant output level. As such, peaks of a short duration will get through as though no device was in line so it may also be necessary to use a compressor or limiter in conjunction with a leveler.

What is your experience with these processors? Comment below!

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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.”