The Podcast Engineering Show | Professional Podcast Production - Recording, Mixing, Editing, Mastering

Welcome to session #53 of The Podcast Engineering Show! I'm solo this week.... well of course Barry is still with me! YEAH OH YEAH Some of my meanderings: Appreciation to previous guests, podcasting friends - Thank you all!  Dave Jackson (School of Podcasting) rules.  Pod to Pod weekly email rules.  Music I've been listening to lately - Dopes to Infinity by Monster Magnet, Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple, Plans by Death Cab for Cutie, OU812 by Van Halen, and Mozart on Pandora. Rabbits podcast - my impressions after listening to 3 episodes. If you know someone who would be a good guest on this show, please introduce them to me. Email: info@podcastengineeringschool.com Tomorrow morning I leave for Lexington! (The Podcasting Course) Podcasting trending up means more business to be had for podcast engineers.  Zencastr vs. CAST vs. Ringr... Update on the current batch of Podcast Engineering School! Podcasters' Society: A community of experts and podcasters focused on helping you improve all aspects of your

My guest is Stephen, a mix engineer working on mostly hip hop, rock, and alternative music. We talked about many aspects of audio engineering that will definitely help podcast engineers/producers, including: Processing the human voice Rode NT-1 Neumann TLM-103 ProTools 12.5 EQ'ing first Pultec EQ De-esser before and/or after EQ Multiple compressors in series: The first one having slow attack and fast release The second one having fast attack and slow release (around 3 full seconds!) Listening on different speakers in different environments FGX mastering software by Slate (he used to use Ozone 7) Constant Gain Monitoring Thanks for having fun with us on the show, Stephen! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

My guest is Ric Viers - Sound Designer, Sound Effects Producer, Author of The Sound FX Bible and The Location Sound Bible, Full Sail University Hall of Fame Inductee, and Creator of The Detroit Chop Shop web series! Ric is the Master of Sound FX. And I gave him the most over-the-top introduction EVER. (Can you tell what movie it's from??) We discussed so much about recording sound effects and audio on-location: Using Multiple mic's simultaneously Shotgun mic's, including one of Ric's favorites, the Rode NTG3 Ambience mic's, including the stereo mic Rode NT4 Large diaphragm mic's including Rode NT2A, NT2000, NT1 Blimps Dead cats and wookie condoms Ric's trusty Fostex FR-2 recorder 24 bit, 96 kHz recording resolution Post-production using Soundforge Pro Editing Normalizing Other software Ric uses, including Vegas and Acid Subtractive EQ Thanks for being an awesome guest, Ric! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listeni

My guest is Roy Stegman - Audio Engineer, Podcast and Audiobook producer, and Host of The Complete Audio Producer podcast. We had a blast discussing the following items and more: SM57 with a wind screen Original PreSonus Blue Tube FastTrack Ultra TC Electronics Loudness Meter SSl E Channel Plugin Legacy LA2A plugin Nigel Amp simulator plugin UAD1 and UAD2 - signal processing units from Universal Audio Marking edit spots in Adobe Audition What is 32 bit float and where is it used? Thanks for having fun with us, Roy! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

Today I'm using my new microphone for the first time! Actually it's over 30 years old - a vintage RE20 from the 80's I believe, and courtesy of Marc Johanssen. (join his Facebook group here). Yesterday I recorded session #50 with Roy Stegman using it, too, but that was before I spent time dialing in the settings on my channel strip to make the mic sound tip-top. NEWS: I'm proud to announce that I am now a resident expert (of audio engineering) in the Podcasters' Society! It's a wonderful community founded and facilitated by Daniel J. Lewis, a former guest on this podcast ;) It's a wonderful community for podcasters and producers who have already launched their show(s) and are ready to improve their show(s) big time. It's WAY more helpful than your average Facebook group, and I'm not knocking any podcasting Facebook groups because they are awesome, it's just that Podcasters' Society goes way deeper and wider in so many ways. *As I mentioned in the audio, here's my discount/affiliate link for Podcasters' Soci

My guest is Kirk Bowman, host and producer of The Art of Value Podcast. Kirk is seriously on top of his game in the area of podcast production. We had fun discussing his equipment, workflow and processing, etc. (list of topics is below) I asked Kirk to send me the stock settings for the Broadcast preset in the multiband compressor which comes with Adobe Audition (because tons folks use this preset). See the show notes for a screenshot. Kirk also told me about a channel strip which has a phase 'rotation' function (which is different than the much more popular phase 'inversion'). See the show notes for a screenshot. Here are some other things we discussed: MOTU 1248 interface 4 XLR inputs Routing matrix AVB (audio over ethernet used to connect multiple interfaces together) Thunderbolt to Mac Built-in effects Match Loudness in Adobe Audition Multitrack recording Processing each track to -18 LUFS using Auphonic Multiband compression during mixdown Editing Upgrading equipment as he grew Thanks for being a gr

My returning guest is Mary Mazurek! She is an audio engineer with 25 years experience, radio producer at WFMT Chicago including the “Live from WFMT” show, and instructor in the Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College in Chicago. We discussed: Recording ping pong balls being poured into an open piano! Recording and broadcasting classical ensembles in studio and on location Identical stereo pairs of AKG 414's and Schoeps mic's capturing the room in stereo Spot mic's on each musician including KM 184, DPA, Shure's Blending close mic's and room mic's Lexicon 300 Phasing, space between mic's, etc. F5 Fusion 8 channels of Grace mic pre's Recording to Tascam flash recorders as well as a CD burner ProTools mastering and MP3 creation On location ISDN line And here are two other programs that Mary engineers: The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert, and Live from WFMT. Thanks for hanging out with us again, Mary! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with a

My guest is Mike Murphy, host and producer of Mike Murphy Unplugged. He also created the Podcaster Toolkit (resources and tutorials for content creators), which btw is very completely different from our friend Ralph Rivera's Podcaster's Toolbox ;) Equipment, workflow, processing, production time-savers... We discussed all of these, including: The Essential Sound Panel in Adobe Audition (match loudness feature, etc.) Recording resolution (32 bit, 44.1 kHz) EQ'ing by rolling off lows and adding "air" on top Shure SM7B mic Rode NT-1 mic Rode PSA-1 boom arm CL-1 Cloudlifter Allan and Heath ZED-10 mixer Sony MDR 7506 headphones Recording into a Macbook Pro Normalization Thanks for being a great guest, Mike! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

My guest is Rob Greenlee, Head of Podcast Content at Spreaker, host of the Spreaker Live Show, and co-host of the New Media Show. Also FYI, here's the link to Rob's post titled Nine Evolutions of Podcasting In 2017. Rob has been involved in podcasting for many years so he had a lot to share above and beyond his equipment and workflow. Topics discussed included: Doing sessions on his Surface Tablet w/USB hub SM7b and ATR2100 Mackie Mixer Digimax 220 USB Interface Levelator Soundforge Editing Recording directly into the Spreaker platform and many more details... Thanks for being a great guest, Rob! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

My guest is Patrick Keller, host and producer of The Big Seance Podcast. He also teaches vocal music and music production and technology at a middle school. Note: We talked a bit about EVP's (electronic voice phenomena), which are basically audio recordings of ghosts and spirits! Check out one of Patrick's episodes where he plays some of this audio. We had a blast discussing various production situations and solutions, as well as all of his podcast production equipment and workflow processes: Behringer Q802 USB Mixer dbx 286s channel strip Heil PR40 mic MXL 990 mic Audacity Auphonic Zoom H5 recorder Editing a lot! Making teasers Generating the MP3 using iTunes Also, we talked about using foam in your studio to deaden the room sound, including one really good place to put the foam (behind you). Thanks for having so much fun with us, Patrick! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or H

My guest is Jason DeFillippo - producer of The Jordan Harbinger Show podcast, cohost of Grumpy Old Geeks podcast, Podcast Editor, and host and producer of Does It Have Legs. Jason has an awesome podcast studio setup - listen for all the details. We discussed his equipment, workflow, processing and lots more. Here's some of what we covered: PreSonus 192 interface 2-3 Mac mini’s for connecting guests and hosts Ecamm call recorder Apollo 8 Zoom H6 RE20 RE27 ND AT-2005 Logic Pro Zencastr Rolls MS111 Mic Switch (cough button) Cloudlifter Contour Design ShuttlePRO v2 MX Master mouse Then there's his road kit: Two RE27’s Apollo Twin interface Laptop running Logic Pro Zoom H6 Two Rode PSA1 boom arms Headphones Rolls MS111 Cough buttons Thanks for sharing so much with us, Jason! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe i

My guest is Adron Buske, host and co-producer of the Nerd for a Living podcast, and co-founder and creative director at Armadian Creative. We had a riveting conversation about his equipment and workflow, which he was nice enough to outline for us here: GEAR Mixer - Alesis Multi-Mix 8 - USB Pyle 4 channel headphone amplifier Backup - M-Audio MobilePre Amp (2 channel) Mics MXL 990 - main interview mic (large diaphragm condenser) AudioTechnica AT875R condenser mic - narration mic Sterling S50 condenser mic - secondary interview mic MXL 2006 condenser mic - new interview mic in testing Sennheiser boom mic - location recording with Rycote Softie windscreen Zoom H4n recorder - on location recording Monoprice Acoustic Isolation Shield - narration station Boom Arms - NEEWER Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand Pop Guards - Sterling Audio mesh filters, plus a cheap on-mic windscreen COMPUTER & SOFTWARE iMac - 27-inch, Late 2012 - 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 - 32 GB ram Adobe Audition (Creative Cloud) Tagr

FYI, here are the links to what Chris initially mentioned: Podfest in Orlando Feb.23-25,  The Podcasting Course in Lexington, KY, Apr.21-22,  and Podcast Engineering School in Denver, Apr.2-7. Chris also did a speed round on his own equipment and workflow! (which he has never done before on the show) Then he spoke in detail about his new stuff, including: Why he tweaked his Neve Portico II channel strip settings New monitors: Neumann KH 120 A New software and plugins: (which PES students will get ridiculous discounts on) RX 5 Advanced (went through list of features) Ozone 7 Advanced (went through list of features) Neutron Advanced (Track Assistant, Dynamic EQ, etc) Sheps 73 (emulating the Neve 1073, 12k high shelving, Mid-Side mode) Abbey Road Plates Abbey Road J37 Tape VComp (emulating Neve 2254 hardware compressor) and VEQ4 (both part of the Gold bundle) Zynaptiq ZAP Bundle Unfilter Unveil Unchirp Pitchmap SPL De-esser Dual-band (Male 6k, Female 7k, HIgh band 11k) DID YOU KNOW........We exist for t

My guest is Zack Hanni, audio engineer and owner of Soma Recording Studios. He engineers/produces music so it was nice to talk with him about some of the production processes and tricks he uses. Fyi, he majored in Audio Production and minored in Entertainment Technology at Middle Tennessee State University. We discussed several topics in great depth: (listen to the audio for the FULL experience.....the shownotes for this show are just the tip of the iceberg ;) Impedance (Hi-Z and Lo-Z, mic's and instruments) EQ (addressing some common issues) Compression (Multiband, including release times, auto-release and alternatives to compression) Introducing distortion to add some high frequency presence Zack’s typical vocal processing chain: EQ w/ hi pass filter at 80-150 Hz Light Compression Via a Send to a return track: EQ Heavy and harsh Compression Overdrive Limiter Presonus FaderPort - has a single motorized fader Izotope Nectar - chorus, pitching, and a lot more Thanks for sharing so many insights with u

My guest (for his 2nd appearance) is Max Flight, host of Airplane Geeks Podcast, co-host and producer of The UAV Digest and the #PaxEx Podcast. Max continues to amp up his production quality, equipment and workflow so I wanted to speak with him about his new toys and plugins. (check out his first appearance here) We covered: How Max and I eliminated some slight distortion from his signal just before recording this session Aston Microphones “Spirit" (A 20% coupon helped. Max likes it, though it's obviously different than his Heil PR40 in many ways. Certainly requires different EQ - mostly a 3 or 4db bump around 4K, to his ear) Warm Audio WA12 mic pre (Max saw it at a Guitar Center, "Look honey, it's orange!" and Googled the reviews, so he bought it at a really good price) Waves DeBreath plugin Spitfish de-esser (one of his guests on Airplane Geeks had a huge sibilance problem) Thanks again, Max! FYI, follow Max on Twitter @MaxFlight DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comme

My guest is Garth Humphreys, host and producer of Audio Pizza, iBlindTech and Aussie Mac Zone. Garth lives in Australia and we had a fun session. We discussed his equipment and workflow, including: Rode NT-1 Amadeus Pro Audio Hijack Pro FX Chains on individual tracks as well as the main mix bus Auphonic to append and prepend music, intro, etc. Editing tips We also covered 3 handy functions in Reaper (they are also possible in most other DAW's): Allows for 3 states of ripple editing (we cover all 3) SWS/BR: Normalize loudness of selected tracks to -23 LUFS Item: Auto trim/split items (remove silence) One more interesting tidbit - when Garth sent me his local recording he sent it in FLAC format (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Digital audio compressed by FLAC's algorithm can typically be reduced to 50–60% of its original size and decompress to an identical copy of the original audio data. It's handy for sharing large audio files as long as the receiving person has the ability to decompress the file back i

Announcement: We will be taking a break for the holidays, so after this episode we will be back on Jan. 5th. Links mentioned in this episode: Podfest Multimedia Expo in Orlando, Florida from Feb. 23-25, 2017 The Podcasting Course in Lexington, Kentucky from April 21-22, 2017 Podcast Gear Group (Facebook group led by the incomparable Marc Johanssen) First I mention and explain what I’m using to record this episode - a Shure SM7B right into my Mackie mixer - no processing before recording, which is different than my normal setup at home. With regards to peaking/distorting, setting my recording level when the mic is "raw to tape" is much more difficult than when I'm using a compressor before recording. Then I discuss these 4 topics: 1. The Wisdom of Audio Processing Silk mode on my Neve Portico II - RED/BLUE - Tweaking my EQ & Compression on my new RE20 Dbx 286s “Enhancer” section - LF Detail, HF Detail Using a multiband compressor on a voice - compressing the low end as well as boosting the level of tha

My guests are Ralph Rivera and his wife Carol Lynn! They are podcasters, as well as developers of The Podcaster's Toolbox, and lovely people. We recorded this episode using their brand new custom mobile podcasting rig! They are going to be travelling a lot over the next year so they put together a top quality mobile rig which they can take anywhere to record. It houses many pieces of equipment, as well as all the cables and power cords already connected and ready to record. Just pop off the covers of the road case, plug in one power cord, plug in the mic's, and start recording! Equipment inside: Four dbx 286s Zoom F8 multitrack recorder Eight channel headphone amp Two big drawers to hold the mic's Four Heil PR-40's And just in case, a Behringer Multicom Pro-XL MDX4600 We also talked about their workflow and post-production process. Thanks for inviting me over and showing me your awesome mobile rig, Ralph and Carol Lynn! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below

My guest is The Real Brian, host of The Real Brian Show, and Arrow Squad! BTW-- I laughed so much listening to his recent episode where he spoke with the legendary JP Sears. In this episode we discussed: Signal chain - PR 40 mic, Mackie 1202 mixer, Behringer MDX 4600, Roland R-05, Zoom H5 Mixing to AIFF file Stereo vs Mono final MP3s Audacity Plugins - AU, peak limiter, noise reducer Levelator Thanks for sharing so much with us, The Real Brian! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

My guest is Greg Heist, producer and cohost of The Future Stir, and Chief Innovation Officer at Gongos. FYI, the website for The Future Stir uses a really cool WordPress theme called Soundbyte Podcast/Audio Template. Take a look at their site here. Greg and I discussed: Focusrite Mixcontrol Drawner S73 plugin on master bus Feeding Stems into Auphonic Multitrack 2nd generation Focusrite 18i20 audio interface SM7B Cloudlifter CL-1 Zoom H5 Recording in Adobe Audition at 32 bit 48kHz! Fuhrmann power strip Behringer 1800 microphones (3 for $39!) Blue Encore 100 mic Focusrite RED plugins Thanks for a wonderful session, Greg! DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS