2. Why Your Podcast NEEDS to Sound Great, and My 2020 Predictions

01/30/20 • 18 min

Clean Cut Audio | The Science of Sound and the Art of Great Podcast Audio

Since the beginning of time, or podcasting at least, it has been generally well received that having great audio quality isn't really that important, especially when compared to content and marketing. That may have been true for a long time, but the times they are a-changin' my friend. With massive media corporations and A-list celebrities entering the podcasting arena, bringing their massive teams and budgets with them, an unfair race for attention has begun. While many people believe these celebrities and household names will bring flocks of new listeners into the podcasting space, I truly believe those new listeners are going to be a different breed than current listeners. Think about it this way... If the first show this new listener hears is Conan O'Brien's show, with a $13,000 budget PER EPISODE, their expectations have been set at a level that seems unachievable for many indie and hobby casters, very much like myself. We may not all have the means to book other A-list celebrities or have a research or sales team to do the heavy lifting, but, one plane of podcasting on which we CAN compete with these new "procasters" is on audio quality, even without an audio team on staff. The ENTIRE PURPOSE OF THIS PODCAST is to teach you all that producing great audio is very much within your abilities, and within your budget, regardless of what it is. You do NOT need to lose listeners due to poor audio quality, and I believe that will become more and more important over time. Feel free to let me know if you disagree! I would love to hear your opinions and theories, even if they don't align with mine. Links: Reminiscent Podcast Office Ladies Podcast USC Article About Audio Quality My Article about Audio Quality and Psychoacoustics My Educational YouTube Channel Closing Track: Let's Go Surfing by Joakim Karud My Signal Chain Hardware: Audio Interface: Apogee Ensemble Microphone: Shure SM7b Mic Stand: Rode PS1A Boom Arm XLR Cable: Handmade... Software: IzoTope RX6 De-Mouth Click FabFilter ProQ3 Waves LinMB Waves Vocal Rider IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter -Save 10% off the plugins above with this affiliate link from Waves!- *most of these links are affiliate links* For more info, or to ask any questions, check out my website and reach out to [email protected]

Previous Episode

1. The Mandatory Mindset for Producing Great Podcast Audio

Often times in life, the only thing holding you back from achieving greatness is yourself. I find this true to be for audio. In podcasting, there is this culture I can't quite wrap my head around that seems to always be aiming for the bottom. "Don't buy that nice microphone what you can totally get away with this $17 karaoke microphone from Radio Shack". Does that place still exist? Why are we trying so hard to get away with the minimal effort? This hack-a-thon mentality can be fun in some situations, but it shouldn't be the GOAL when you're obtaining your podcasting equipment. What I'm trying to encourage is the mindset of aiming for the top, and working your way down if you're not quite ready for the "big leagues". There's PLENTY of great middle-of-the-road equipment out there that is very easy on the bank account, but it's important to note that one of the biggest factors in audio quality is the experience and skills of the person capturing and producing the audio. I can be wearing the best basketball shoes known to man, but Michael Jordan in loafers will still wipe the floor with me. So where does that leave us? I believe the mentality we ALL need to have is to fully understand the value of proper equipment, to buy the best equipment we can afford at the time, and regardless of what hardware you use, you should learn how to use it properly. It's really as simple as that. Strive to learn more, to do better, and get the best results you can with the equipment you have available to you. Links: Clean Cut Audio Educational YouTube Channel Clean Cut Audio on Instagram Shure SM7b Electro-Voice RE20 Heil PR40 Electro-Voice RE320 Sennheiser e835 Shure SM58 My Signal Chain Hardware: Audio Interface: Apogee Ensemble https://amzn.to/2L582pY Microphone: Shure SM7b https://amzn.to/34cLD1t Rode PS1A Boom Arm https://amzn.to/2FmMfXo XLR Cable: Handmade... Software: IzoTope RX6 De-Mouth Click FabFilter ProQ3 Waves LinMB Waves Vocal Rider IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter https://www.waves.com/r/9mitjc -Save 10% off the plugins above with this affiliate link from Waves!- *most of these links are affiliate links* For more info, or to ask any questions, check out my website and reach out to [email protected]

Next Episode

3. Beginner's Guide to Capturing Great Audio for Your Podcast

While we are all striving for the best audio we can achieve, learning all the ins and outs of audio can be daunting, especially when we really just want to be focusing on the content of our podcasts. This episode is geared towards the low hanging fruit, the techniques anyone can put into place with their current equipment to immediately and dramatically increase the quality of their show. A lot of what it takes to capture great audio is a good recording environment, proper microphone technique, and recording into software that doesn't degrade the quality of your signal. It is so much easier to capture a great signal than it is to fix a bad signal. Audio engineer and podcast producer Tom Kelly discusses the importance of getting the signal right at the source, and offers several listening exercises of audio recording under ideal conditions, and compares then against a signal recording under subpar conditions that is later "fixed" in post. By the end of this episode, you will find that your audio quality will improve by leaps and bounds if you incorporate all the advice and methods described within. We'll get to more advanced mixing techniques later on, but none of that will matter or be effective if we're not working with great audio to begin with. Links Buy audio nerd merch! Check out my YouTube channel for more educational content! Acoustic Barriers for Windows My YouTube video on input gain and how loud to record your podcast Shock Mounts Pop Filters My Youtube video on local recordings How your room size will affect your sound Closing Track: Dizzy by Joakim Karud My Signal Chain Hardware: Audio Interface: Apogee Ensemble Microphone: Shure SM7b Mic Stand: Rode PS1A Boom Arm XLR Cable: Handmade... Software: IzoTope RX6 De-Mouth Click FabFilter ProQ3 Waves LinMB Waves Vocal Rider IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter -Save 10% off the plugins above with this affiliate link from Waves!- *most of these links are affiliate links* For more info, or to ask any questions, check out my website and reach out to [email protected]