Returning all-star guest Max Flight helps me cover 17 ways to re-evaluate your podcast this summer, and we also discuss Max’s latest podcast production workflow, equipment, software and more.
Max has been producing aviation podcasts since 2008:
- Airplane Geeks (now over 700 episodes!)
- The UAV Digest (looking at unmanned aircraft or drones)
- Check out his main site — http://thirtythousandfeet.com/
- He was previously on episodes 20 and 39 of this show
- Check out his equipment, software, services and more below…
We discuss these 17 ways in which you can re-evaluate and improve your show this summer:
- Update your goals
- Change the format
- Start using chapters
- Personal focus on eliminating verbal crutches. (A short duration of intense focus will provide years of good results)
- Change and/or add equipment
- Sell old equipment
- Treat yourself to that mic you’ve always wanted
- Sound absorption and diffusers
- Add a new segment
- Cover new yet pertinent subject matter topics
- Publish in video format as well
- Publish better shownotes
- Revamp your marketing
- Evaluate the shows overall effectiveness
- Hire a VA
- Bring on a cohost
- Decide to end your show???
- Perhaps decide you want to become a professional podcast engineer/producer and earn a great living producing podcasts for clients – from home?!
And here’s a lot more detail on Max’s production:
Big changes since PES 20 and PES 39 mostly involve a simplification of the signal path:
- Skype and cohost multi-enders replaced by Riverside.fm
- Behringer mixer (still going strong since 2009!) replaced with MixPre
- The MixPre handles all mic pre-amplification
- Sound clips and pre-recorded segments played through Riverside, replacing an iOS soundboard
- Backup recording is handled by the MixPre
Current equipment:
- Sound Devices MixPre-6
- Also use a MixPre-3 Gen 2 for field recordings
- Zoom H5 for field recordings, too
- Heil PR40
- Sennheiser MD46 interview mic
- Dell XPS 16 and MacBook Pro 15-inch, 2018 model, 2.9GHz i9 32 GB laptops
- Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones
- Yamaha HS5 monitors
Software:
- Riverside.fm (was Skype then Squadcast)
- Hindenburg Journalist Pro
- Audacity (yep!)
- iZotope RX 8 Advanced
- ID3 Editor for tagging
Services:
- Media hosting: Blubrry and Libsyn
- Website hosting: Bluehost and SiteGround
Notes from Max:
- I’m retired and traveling more which makes weekly podcast production a bit more difficult.
- Biggest current problem: At the home studio I mix/master with my Yamaha monitors, which I love. I can’t master properly with the Audio Technica headphones when traveling.
Other Notes:
- If you ever have questions please reach out!
- You can sign up to receive Daily Goody’s in your email a few times per week or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.
- The start date for the next PES semester is Sep. 13, 2022! (fyi, the course is delivered once per quarter)
- If you’d like to share this show with any of your podcaster friends, feel free to send them a message saying, “Btw, here’s a show about podcast audio production you may find helpful” with this link: https://podcastengineeringschool.com/subscribe/)
Let me know if you have any questions or need any help with anything,
~Chris