The Podcast Engineering Show

Latest Episodes:

**PES 096: Billy O Returns** Jun 28, 2018
Show notes

My returning guest is Billy O - host of The Billy O Show, podcast producer and audio engineer.

We discuss post-production specifically, and of course meander in and out of other podcast production topics including:

Mixing "in the box"

Waves plugins: EQ, Vocal Rider, X-hum

FabFilter Pro-Q2 and Pro-MB plugins

Nomad Factory plugins - cheaper but pretty good

General EQ advice: Cut wide and boost narrow

How to apply EQ and compression directly on a channel vs. using sends for reverbs and delays

Chris mentions his new way of subgrouping voices so he doesn't "re-master" the intro and outro music

Playing tracks off Spotify via through his Pioneer DJM 400 mixer

Editing

Also, if you're interested in recording music at home, check out Billy O's 5-part series covering DIY Home Recording, published as episodes 19-23 of his Billy O Show podcast.

Thanks Billy O for a great session!

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?

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PES 095: Situations and Solutions Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

Enjoy this solo session packed with lots of recent production scenarios I faced bravely. Hopefully some of what I share will help you in your production.

Announcements and Stuff:

Last call for the PES semester starting in a week and a half (Enroll and be classmates with a "podcast celebrity" student to be named later!)
If you or someone you know would be a great guest for this show please let me know.
On a personal productivity note: I've removed lots of apps from my phone: all social media, YouTube, Twitch, Wikipedia, etc.
I listed off all the audio and podcasting apps I still have on my phone.
I recently taught a webinar titled "How to EQ" for Steve Stewart's Podcast Editors Club Facebook group. Check it out here.
A recent message I received from VaShaun Jones (who was my guest on session #67) responding to my recent call for screen-sharing app recommendations: "You should use Team Viewer Quick Support for your remote access concerns. It's free and tried and true. I've been using it for 8 years."
My recent research on ipDTL (ISDN calls and radio remotes from a web browser): I believe it's mostly used by radio folks and voiceover folks. Deal-breaker: No local recordings of each participant. And btw, the clicking on Zencastr recordings seems to be gone for good :)

Situations and Solutions:

Earbud guest in reverby room.
Recording a guest by using Skype to call their mobile phone - sounded really muddy.
Guest in reverby room using an AT2020 condenser mic with a horrendous internet connection causing a billion clicks on Zencastr, and afterwards the guests track was significantly shorter.
Recording the correct microphone! Check your computer settings as well as the app settings.
Live panel with 5 people recorded on 1 track. Even out using Auphonic or a compressor with a long release time. Balancing the participants EQ is tough: de-esser, multi-band compressor.
Mixing WebEx audio recorded at 8kHz sample rate (only capturing up to 4kHz). Some possible remedies: Aphex aural exciter, Scheps Omni Channel preamp saturation, boost 2-4kHz range, remove some low mids and low frequencies.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for listening!

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?

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PES 094: John Bukenas Jun 07, 2018

Show notes

My guest is John Bukenas, podcast engineer, owner of Audio Editing Solutions, and graduate of Podcast Engineering School!

We discussed lots, including:

Various on-location recording scenarios
Mistakes podcasts hosts make when recording audio
De-reverb plugins
Upgrading equipment
RE320 microphone
dbx 286s channel strip
Mackie 1624 mixer
Focusrite 18i20 audio interface
Macbook Pro
Adobe Audition, including effects and match volume, etc.
Auphonic multitrack
Paying homage to previous guests Darrell Darnell and Daniel J. Lewis.

Thanks for hanging out with us, John!

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?

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PES 093: Chad Sowash May 24, 2018

Show notes

My guest is Chad Sowash - host and producer of The Chad & Cheese Podcast.

We covered a lot including:

Audio-technica ATR2500-USB
Zencaster
Audacity
Windows Surface Laptop
On-location recording
Noise reduction (if necessary)
Normalization
Compression
Editing
Soundcloud
Rev.com

Thanks for being a great guest, Chad!

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?

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Chris Curran podcast production — **PES 092: Chris Interviewed by Arik Levy** May 10, 2018
Show notes

I am interviewed by my guest host is Arik Levy - Law Enforcement Officer, Host of Firearms Nation Podcast, Creator of Shooter's Summit and the Firearms Nation YouTube channel.

Arik really wanted to know all the details about my recent major revamp of my studio. We discussed my new setup, my previous setup, my podcast production background, software, hardware, workflow and more.

Some of the elements of my new setup:

RE20 microphone (same one I've been using for about 1-1/2 yrs.)

Neve Portico II channel strip

Sound Devices MixPre-6

iMac Pro

Neumann KH 120 A near-field monitors

Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack and Loopback

iZotope RX 6 Advanced and Ozone 8

Sonarworks speaker and headphone calibration software

TwistedWave audio editor

Reaper

Plugins: Sheps Omni Channel Strip, SSL G Channel strip, etc.

VoIP Recording services: Squadcast, Zencastr, Ringr, etc.

Thanks for hanging out with me again, Arik!

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?

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**PES 091: Ben Brown** May 03, 2018
Show notes

My guest is Ben Brown, host and producer of the Municipal Equation podcast and the Tourette's Podcast.

We covered a lot including:

Cathedral Pipes Durham - mic activator

Steinberg UR-44 audio interface

Mackie monitors

ATH-M40x headphones

Goldwave audio editor

Publishing stereo MP3s at 112kbps resolution

FX chains

RE20 mic

Libsyn

AT8035 shotgun mic

Zoom H5

Reaper compressor with 4:1 ratio, fast attack, pretty fast release

Baxter EQ (more cutting than boosting)

Waves NS-1 for noise reduction (it's a one fader plugin)

Stereo mic: AT 2022

Thanks for being a great guest, Ben!

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?

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**PES 090: Aaron Dowd** Apr 26, 2018
Show notes

My guest is Aaron Dowd - Podcaster Success Lead at SimpleCast and host of The Podcast Dude.

Great conversation covering lots!:

Shure Beta 87a microphone

Scarlett solo - audio interface

Logic Pro DAW

RX Dialogue De-noiser and De-clip

Loudness meter plugin aiming for -16LUFS

Bussing all voices to a single channel and adding effects to that channel, which effects all the voices simultaneously -- dialogue de-noiser (light setting), some EQ, de-esser, an RMS Compressor, and adaptive limiter.

Editing in Logic Pro

HD 600 headphones

Using the Forecast app to convert to MP3 and add chapters. During production he marks where chapters will be, usually when the host asks a question, etc.

Link to a tutorial on using Forecast and podcast chapters: https://medium.com/simplecast/forecast-by-marco-arment-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-why-podcasters-should-take-a-look-ba446ffa8a35

Thanks for hanging out with us, Aaron!

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?

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A Neewer mini microphone — **PES 089: NAB Show Recap** Apr 19, 2018
Show notes

I recap my experience at NAB last week, including our Mic Test Drive Booth and lots more including:

BIG thanks to my booth brothers: Michael Helms, Josh Wade, and Landen Hardy!

Our 10 mics, Mackie 1642VLZ4, MixPre-6 borrowed from Sound Devices, and a BP40 borrowed from Steve Savanyu at Audio-Technica.

Sennheiser's upcoming wireless clip on mic, and the Neumann U67 at their booth!

My birthday gift - a Neewer mini microphone! Watch Bandrew Scott's video on this mic here.

The Venue was HUGE - Las Vegas Convention Center. Booth traffic was OK. And I was interviewed twice - one audio and one video. I also mentioned my drive out there - TO Vegas via New Mexico and Arizona, FROM Vegas via Utah and Colorado.

And it was great to hang out with:

Rob Walch - Libsyn

Todd Cochrane, Mike Dell, MacKenzie - Blubrry

Jennifer Crawford and Vernon Ross - Podbean

Rob Greenlee - Voxnest

Eric Larsen - Tascam

Sean and Ira - Samson

Podfest guys - Chris Krimitsos, John Dennis

Podcast Movement guys - Jared Easley, Dan Franks

Allan Tepper

Emma Victoria

Austin Dillman - REV

Angela Copeland

Other stuff:

Skype Has a Big Announcement for Content Creators: Skype was proud to announce the new Skype for Content Creators, which looks to be what podcasters have been asking for, for years. The new feature is available in preview form now (at NAB) and should be widely available in the summer for both Mac and Windows 10 users. Skype for Content Creators records calls directly through NDI-capable software like Wirecast, Xsplit, and Vmix. The feature provides "clean" copies of all call participants that you can quickly drop into audio and video production apps, so you can focus more on the content and publishing of your show, and less on double-checking everyone's recordings.

I detail how I mixed an episode using the wrong Sonarworks profile, and then had to correct it. Because I had already done many edits, it wasn't an option to go back to the mix and adjust the individual tracks.

Lastly: **Congrats** to the current students enrolled in PES! Next semester starts June 26th and super-early-bird pricing still available.

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?

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**PES 088: Ashley Lehmann** Mar 29, 2018
Show notes

My guest is Ashley Lehmann - audio engineer and audiobook editor. She also records classical music on location. She's also a musician, singer, and songwriter. And at the end of this session you'll hear a song by her band, All Night Drivers!

We discussed:

Ashley's audiobook production workflow

Soundgirls and Weathervane Music - two nonprofits that are helping with audio education

ProTools 12.6

Waves Limiter, Maximizer, DeEsser, and Q1-Q10 EQ

Izotope RX6 and Ozone 8

Shure SM57

Onyx Blackjack - 2 input interface

iMac

Adobe Audition

AKG K240 headphones

Live recording with a pair of Rode NT5's - setup high in the room

Thanks for being a great guest, Ashley!

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?

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**PES 087: Paul Kafasis** Mar 15, 2018
Show notes

My guest is Paul Kafasis, CEO of Rogue Amoeba!

We talked about A LOT this session - these show notes don't do our conversation justice.

*PC users: We are going to talk a lot about Rogue Amoeba's software which is only available for Mac currently, although some of the functionality we talk about may be available for PC at some point. You're welcome to hang with us or skip this session.

Here are the Rogue Amoeba software we discussed:

Audio Hijack (flexible and powerful recorder)

Loopback (route any audio anywhere)

Piezo (simple recorder)

Fission (audio editor) - editing, metadata, chapters, and lossless editing on lossy files! Chapters - set different art and URL or each chapter.

Farrago (soundboard) - note: it's not currently able to be controlled by any midi controllers yet.

SoundSource (simple sound control)

Paul also answered some questions from Twitter fans:

Loopback lacks an essential professional working environment feature: a straight forward backup utility for all defined/saved virtual devices. Currently you must dig into the file system and save copies of Preference/.plist files. It works. On the other hand, it's clunky. (Paul Figgiani @produceNewMedia)

How to run my mic through a channel strip plugin so effects can go through Skype/FaceTime live. (Travis Hill @PodcastMic)

They're so good at native Mac app, I'm surprised they don't take advantage of the CloudKit API and sync that with iCloud. (Alex Knight @ZeroDistraction)

Thanks for being a great guest, Paul!

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 Apple Podcasts, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

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