Category: Daily Goody

Being profitable as a podcast producer/editor comes down to making sure that the time you’re spending on client work is worth the net profit that you’re earning.

Be sure to do the math and evaluate your overall situation. #wisdom

And this also applies if you’re only producing your own show, though if your show I being used to market your business then tracking your profitability becomes extremely difficult or even impossible. And even if your show ends up costing you money, it may still be worth doing for many reasons.

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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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Auphonic does many things, and regarding audio processing if you want to quickly level your audio and set its loudness Auphonic is a great tool to use.

Here are the parameters you can adjust with regards to audio processing:

• Adaptive Leveler (Set your Preset, Dynamic Range and Compressor)
• Loudness Normalization (Set your Loudness Target and Maximum Peak Level)
• Filtering (reduces very low frequencies)
• Noise and Hum Reduction

If you want to hear more about these parameters, consider listening to my interview with the founder of Auphonic, Georg Holzmann: Auphonic’s New Advanced Features, with Georg Holzmann – PES 108

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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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(From this article)

…the Fear is Very Real… So real that one scientific name wasn’t enough. The fear of Friday the 13th is also called friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia. Now say that 10 times really fast!

Friggatriskaidekaphobia comes from Frigg, the Norse goddess of wisdom after whom Friday is named, and the Greek words triskaideka, meaning 13, and phobia, meaning fear. Paraskevidekatriaphobia is also derived from Greek: paraskeví translates as Friday, and dekatria is another way of saying 13.

You have a nice day, now 🙂

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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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First of all, it’s most common and usually best to have your audio applications installed on your internal hard drive.

With regards to where to store your audio and session files while you’re mixing, editing, etc., both internal and external hard drives will both function perfectly well.

Personally I keep all my audio and session files on an external hard drive because I believe this allows my internal hard drive to run my applications without having to simultaneously perform lots of reading/writing of audio and session data.

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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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(Even if I have sent you your custom optimized Scheps Omni Channel settings for your particular voice…)

The reason you probably want to tweak your sound each episode is to better match up with your guests sound.

In general, if one speaker has lots of low end and the other has very little low end, they will sound extremely different and it will be more difficult to balance them to the same perceptual volume. The same goes for large differences in high frequency clarity between speakers.

So even though you have all the plugin settings dialed in and saved for your voice, you may want to tweak your sound a bit each episode to achieve a better mix between participants in each particular episode.

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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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Don’t do it, because large diaphragm condenser microphones are so sensitive that even mild plosives can distort the signal.

If you do have to record using a large diaphragm condenser mic without a pop filter, then make sure your plosives don’t hit the mic directly. This is done by angling the direction of your voice about 45 degrees off-axis from the mic, so that you’re kind of speaking past the mic instead of directly into it.

Here are some popular large diaphragm condenser microphones used for podcasting:

• Neumann TLM 102
• Neumann TLM 103
• Audio Technica AT2020
• RØDE NT1-A
• MXL 990
• Behringer C-1
• Samson C01

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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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An old or damaged microphone cable can add some pretty nasty crunchy sounds to your audio. It can also make the signal cut in and out, too.

A client of mine recently had a guest who had a bad mic cable and every time they moved their microphone or cable, there was MAJOR crunchy/scratchy noise in their signal. Luckily when the guest didn’t touch anything the signal was OK, and this is a common workaround which will usually allow you to record the session at hand without any problems.

But of course faulty cables should be replaced asap.

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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 Kramer Master Tape plugin from Waves adds the richness and warmth of real tape saturation to your recordings.

Tape saturation is definitely not necessary for podcast production but it adds a nice touch.

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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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Simply put, your monitors (speakers) should be at ear level. Not sitting on your desk pointed up at your head, and not way up near the ceiling pointed down at your head.

Also the two monitors and your head should make an equilateral triangle, being the same distance apart and also at a 60 degree angle from each other.

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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’d love to know your thoughts and opinion 😉

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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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When you record any audio you will essentially record two things:

1. The signal (the main thing you’re recording)
2. Some noise (background noises like fans and air conditioners, or room reverb, or electrical hums, etc.)

A high signal to noise ratio means your signal is much louder than the noise, and this is good and makes the signal easier to hear for the listener.

A low signal to noise ratio means your signal is not much louder than (or the same loudness as) the noise, and this is not good because it makes it difficult for the listener to hear the signal clearly through all the noise.

To record good audio with a high signal to noise ratio you should eliminate or avoid as much noise as possible, and the person speaking should be very close to the microphone.

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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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After you mix down your final episode, or if someone sends you audio that’s already mixed together, you may need/want to make some of the following adjustments in the mastering step if you notice any imperfections:

• Use a compressor, limiter and/or vocal rider to even out the loudness of participants voices if one is louder than the others.
• Make general EQ adjustments to add or remove low end or high end, etc. Sometimes I use a multiband compressor to help even out the frequencies, too.
• Use a de-esser to remove any remaining harsh sibilance.
• Use a de-plosive or multiband compressor to remove remaining plosives.

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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 a podcast guest or host has an excruciatingly slow pace of delivery, there are a couple ways to speed up the audio to make it seem like they have a bit more energy than they do.

1. Time Stretch: Most audio editing software allow you to time stretch audio. This means that if the initial length of a piece of audio is one minute, you can stretch it out to be one minute and 15 seconds, which would draw it out and slow down the pace. But you can use the same tool to get the opposite effect; you can transform that one minute segment to be only 50 seconds long, for instance. And the pitch can be retained as well so you don’t create that chipmunk sound. This means that the person’s delivery will be considerably sped up, and less excruciating. Keep in mind that when you stretch/compress audio like this, the more you stretch or compress the more you will destroy the quality of the audio. In fact some software’s time stretch processing is not that good to begin with, so be very careful not to use this type of processing too extremely. Making a one minute segment 50 seconds long might be OK, but if you tried to make it 30 seconds long it will sound absolutely terrible.

2. Tighten up the spaces between sentences a bit. Now with this, there’s only so much silence you can remove before the timing will sound totally unnatural. But removing just a bit of silence will go a long way toward giving the perception that the speaker has more energy and is speaking more quickly.

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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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Recently my previous guest Max Flight from Airplane Geeks asked me about the best way to present a recording which has HUGE dynamic range. In fact, it’s audio from an airshow, so when the airplanes fly directly overhead the sound is extremely loud. He wanted to retain the dynamic range because the extreme contrast of loudness makes the airplanes sound even more impressive. So should he warn the listeners that the audio will get really loud at times? Or how should he handle this situation?

This was my reply:

In my experience, and in my opinion, when presenting audio/radio listeners with audio from a real life event, or even music, it’s not effective to try to reproduce the extreme dynamic range of a real life event. I know everyone loves the dynamic range and I’ve heard so many amateurs say, “Oh, I like my voice better with no compression,” but in order to present audio to a listener it works much better if you control the dynamics. *And keep in mind, you can control the dynamics AND give the lister the perceived experience of some things being louder than others, it just won’t be as extremely dynamic as the raw audio is. Make sense? So regarding your question, I would produce the audio so that the loud jet sounds are somewhat-to-significantly louder than the announcer guys and other audio elements. And if you really want to maintain a huge dynamic range and warn people of this so they don’t hurt themselves, I suggest starting the episode with audio that is “about” as loud as the loudest parts of the episode, and then just tell people in the intro that sometimes the jet audio will be very quiet at times and then it’ll get loud. And of course you can suggest that they listen in a very low-noise environment, 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.”

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I’ve never tried this, but…

If you eat some green apple (Granny Smith not Golden Delicious), your mouthclicks will cease almost instantly. By the way, any foods with high acidity will provide this effect.

Also, the effect may only last up to 10 minutes, so it’s not a long-term fix.

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.”

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It’s important to instruct podcast guests to NOT move around once the recording starts.

Many guests get fidgety and nervous, etc., and they move around and make unnecessary and distracting noises.

Instruct them to get comfortable and NOT move once the recording starts.

If you’re part way through an episode and they start moving around, stop and instruct them again to sit still.

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.”

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Gullfoss (Intelligent EQ from Soundtheory): I purchased this expensive plugin several months ago and I really like it, though there are not many situations in podcast production where I need to use it. It can sometimes do a really good job of cleaning up badly recorded podcast guests audio. And I’m still experimenting with it quite a bit, too.

From their website:

Gullfoss is an intelligent equalizer that listens to a signal and decides how to prepare the audio so that your brain can get the most information out of it. The realtime analysis of Gullfoss uses Soundtheory’s computational auditory perception model to understand which audible elements are competing for your attention. Gullfoss allows for quick and precise fixes that would otherwise be unsolvable or would require significant time and experience to resolve.

Gullfoss is even capable of fixing balancing issues between different sound elements without access to the individual tracks. The internal auditory model allows Gullfoss to make objective decisions about the perceived sound. As a result, mixes processed with Gullfoss will generally translate more consistently between different listening situations.

Gullfoss, enabled by new patent-pending equalizer technology, processes audio with unrivaled sound quality. The equalizer is capable of changing its frequency response more than 300 times per second and without introducing audible artifacts or degrading signal quality. Together with the highly advanced computational auditory perception model that has been developed by Soundtheory, Gullfoss is the first and only product of its kind.

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.”

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My streaming setup from my hotel room at Podcast Movement 2019 a couple weeks ago:

• Sennheiser e835 microphone plugged into an iRig Pre connected to my phone’s 1/8” TRRS input jack.
• Android phone connected via an ethernet cable using the Larix Broadcaster app, and mounted on my Zhiyun Smooth 4 gimbal.
• Stream to my Restream.io account which send the stream to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, etc.
• Monitor the chat on my laptop computer using the Restream chat app.

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.”

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The ATR2100-USB microphone is made by Audio-Technica, and it’s one of the most used microphones in podcasting because of it’s price, quality and versatility.

Price: Usually around $65

Quality: For beginner podcasters its audio quality is very good compared to other cheaper microphones. Of course, it’s not as high quality as more expensive microphones like the Shure SM7b or Electro-Voice RE20, etc.

Versatility: It can connect to computers via USB as well as XLR cable, and it can do both SIMULTANEOUSLY! This means you can run the USB signal into your computer, and simultaneously run the XLR output into a Digital recorder to record a backup. This mic also has a mute switch right on the mic itself which can come in handy.

Needed accessories: A windscreen, and a mic stand of boom arm.

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.”

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