The Future IS Audio

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Microphone: Rode Wireless Micro USB-C Lav Mic.

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The Mute Function Is More Useful Than AI (In Podcasting).

I’ve found myself more than a little down-in-the-mouth of late, reading and listening to all the discussions around AI in Podcasting, and its potential impact on our medium. With prominent voices in the space even going as far as to suggest that the human element of Podcasting may soon be superseded by AI and ASI Agents.

Now, whether or not you fell that that particular line of thinking is correct, is actually not the point of today’s post, I’m simply here to remind you that the thoughts of a singular Technologist (or a group of Technologists) can only affect a Podcaster to the extent that we allow it to. You have the option to simply disengage in conversations that suggest that the days of human connection are numbered Podcasting, and if you’re not willing to give at least part of your Craft over to AI then you’re going to fall so far behind that failure is inevitable. You can just shut all that stuff out.

TL;DR: Save all the energy that you might otherwise spend on arguing with people on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. about AI, and just go make more cool sh*t!

The other Short-long of it: It’s often easier to unleash your creative flair onto the world in the form of a well-constructed rebuttal to the prognosticators in your medium, but just try to redirect that momentary frustration into ongoing fuel for making.

I need to keep telling myself this!

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Email me your thoughts to [email protected] or DM me here on LinkedIn or comment below on this post.

Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio

Subscribe to The Future IS Audio Newsletter on LinkedIn.

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TL;DR: Gear isn’t just about utility, it’s about excitement and energy. If a new piece of audio gear has you making more content, having more fun (or experiencing less stress), and it reduces the timeline from idea creation and idea execution, then please STOP punishing yourself for desiring new gear, and for buying new gear. (**caveat: as long as you can afford that new gear**).

My Portable Podcasting Gear List (2025 Edition).

1. Recording Device: any modern device with a USB-C port (that can run the free Røde Capture app).
2. Microphone: the Røde Wireless Micro system (USB-C).
3. Production: Auphonic.com where you get 2 hours of advanced and automated audio processing for free each month. I used this today for Adaptive Leveling, Noise Reduction, Reverb Removal, and hitting my LUFS targets. My Auphonic settings are in the show notes and the LinkedIn Newsletter.
4. Editing App / Software: Audacity for MAC and Windows. https://www.audacityteam.org/

John Lacey's Rode Micro Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Ctq2CBlkc

LUFS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LUFS

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Where did all the Soundseeing Tours go in Podcasting?

TL;DR - Your Podcast doesn’t have to be an Interview Show or a Panel Show built (from format to presentation) to enable video production. It can be different, unique, more.

In 2012, when I first started ramping up my Podcast consumption into overdrive, one genre that I always enjoyed was the Soundseeing Tour genre. Travel, Language and Culture all wrapped up into an incredibly organic form of audio-storytelling. I’m not sure any Podcast genre has had me on the edge of my seat quite the way Soundseeing Tours did back in the day: What is going to happen next, and what will I hear next? So, I guess the question becomes, why aren’t Soundseeing Tours still getting produced, and if they are, why aren’t they getting shared, promoted and embraced by Podcast Listeners and/or the Podcasting Industry?

At the risk of sounding anti-video here (that’s not my intention), I think the reason is pretty clear, if your mindset is Video-First, then much of what makes Soundseeing Tours so unique can be easily reframed as uniquely-annoying elements of producing a show.

• Planning for travel and recording locations.
• Physical movement, and the ability to move and communicate at the same time.
• Dealing with unknown environmental variables like weather, temperature, noise and human activity.
• Permission and privacy considerations when recording on-location.
• The increased need for advanced storytelling skills to describe the Tour / Location in the audio format.

Call me selfish, but I genuinely hope we see (and hear) a return of the Soundseeing Tours in 2025. I want to experience more audio tours from Japan, Africa, Newfoundland (Canada), and the Pacific North East in the USA. I miss closing my eyes and just escaping to a different part of the world.

Theatre of the Mind is real folks, and audio is where the magic starts.

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If you happen to have Listened to some unique audio in Podcasting lately, please post in the comments here on LinkedIn or DM Josh on Instagram @joshuacliston . Speak to you again soon, and bye for now.

TL;DR: If you’ve done the work to produce a super polished audio show, then you’re not putting up an inferior product to video on YouTube, just a different one. Audio on YouTube is NOT fake video, it's expanded accessibility.

4 Reasons TO put Audio-only episodes on YouTube:

1. For Increased Accessibility. (Every day at my day job I sell TV's to folks from across the age and cultural spectrum, and the number of people that ask about running Wireless Headphones out of their TV's so they can easily listen to programs and shows continues to surprise me. YouTube is the app that gets the majority of mentions from Customers, and I think it's because a) the Customer themselves has mastered the YouTube interface and wants to stay there for everything, and b) the non-English versions of the YouTube app on the major TV-OS offerings are stable and navigable).
2. To allow non-technical people to map listening progress seamlessly across multiple devices.
3. To allow people (who Care) to comment, give a thumbs up, Subscribe to your show, and even support your show on-platform.
4. To take advantage of the streamlined UX (User Experience) on YouTube. (There is no account required to get to the content, and the YouTube app doesn't hassle you every second day for your email address and for your preferred genres/tastes/interests before you get to LiSTNR .... sorry .... sorry, I meant listen).

The caveat I often hear about Audio-on-YouTube is the "extreme drop-off rate", which I believe is real, but I would posit that the drop-off rate for almost all content posted to YT (audio, video, amateur mime, everything that's NOT Cats) is "extreme".

The Short-long of it: If someone likes to Listen to shows, they don't really care how or where it happens, as long as it works and it's as simple as Click Link >>> Press Play.

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Email me your thoughts to [email protected] or DM me on LinkedIn or on Instagram (@joshuacliston).

[ Audio-article recorded using the Rode Wireless Micro USB-C System ].

'The Future IS Audio' newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slayers-buffyverse-story-audio-storytelling-gave-me-josh-liston-nzgvc/

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story - Audio Storytelling That Gave Me Goosebumps.

In 2023, Audible released an exclusive program called Slayers: A Buffyverse Story - an original Buffy the Vampire Slayer audio-drama, co-written and narrated by members of the original Buffy cast.

Now, I need to preface what I’m about to say by letting you know that Buffy The Vampire Slayer was my absolute favourite show growing up, and I consider the Buffy episode titled “The Body” as the best episode of television ever put to air. So yeah, I’m a little biased here.

When I first hit play on the Slayers audiobook and James Marster's voice (who portrayed Spike on Buffy and also on Angel) came through my headphones, I had goosebumps running down my arms and tears forming in my eyes. When I heard Charisma Carpenter’s voice later on in the production, I couldn’t help but smile; Cordelia was getting some of the spotlight her character deserved and perhaps didn’t get in the original Buffyverse shows.

It was Theatre-of-the-Mind at its most powerful.

I still watch Buffy on a regular basis and although I still enjoy it very much (it’s comfort-viewing for me at this point). I haven’t had a deep emotional response to anything Buffy related in over 20 years like I did to the Slayers audiobook.

It was just me, my headphones, and the human voice, and it was the most intense reaction I’ve had to a piece of art in many years. The last time I remember being completely blown away by a creative work was Season 1 of Ted Lasso, albeit in a very different way, but this was even more intense. Slayers taking several much-loved characters and rendering them in the most intimate of dramatic mediums (being audio) elicited a reaction that was beyond pure nostalgia, it was pure joy.

It’s not often that I find myself thinking, “I’m so grateful that this was made”, and Slayers made me feel that way. I clearly needed an original yet familiar story, told like it was told just for me, and the audio-drama format allowed for that revelatory experience to happen.

Slayers was my favourite Audiobook of the past several years, it was beautifully written, and the performances and production are as good as it gets. Check it out, and let me know your thoughts.

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PS. I put my initial reactions to Slayers back in 2023 on my Instagram profile @joshuacliston - but I thought I might include the audio from that video right here in this episode, so you can hear a life-long Buffy fan expressing their reaction to Slayers in-the-moment, and I’ll leave you with that today guys, speak to you again soon.

TLDR; Wear Headphones.

9 Reasons Headphones are the Key to a Professional Podcast Recording Session.

1. You’ll know if there’s a catastrophic noise being baked into the recording (electrical hum, static noise, buzzing sounds).

2. You won’t be off-mic half of the time. (You can hear when you’re in the sweet spot of your microphone, and when you’re not).

3. Increased awareness of Plosives (hard P’S and B’s), Mouth-noises (YUCK!), and Proximity Effect (overemphasised and potentially muddy bass in the voice).

4. Awareness of rubbing, zipping and scratching of clothing, jewellery, furniture, mic stand, and the microphone itself.

5. You can get more consistent levels between speakers on the recording, which can reduce post-production time and lessen the need for automated and potentially expensive levelling tools.

6. You can make choices about what environmental noises are actually making it into the recording. (You won’t waste time continually referencing things that are barely audible on the actual recording).

7. You’ll know if you’re baking-in destructive or bad sounding audio effects into the recording (overly aggressive noise-gates, reverb effects, or too much compression and/or bass and treble boost).

8. You’ll be able to hear everyone in the room that’s on a mic, not just the person closest to you by proximity (or simply the loudest person(s) in the room). This allows for quieter speakers to get heard, and get their turn … particularly when lots of cross-talk is occurring in the conversation, or speakers aren’t facing each other directly. Headphones create a level playing field for "being heard".

9. Producers can talk to you IRT yet discretely via your headphones without baking that conversation into the recording - if they have a talk-back function on their mixing or recording console.

If you need to talk Headphones, or Podcasting in general, feel free to send me an email ([email protected]) or DM me on X @joshuacliston or Instagram @joshuacliston

Have a great week, and happy Podcasting.

Goodbye, Thank You, and Enjoy the Ride :-)

@joshuacliston on Instagram, X and Facebook.

Email: [email protected]

Hire Us To Edit Your Show(s): https://www.deadsetpodcasting.com/services

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3 Podcast Advertising Pet Peeves:

1. Poorly placed Ads that ruin the emotional arc of a Podcast episode.
2. Incredibly distasteful decisions around Ad Insertion Slots.
3. Cluttering up your show feed with plugs for other shows that aren't even remotely relevant to your show and/or your genre of show ("You Might Also Like" type plugs).

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• @deadsetpod on Instagram.

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This Episode was Originally Released via My Old Hands

Scott Brick is the voice of many classic audiobooks including the Dune series, The Sword of Shannara series, Jurassic Park, Atlas Shrugged, The Reacher series, In Cold Blood, The Lion's Game, and many more. 

In part 2 of a multi-part series wth Scott Brick we explore the following:

• Celebrating wins the VO booth. Elevating the text off of the page and into audio.
• Creating Character Voices. (Scott gives us one of the best Leonard Nimoy Spock impressions of all-time in this episode. Josh has goosebumps).
• The importance of water (and lots of it) for voice talent, and all other Artists and performers using their voice as their primary instrument.

My Old Hands: https://my-old-hands.captivate.fm/episode/p2-3-scott-brick-on-voicing-jurassic-park-emulating-a-vulcan-vocal-health-and-the-lions-game

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• https://www.instagram.com/joshuacliston/

• @deadsetpod on Twitter/X.

• @deadsetpod on Instagram.

• @deadsetpodcasting on Facebook. 

Email: [email protected]

Hire Us To Edit Your Show(s): https://www.deadsetpodcasting.com/services

Join us for 4 Tips for Getting Your Podcasting Mojo Back in 2024.

1. Go back and listen to your favourite episodes.
2. Go back and listen to or watch the shows, read the books, listen to the music, that first inspired you to create.
3. Talk about how you feel with someone who cares - that could even be someone in your Audience.
4. Listen to a show that you don’t like (or maybe have mixed feelings about), but it gives you energy and makes you want to talk.

Socials:

• @joshuacliston on Instagram

• @deadsetpod on Twitter/X.

• @deadsetpod on Instagram.

• @deadsetpodcasting on Facebook. 

Email: [email protected]

Hire Us To Edit Your Show(s): https://www.deadsetpodcasting.com/services