The Podcast Engineering Show

Today I'm going to discuss some mistakes I've made producing podcasts.

Microphone: In this episode I'm using my Electro-Voice RE320 microphone plugged into my Neve Portico II channel strip (using compression, EQ and a bit of saturation). The same microphone you see in my daily short videos here.

I mention a recent hiking experience I had where a guy who saw my shirt (which says Ask Me About My Podcast) and asked, "What's your podcast?" And then immediately added, "JUST KIDDING!" We all laughed and he didn't ask again so I didn't mention my podcast at all. HA

Mistakes I've Made Producing Podcasts:

• I published one of my client's episodes with 30 seconds of silence at the beginning. The client alerted me and I fixed it immediately.
• During an online recording session, after a participant dropped off and then returned, I forgot to press record again in Squadcast, but of course I was recording a local backup which I ended up using (though it was a bit of a pain because all participants were mixed together in the backup recording). NOTE: Squadcast fixed this issue a long time ago.
• On an in-person recording session I forgot to hit record and realized it after about 5 minutes so we had to start the episode over again and sort of feign authentic enthusiasm when redoing the intro.
• I've mixed audio on my monitor speakers while mistakenly using the calibration profile for my headphones.
• Untold inaccuracies using processors too aggressively, or not aggressively enough — Compression, de-noise, de-plosive, EQ, etc.

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 January 10, 2023! (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

NOTE: In this episode I'm using a Sennheiser e835 microphone into my Portico 2 channel strip and using these plugins in post: KIT BB N105, Shadow Hills Class A Mastering Compressor, Saturn 2, and Aquamarine 4.

Here's the summary of what I discuss on How To Handle Loudness Properly in All Stages of Your Podcast Production Workflow:

• Record all raw tracks at a healthy level (not too low or too hot)
• Set all raw tracks to the same LUFS before bringing them into your DAW. (I do this at the end of my cleanup phase after I remove background noise, plosives, hums, and other blemishes)
• Use Compression and/or MaxxVolume/Vocal Rider to compress/tame the loud parts as well as boost the lower volume parts. (NOTE: This step will effectively amplify any background noise, so be sure to absolutely minimize the background noise before pressing record!)
• Adjust the overall level of each participant so they all sound good compared to each other. (as part of your mixing phase, where you can also use other processing like EQ, saturation, etc.)
• After rendering the final episode audio, process this file so it adheres to the "unofficial" loudness standards of podcasting: -19 LUFS for mono episodes, or -16 LUFS for stereo episodes.

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 January 10, 2023! (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

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:

1. Update your goals
2. Change the format
3. Start using chapters
4. Personal focus on eliminating verbal crutches. (A short duration of intense focus will provide years of good results)
5. Change and/or add equipment
6. Sell old equipment
7. Treat yourself to that mic you've always wanted
8. Sound absorption and diffusers
9. Add a new segment
10. Cover new yet pertinent subject matter topics
11. Publish in video format as well
12. Publish better shownotes
13. Revamp your marketing
14. Evaluate the shows overall effectiveness
15. Hire a VA
16. Bring on a cohost
17. Decide to end your show???
18. 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

I overview 9 podcast production tips and techniques from recent Daily Goody posts Oct. 25 - Dec. 10, 2021 (see list below). You can sign up to receive Daily Goody's in your email every day or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.

Daily Goody posts that I discussed in this episode:

• What is Mastering in Podcast Production?
• Musicians Can Fund Their Music Careers by Earning $50-150 Per Hour Producing Podcasts From Home
• Name One Song That Sounds Amazing/Perfect to You
• AKG K 240 MK II Stereo Studio Headphones
• Background Noise Is Exacerbated by Compression
• SplitEQ from Eventide
• 3 Different Categories of "Noise" to Avoid When Recording Podcasts
• One Participant Using a Condenser Mic, the Other Using a Dynamic Mic
• Do You Feel Hurried or Chill When You Edit Your Podcast?

Other Notes:

• Podcast Services Mastermind Workshop ($199) - A one day immersive and collaborative in-person event designed to build & grow your service based business! Full explanation of the program HERE.
• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• 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/)
• My smaller course that I mentioned: Getting New Clients at Higher Rates

Let me know if you have any questions or need any help with anything,
~Chris

I've attended every single Podfest since 2014. And this year it was great to see so many friends and colleagues in person again!

Here are some of my experiences, notes and highlights of the event:

MY TALK: 

"How to Use Compression & Normalization (Mandatory for Creating Professional Grade Audio)" ---> The full presentation will be published soon! 

Outline what I covered: 

• Normalization  (Peak and Loudness)  (When and where to normalize audio)
• Compression  (Why, controls)  (Demonstrations of compressors, upward compression, vocal riding, limiter, and a great sounding plugin chain) 

*Audio Production Challenge for my listeners: Compress the ultra-dynamic audio clip that I used for demonstration in my presentation and send me your processed audio file!

Links to Apps and Plugins I Mentioned in My Talk at Podfest 2022 on "Compression and Normalization"

Link to 4 recent overview posts: 

• What is Compression? (Audio Processing)
• Introduction to Compressor Controls
• What Are Audio Plugins? (Audio Processing)
• Introduction to Plugin Chains

PODCASTING 2.0, CRYPTO, BLOCKCHAIN, ETC.: 

• Spoke with several podcast industry pro's about Podcasting 22.0, crypto integrations into podcast feeds and websites, etc. Hardly anyone was talking about this. It's still VERY early. 
• The Florida Bitcoin & Blockchain Summit

PRESENTATIONS I SAW: 

Seth Silvers, CEO of Story On Media --- "The Roadmap To Using NFTs To Engage Your Podcast Audience and Increase Revenue"

• Focus on "how can NFTs help build my community, instead of how can NFTs make me money."
• Think of an NFT as an access card. 
• "Gratitude" NFTs just for people to support the show. (offer NFTs of every episode, etc.)
• Never-ending tickets. 
• Uncut.fm "Collect NFTs from your favorite podcasts"

TikTok presentation by Melissa Hughes

• *Mindset when creating TikTok posts: Document instead of create.

WHAT I WAS INSPIRED TO CHANGE/DO: 

• Create a new short course??
• TikTok posting for marketing purposes? (Am I really going to commit to this?!?!)
• Join a songwriting group (which I discussed w/Ashley Lehmann)

Other interesting things I learned about:

• Snowpixel:  AI-generated images (Natalie Champa Jennings told me about this)
• "Dream 100", gatekeepers, (from my conversation with Seth Silvers) -- The Dream 100 are relationships with people and/or companies who can help me market my business to their audiences. Instead of focusing on marketing, focus on building these 100 relationships.  

MY OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE ENTIRE EVENT: 

• All in all very good
• Perhaps too many speakers and tracks, etc. 
• Felt a bit too spread out
• I should have bought groceries

PEOPLE I HUNG OUT WITH:

• Seth Silvers
• Jennie Wren
• Steve Stewart and Mark Deal
• Glenn the Geek
• Mike Helms
• Marc Johanssen
• Roy Stegman
• Harry Duran
• Natalie Champa Jennings
• Ashley Lehmann
• Paul Desmond Adams
• Gordon Firemark
• Bryan Entzminger
• Julia Levine
• Ross Brand
• Dave Jackson
• Dan Hughley
• Daniel Abendroth
• MANY OTHERS! 

NOTE: The next semester of PES starts on June 28, 2022.

I overview 8 podcast production tips and techniques from Oct. 6 - Oct. 22, 2021 (see list below). You can sign up to receive these Daily Goody's in your email every day or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.

Daily Goody posts that I discussed in this episode:

• Captivate's Interview Management & Guest Booking Platform Integrates With SquadCast
• Remote Recording Using WiFi vs Ethernet Cable
• Being Ready at Least 5-10 Minutes Before Each Recording Session
• How to Make Decisions Regarding Buying New Plugins
• Podcast Intro Music: How Loud Should It Be?
• Bad Edits Are Terrible – Don't Make Bad Edits!
• iZotope RX 9
• Using "Room Tone" When Editing Podcasts

Other Notes:

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• The start date for the next PES semester is June 28, 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/)
• My smaller course that I mentioned: Getting New Clients at Higher Rates

Let me know if you have any questions or need any help with anything,
~Chris

I overview 8 recent Daily Goody's from Sep. 20 - Oct. 4, 2021 (see list below). You can sign up to receive Daily Goody's in your email every day or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.

Daily Goody posts that I discussed in this episode:

• Reduce Editing Time With Better Recording Habits
• Referencing Your Old Episodes to Evaluate the Sound
• Earning Over $100k Producing Podcasts From Home
• Audio Production Fundamentals
• Apollo x4 Audio Interface
• How Podcasters Can Receive Crypto From Listeners (PES 226)
• Sound Absorbing Items in Your Recording Space
• Gullfoss Master

NOTE: In post-production I processed my voice (recorded on a Shure SM7b into a Sound Devices MixPre-6 first gen.) using the following plugins (in this order):

• Fabfilter Pro-G (gate)
• BB N105 channel strip (for saturation and EQ)
• Abbey Road RS124 (compressor)
• Aquamarine 4 (compressor)

Other Notes:

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• The start date for the next PES semester is April 19, 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

I overview 8 recent Daily Goody's from June 21 - Sep. 20, 2021 (see list below). You can sign up to receive Daily Goody's in your email every day or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.

NOTE: In this episode I'm using the new DynaCaster microphone from sE Electronics! I think it ended up sounding great. Also be sure to watch Podcastage's excellent test and review of this microphone: sE Electronics Dynacaster Review / Test (vs. SM7b, RE20, Ethos)

Daily Goody posts that I discussed in this episode:

• Reduce Editing Time With Better Recording Habits
• Be Delicate When De-essing
• BB N105 Plugin (EQ and Saturation)
• Edit Out Awkward Silence or Not?
• Nicest Looking Website-Embeddable Podcast Players?
• Kali Audio LP-6 Active Near-field Monitors
• MJUC Compressor Plugin from Klanghelm
• Adjusting a Compressors Release Time and What Effect That Has on the Sound
• Martín Gonzalez, Audio Engineer at Pushkin Industries – PES 221

Other Notes:

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• The start date for the next PES semester is April 19, 2022!
• 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

I overview 9 recent Daily Goody's from May 21 though June 18, 2021 (see list below). You can sign up to receive Daily Goody's in your email every day or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.

I also demonstrate the three best Townsend Labs Sphere L22 microphone emulations for my voice (as judged by me). Which do you like best for my voice?:

• OW-12 #2
• LD-414 NYLON (Overall Winner in my opinion!!!)
• BP-251E

Daily Goody posts that I discussed in this episode:

• Here's When I DON'T Edit Out a Word Mispronounced Then Repeated Correctly
• Do You "Cheat" and Publish Your Episodes Louder Than the Unofficial Loudness Standards?? I Do.
• Up for a "New Client Challenge"?
• Perception of Space
• Sennheiser MKH 416 – Short Shotgun Interference Tube Microphone
• SSL UC1 Hardware Plug-in Controller
• Steinberg WaveLab (Mastering Software)
• Jason Sheesley episode
• I Held an ATR2100USB in My Hand This Whole Episode

Other Notes:

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• The start date for the next PES semester is April 19, 2022!
• 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

I discuss my experience opening and operating a brick and mortar podcast studio for 3 years, including:

Discovering podcasting in late 2011

Starting my own show in my apartment solely for the experience of starting a podcast – The Chris Curran Show!

Why I decided to open a physical podcast studio in June 2012

Economics:

• I had no idea if this kind of business could be profitable, but I was so energized to do it that I took the leap.
• I'll talk more later about the monetary success or failure of the studio ;)

History:

• Before Serial hit in the fall of 2014 the podcasting space was still relatively small and unknown.
• I don't know anyone who ran a physical podcast studio back when I did, but I'm sure at least a few people must have.

What were my competitive advantages?

• My audio experience
• My local networking experience

I was fortunate that:

• I found a space very close to my apartment.
• I had previously been a member of the largest Chamber of Commerce in that area, so I knew a bunch of people already.

i signed a 3 year lease, but it wasn't overly expensive because it was in an older building and the space was unique (perhaps difficult to sell to most average businesses).

Fractal Recording was born in June 2012.

Equipment setup:

• 4 mics (Sennheiser e835's)
• 4 Heil boom arms
• 4 channels of dbx 166xs
• Headphone amp
• Digital hybrid to take actual phone calls
• iPad for playing music and sound clips
• Bought my first Mac for the studio
• Focusrite interface (stereo!)
• Bought a couch, chairs, and a round table

Started several shows to jumpstart the content coming out of my studio. I did this to generate as much buzz as possible around my studio.

Attending Chamber of Commerce networking events to promote my studio and invite local business people to be interviewed on my local business podcast. *Back then most people didn't even know what podcasts were!

I met Barry the maintenance guy and got to know him.

Trying to partner with 2 different people – both were going to be in charge of marketing and sales (obviously because I wanted to focus on the audio production!) – and both ended up in tragedy.

The studio not being soundproof… UGH.

THE END: Deciding to NOT sign up for another 3 years, which happened to coincide with my move to Colorado (where I would start doing all client recordings virtually).

To sum up my experience having the studio for 3 years:

• Overall, I absolutely loved it.
• I learned so much and had so much fun.
• Got tons of experience hosting shows.
• Made some good friends.
• I paid my dues for what was to come next.
• The painful aspects of that experience have completely dissolved into nothingness.

Was the studio profitable? Barely. It took a lot of effort and technically the studio was profitable but not by much. If I had a good salesperson it could have been more profitable.

The Universe is funny – as soon as we moved to Colorado I got a call from a NJ business (who lived close to my old studio) who wanted to hire me to produce their podcast, but they did NOT want to come into my studio, and I said GREAT that works out nicely!

I started on-boarding additional remote production clients and within 5 months I got a huge contract with Forbes to produce their podcast network remotely.

What Did I Learn:

• When you know you can be successful at something, you just have to be bold and keep working hard and adapt when you need to. Eventually you will arrive in a place where you are making a good living doing something you love, though that place will definitely NOT be the place you originally had in mind.

Hope you enjoyed that.

Other Notes:

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• The start date for the next PES semester is April 19, 2022!
• 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