Podcast Engineering School

In general, here are the steps I took to process Jennifer Longworth’s voice in episode 115 of my Podcast Engineering Show. Her raw recording was extremely dynamic, meaning that at times it got REALLY LOUD and other times it was really quiet. And you already know how annoying, difficult, painful or impossible it can be to listen to a podcast where it gets really loud, then really soft. So, in general, here’s how I processed her track: A compressor with fast attack and fast release (to reel in her loud laughs, etc.) A bit of EQ Another compressor with a longer release (to help level out the loud and quiet parts) A multi-band compressor (to help control various frequency bands) The Vocal Rider (!) In the end, I think this did a good job of evening out her level and making it more present and listenable, especially in louder environments like cars, gyms, etc. What do you think? Podcast production tips email list signup: http://eepurl.com/geOdAD *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it! — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

Besides having lots of clarity and good tone overall, the Electro-Voice RE320 has one really good feature that would benefit any podcaster: A strong output level. Every microphone outputs its audio signal at a certain level (qualified in the specification called ‘Sensitivity’). Some microphones have a relatively weak output level which you must boost it A LOT to bring the level up to line level. The Shure SM7B is one of these and that’s why some people say the SM7B is “gain hungry.” But the RE320 is strong like Bull. In the world of podcasting, where most people don’t have a strong or high quality mic preamp, the RE320 works well because it doesn’t overwork your mic preamp too much. Of course another consideration that factors into the “how much to crank up your mic preamp” conversation is for the person speaking into the mic to use good mic technique. (Here’s a video I made on mic technique like 100 years ago, back when I had a beard) RE320 Specs — https://products.electrovoice.com/ap/en/re320/ Podcast production tips email list signup: http://eepurl.com/geOdAD *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it! — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

It’s difficult to drive a car unless you know what a gas pedal is, and what a brake pedal is, and what a steering wheel is. Yet, it’s amazing how many podcasters (and editors/producers!) aren’t even aware of some of the most fundamental audio concepts. This is why the first class of Podcast Engineering School focuses almost entirely on audio fundamentals. Once you understand the fundamentals, the more advanced concepts will immediately make sense, to some degree. Initially you may not know how or when to use these advanced audio techniques, but at least you will know what they are and generally what they do. And you’ll be ready to learn more advanced concepts BECAUSE you already understand the basics. The other vital thing that understanding the fundamentals gives you – confidence! And this is HUGE in terms of your overall success. It’s “cool” these days to learn the minimum and just grab some software and “do stuff,” but the people who really succeed in this world are individuals who learn their craft well and become an expert. The best part? No one can ever take that accomplishment away from them, and no one will ever be able to take that accomplishment away from you. —> Podcast production tips email list signup: http://eepurl.com/geOdAD *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it! — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

A lot. But seriously….., although that was serious… 😉 Your answer, which you must arrive at in your own mind and heart, depends on several factors: - The work involved in producing the client’s episodes. (straight-up interview, or extreme RadioLab-style production, or something in between?) - How many episodes total are you producing as per the agreement. - The total time it will take you to produce each episode. - How quick of a turnaround time the client is expecting for each episode. - Any other factors that are important to you. Spend some time thinking about this. One thing to _definitely_ avoid: Working too cheap. Podcast production tips email list signup: http://eepurl.com/geOdAD *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it! — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

When engineers first tried to put music onto vinyl records, they ran into a huge problem – the low frequencies in the music would make the cutting needle go so deep into the vinyl, as well as cut too wide a groove, that the vinyl would be ruined. How did they solve this problem? First, before cutting the vinyl records, they would process the audio so that the low frequencies were tamed/controlled enough to not shred the vinyl. And this step became known as Mastering. These days the mastering step is still the final step in music and podcast production and mainly consists of using EQ, compression, limiting and a host of other processing to make the final track sound awesome as well as be finalized to the correct loudness level. FYI, iZotope Ozone is a really good mastering software that I use. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

It is possible, after removing a particular Umm, that the resultant dialogue feels unnaturally rushed at the exact spot where the umm was previously. Especially if the Umm comes after an in-breath. So, if you have: [in-breath] “Umm” [Start of sentence] …after removing the umm, the start of the sentence may seem to come in too quickly and unnaturally. Solution: Instead of highlighting the Umm and deleting it, highlight it and make that section silent. Then remove about 80% of the silence, leaving about 20% of the silence there. Now, the edit feels much more natural. Also, depending on the specific Umm you’re removing, you can play with those 80/20 numbers and use 70/30 or 60/40 instead – whatever sound best. Note: A similar problem can arise when the Umm comes before a breath as well, but the solution is the same. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

It’s not pleasurable to listen to a podcast episode where one participant is really loud and the other is at a much lower volume. As a podcast engineer you want to avoid this on your episodes. The typical old school way to balance the voices is to simply listen back and forth to each of the different voices and adjust the level of each until they all appear to be at the same loudness level. Of course you’ll probably be adjusting EQ’s and compressors along with the overall volumes of each track. Another way to quickly balance the levels of various participants is to process each participants track to be the same LUFS level. This will make them close to level, but you will always want to adjust the levels slightly using your ears. Because even when the LUFS level of two different voices is the same, the perceived loudness of each voice can differ due to things like proximity to the mic, dynamic range, frequency response of the mic, the timbre of individual voices, etc. So it’s a handy practice to set the LUFS level of each participant to the same value, but then you still have to use your ears. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

1. Back up all files immediately ;) 2. To save time and make sure things always sound good, it’s good to keep your studio in a state of readiness to record, which means finding all the settings that work well and then not changing those settings unless you have to. On the fly during some sessions, however, you may need to adjust various settings to optimize the sound and levels, etc., so that by the end of the session some of your settings are quite different. After these types of sessions, it’s a good practice to return all these settings to their original positions. Same goes for any unique hardware setups like extra microphones you had to setup or iPads for sound clips, etc. 3. Also, one thing I do immediately after recording sessions, while the sound of each participant is still fresh in my mind, is process each track using iZotope RX to clean them up and level them, etc. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

Sometimes at the beginning of episode recording sessions something will go wrong – the guest will accidentally disconnect or someone’s mic stops working, etc. Instead of pressing stop on your recorders, many times it’s better to keep the recording going (or as engineers say, “Let it roll.”) instead of stopping it, creating a new session, and pressing record again. Even when my clients are recording themselves locally, I instruct them to never stop the recording once we start. This way you avoid the confusion of having several files afterwards. Also, it’s very easy to edit out parts of the “one big file” in post-production. Now, I’m sure there are situations when you will want to stop everything, fix a problem, and then restart the recording, so use your judgement. Also, if you’re using a platform like Zencastr, Squadcast, Ringr, etc., verify in advance how they handle stopping and restarting sessions, etc. Some make it easy, and some make you actually create an entirely new session for which you’ll have to email everyone a new link to connect, etc., and that’s a lot of hoops to jump through. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

There are many phases of audio production and many software choices for each phase. Sometimes you can use the same software for several phases, for instance Adobe Audition can be used for multitrack mixing as well as detailed editing. Also, some audio production programs allow you to enter all the MP3 tag information as well, etc. The key is to identify which software you want to use for each step, keeping in mind simplicity, the amount of friction in the workflow, and how comfortable you are with each software. Until you’ve found your perfect software workflow, it may be helpful to do some research and perhaps try dome different software. Inevitably you will find programs that just feel right and fit your personality, etc. I know I’ve opened many programs which everyone else said were great and I just thought, “Yuck!” When I switched to Mac about a year ago, I had to find a new stereo editor that I liked and it took me a while. I had been using SoundForge Pro on PC but their Mac version is really not good, so I had to hunt for something that felt right to me. Eventually I found TwistedWave and I like it, although it isn’t perfect *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

Fact: Many remote guests have no idea how to connect online to record a podcast episode. They need guidance. It is extremely helpful to communicate with the guest in advance to set the expectations for the recording session in terms of: Day, time and length of the recording session Preferred microphone and headphones, etc. (also give them options in case they don’t have a real microphone, etc.) Internet connection speed best practices Link to join the recording session A phone number to call in case they aren’t able to connect online You may feel like you’re going to overwhelm them by sending them all this information, but it must be done. Oh, and by the way, I wish I didn’t have to tell you this but — many of the guests won’t even read all the information you send them in advance; they will just attempt to join you at showtime, so you will have to go over some of the preparatory information with them once they connect. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

Getting in the good habit of NOT making erroneous annoying sounds when recording audio is ultra-helpful in providing a good listening experience for the listeners. This is way more important than most people think it is. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

On some microphones there are physical switches which affect the sound of the microphone. It’s good to know what switches are present on the microphone you’re using so you can adjust them if necessary, especially if a switch somehow ends up in the wrong position making the audio sound bad or not audible at all. Some common microphone switches: — Pickup pattern (or polar pattern, which determines from which direction the mic will pickup sound) — Bass roll-off (attenuates the very low frequencies) — Presence boost (boosts the upper mid frequencies) — Attenuator Pad (which lowers the output of the microphone for use when recording loud sources) — Headphone jack and volume control — Mute switch So, if you’ve never really looked closely at the microphones you’re using, perhaps inspecting them will enlighten you in some say. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is a well-known quote mentioned in one of my all-time favorite movies, Gattaca. In terms of your podcast production, one way that your equipment and studio can become a difficult mess is with the way your audio cables are situated. Of course if you have just one cable then this is easy, but when you start having lots of cables this becomes an issue. When I was in NYC working on music production I was taught to keep ALL cables neat and tidy at all times. And we used a lots of cables in most sessions. The main reasons to keep all your cables neat and tidy: — Having the ability to EASILY add, remove or re-run cables — Having the ability to EASILY troubleshoot any problems — Keeping audio cables as far away from power cables as possible — Working in a neat and tidy environment allows the people working there to focus entirely on the work instead of being distracted by messiness And I actually spend significant time THINKING about how I want to run my cables BEFORE I actually run them. Planning – it helps. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

A lesser-appreciated aspect of attending Podcast Engineering School is lifetime membership in the closed community of alumni and students. This is especially handy because as alumni go out into the world and get more experience producing podcasts, inevitably they stumble upon problems and issues. By the way, “getting experience” is code for “having to figure out solutions to a zillion problems you never knew existed. That’s where the community comes in very handy. Whenever you have a question you can get answers and feedback from the other alumni as well as me, your lead instructor. On the flip side, when I or an alumni finds a great new plugin or a elegant solution to a common production problem, they post that in the group and we can all learn from their experience. In the big picture, it’s good to have a posse at your disposal ;) *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

At some point, most podcasters have the idea that, “Hey, since I’m already editing my own podcast, I could edit other peoples shows to earn some extra money! Maybe several shows and earn lots of money!” It can be a good idea for those folks who enjoy the process of editing and processing podcast episodes. The Reality: If you take on a few clients and are successful with them, you will earn some money, develop your production skills and hopefully have some fun. But if you take on a few clients and things don’t go smoothly for you and you have to back out of your commitments, then your clients will have to struggle to quickly find someone else to take your place and you will certainly not feel very good about yourself or the whole situation. So before you actually embark on this journey, if you want to avoid failure and a big hit to your credibility, there are two main ideas you may want to consider because they will play vital roles in your success or failure: — How many episodes will you realistically be able to produce every week? To figure this out, decide on how many hours per week you will realistically be able to spend working on episodes, and then divide that number by how many hours it will realistically take you to produce one episode. — What is one hour of your production time worth to you? You certainly don’t want to end up earning $5 per hour, right? So map out different scenarios and decide on what you’re HAPPY to earn. This will ensure your satisfaction and longevity. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

I say “kinda” because these podcasting loudness levels are not exactly “standards” – they are simply good and useful recommendations which the vast majority of podcasters abide by. When the final MP3 of one of your episodes is published and folks start listening to it, it’s very handy if the loudness of your episode is approximately the same loudness as other podcasts’ episodes. This gives the listener a better podcasting listening experience; they can avoid cranking the volume of their earbuds for one show and then immediately getting blown away by ultra-loudness when they switch to listen to another podcast. *So here is how loud your final episodes “should” be: — If your episode is a Mono file, -19 LUFS — If your episode is a Stereo file, -16 LUFS The last step of your audio production for each and every episode should be to adjust the LUFS level of your episode to these “standards.” There’s no need to guess; there are many ways to set your final episode loudness to the unofficial loudness standards. Apps that can set your loudness level: — iZotope RX — Auphonic — Adobe Audition’s Match Loudness — Hindenburg’s export settings — And many more Original Blog Post: LUFS Loudness Standard, Kinda — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/daily-goody-lufs-loudness-standard-kinda/ *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

There are many ways to edit a podcast episode and many techniques, too. Regarding general editing philosophies there are basically two extremes and then, of course, everything in between. One extreme: The audio is NOT edited at all. It’s left to sound exactly the same as it was recorded — raw, unedited, untouched — which usually means lots of umms, lipsmacks, long pauses, flubs, noises, etc. Some podcasters like this philosophy because it takes zero work and they want their audio to be “real” or “authentic.” To me this philosophy can work if the host and guest(s) have good energy and keep the show moving along at a good pace, but, if not, the episode will drag way too much and be painful for listeners to endure. The other extreme: Heavily edited to remove every single umm, lipsmack, flub, noise, repeated statements, etc. – and also removing every natural pause and authentically timed moments – oh, and removing every single breath that the host and guest takes. Some podcasters like this philosophy because their audio doesn’t contain a wasted second and the pacing is quicker. To me the final product of this philosophy sounds too inhuman and unnatural. What’s your editing philosophy? *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

When doing sound design you can take a regular recording of a person and process it so it sounds like that person was recorded over the phone. It’s easy: Use an EQ to remove the frequencies below ~300 Hz and remove the frequencies above ~3 kHz. Of course it will sound like a very “clean” telephone call because actual phone call audio contains lots of other noise and are processed heavily. *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

Sounding like you’re in a gymnasium or a long hallway NEVER sounds good on a podcast. If you’re recording in a room with hardwood floors, an area rug or two can help absorb some of the reflections and reverb. The size and quality of the rug will determine how much sound it will absorb. Typically, the thicker and shaggier rugs will absorb more sound. Also check out other sound absorbing items you can use in your recording space: https://podcastengineeringschool.com/sound-absorbing-items-in-your-recording-space/ *CAREER Option: Learn how to produce podcasts professionally from home and earn a great living doing it — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/product/pes-online-program/

Taking care of your audio and video gear will ensure that the gear virtually lasts forever. Audio and video gear are investments, in one sense, so when you store some of your gear away because you’re not going to use it, you don’t want your gear to be damaged or ruined simply because you stored it in the wrong place. You always want to store gear in a place with low or average humidity, and definitely NOT in extreme heat or cold. Obviously avoid places that can get very cold or very hot like attics, garages, sheds, vehicles parked outdoors, etc. And I always like to keep the original boxes that gear comes in so that when I store it away I can keep it in its original box. Blog post — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/daily-goody-storing-gear-when-not-in-use/ * SIGN UP NOW (free) to receive my short blog posts either 2-3x per week _OR_ one weekly roundup email ---> http://eepurl.com/geOdAD

The good news: If you want to significantly enhance your podcast audio production skills you could probably spend 3-6 months studying and practicing and end up with skills that will greatly enhance the quality of your audio production. To become a pro, though, probably takes years because there are so many unique situations that can arise and so many problems that can occur with audio recording. It takes a while, in any field, of course, for individuals to gain awareness of all the problems that can occur AND the knowledge and skill to fix those problems. But one thing is for sure – if you want to become a pro and you pursue it with dedicated work and confidence, you WILL be a pro before you know it. More info on Podcast Engineering School — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/

For about 25 years now digital audio recording has been more widespread than its predecessor - analog tape recording. But everyone, audio engineers and listeners alike, seem to prefer the warm, full sound of analog recordings over the comparatively sterile, cold, computer-ish sound of digital recordings. To have the best of both worlds, many audio companies have created analog tape emulation plugins or software that process digital recordings and make them sound like they were recorded on analog tape. Mmmm warm… Blog post on Tape Emulation — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/daily-goody-tape-emulation/

When it’s time to finalize a particular podcast episode and save your mix in MP3 format, it is a really good practice to FIRST save your final mix in an uncompressed format like .WAV of .AIFF for archiving purposes, and THEN also save it in MP3 format. This way, months or years later, if you ever need to make edits to that particular episode, you can make the edits on the uncompressed file and then create the new MP3 from that edited uncompressed file. Doing it that way is much better quality than editing the original MP3 and then saving/re-encoding it again as an MP3. Note: Fission by Rogue Amoeba is the only audio editor that I know of that DOESN’T re-encode an MP3 after you edit it; it saves the edited MP3 audio without having to re-encode it, which avoids the degradation of re-encoding. Original post on Mixdown Resolution — https://podcastengineeringschool.com/daily-goody-mixdown-resolution/

If you’re not recording in a professional recording studio, inevitably there will be some amount of background noise when recording. The air conditioner, the road outside your window, your family in the next room, your computer’s fan, your dog, your phone ringing and buzzing, …the list goes on and on. It’s best to reduce or eliminate, in advance, the amount of background noise that is present in your recording space. This will ensure that your microphone picks up as little noise as possible so your recording will be as “clean” as possible. The saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is exactly right when it comes to audio recording! Here’s the post I showed: https://podcastengineeringschool.com/daily-goody-background-noise/