The Podcast Engineering Show

My guest is Michelle Levitt - Creative Marketing Director at Heil Sound and podcast producer. She has performed many roles in podcasting over the years including being CEO of her own podcast studio in Buffalo, NY.

NOTE: Post-production on this episode was done by PES graduate Jesse McCune! Great job, Jesse!

NOTE-2: On next week's Daily Goody episode, I’ll be demonstrating and comparing the Heil PR30 and PR40!

• In-ear monitors: “Ultimate Ears” Capital Studio Reference
• Allen and Heath ZED-10 mixer (uses no EQ, effects or pre-processing when recording)
• iMac computer
• Adobe Audition
• Various Heil microphones including the PR30 and PR40
• Pop filter: BSW Re-pop (fits the PR40 and PR30 nicely)
• When demoing microphones at shows or online she doesn't use any EQ or compression because she wants people to hear each microphones individual character.
• Check out the presentation Michelle did titled Microphone Technology: Understanding Your Sound
• Her advice to hosts who move around too much demonstrating bad mic technique: Put your chin or nose on the windscreen to always keep close to the mic. Also wear headphones so you can hear your volume change if/when you drift off-mic which will remind you to get back on mic.
• Recently launched PR37 microphone -- a dynamic mic for Live sound
• Bob Heil doing Live sound for the Grateful Dead, The Who, early ZZ Top, etc. even though he came from a broadcast background.
• Heil Sound started in the 60s as a music store -- Ye Olde Music Shoppe (sp?)
• Sony HD camera and running her local audio through Cam Link 4k thru HDMI cable

I overview 9 podcast production tips and techniques from recent Daily Goody posts Jan. 19 thru Feb. 11, 2022 (see list below). You can sign up to receive Daily Goody’s in your email every day or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.

• Expecting a Plugin Preset to Do What the Name Says
• My Experience Opening and Operating a Brick and Mortar Podcast Studio for 3 Years – PES 230
• When Editing Out Silence To Increase Pacing, Be Sure To...
• Loudness Range of Final Episodes – What’s Good and What’s Bad?
• The “White Glove” Service: Engineering Client Recording Sessions Remotely
• Using Cable Labels to Reduce “Spaghetti” Confusion in Your Studio
• Best Sounding Microphone Emulation *For My Voice* Using My Sphere L22 Microphone
• Gain Rider Plugin: DynaRide2
• Should You Ask Remote Guests to Record Their Own Audio Locally?
• Best Recording Tip for Someone Who Speaks at a Soft, Low Volume
• [VIDEO] MaxxVolume Plugin for Podcast Production (Handy as Heck!)
• As I mentioned, here’s episode 225 where I used the Sphere L22 with the U47 emulation.

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• 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/
• My smaller course for editors/producers who want more good clients: Getting New Clients at Higher Rates

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

In this episode I detail my production workflow for my new show, Fractal Bitcoin. I publish daily episodes both as video and audio-only. Fractal Bitcoin covers Bitcoin news and other Bitcoin topics.

Overview my current audio equipment setup:

• RE20 microphone — https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/re20/
• sE Electronics DM1 Dynamite Active Inline Preamp — https://seelectronics.com/products/dm1/
• Neve Portico II Channel Strip — https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/rupert-neve-designs-portico-ii-channel
• Sound Devices MixPre-6 Gen.1 — https://www.sounddevices.com/product/mixpre-6/

Overview my production workflow:

• Gather posts and news stories from Nostr, X and a few other industry websites. (Takes me around 2 hours)
• Order all the posts and stories for the shownotes.
• Create a title for the episode.
• Create a 16x9 thumbnail for the episode using ChatGPT which uses DALL-E 3 to generate images. — https://chatgpt.com/
• Restart my computer.
• Arrange all the browser tabs.
• Open OBS Studio and do a short test recording. (My audio levels, video camera and lighting stay the same everyday)
• I record my episode as if it’s LIVE to a .mov file at 1920x1080, 60 frames per second, video bitrate at 16,000 kbps, and audio bitrate at 2304 kbps. (My average video is about 15 min. long, which ends up being around a 2Gb .mov file)

First I produce the video:

• Process the audio in iZotope RX:
  • Make it a mono file, usually
  • Silence any lipsmacks and noises (can’t delete anything because the audio has to line up with the video)
  • Level it to -16.5 LUFS mono or -13.5 LUFS stereo (for video)
  • Save it as a 32-bit .wav file
• Bring the raw video and processed audio into Screenflow. Usually I don’t need to make any edits but sometimes I do. — https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
• Render the video as a .mp4 file at 1920x1080, 60 frames per second, video bitrate at 16,000 kbps, and audio bitrate at 256 kbps and audio sample rate at 48kHz. (The resulting file size ends up being the same as the raw video recording — about 2Gb for a 15 min. long file)
• Upload and publish the video to YouTube, Rumble, Bitchute, TikTok, and Flare.pub (a Nostr platform to which I upload a smaller 960x540 version)
• I promote my YouTube video on Nostr, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and a few other platforms.
• I also post the Youtube link to my Locals community that I’m growing.
• I also use Opus Clip to create 5 shorts from each of my daily videos. I post all 5 to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and LinkedIn. — https://www.opus.pro/

Then I produce the audio-only podcast:

• I edit the audio a bit:
  • Remove any isolated umms and flubs
  • Reduce the length of any dead air, if there is any, in order to speed up the pacing slightly.
• Level it to -18.5 LUFS mono or -15.5 LUFS stereo (for audio-only podcast)
• Save it as a 32-bit .wav file as well as an .mp3 file (96 kbps mono or 192 kbps stereo).
• Tag the .mp3 using ID3 Editor. — http://www.pa-software.com/id3editor/
• Upload .mp3 to Captivate along with shownotes and publish. — https://www.captivate.fm/
• For my website I use Podpage which automatically brings in each podcast episode from Captivate as a blog post. I’m able to quickly optimize the post, add the YouTube video, and add images, etc. — https://www.podpage.com/

FRACTAL BITCOIN LINKS:

• YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@fractalbitcoin
• Rumble — https://rumble.com/c/c-5471042
• Twitter — https://twitter.com/fractalBitcoin
• Nostr — https://nostr.com/npub1jz42cy8qxw6dres86sn0cr42hww24pnjqssa4k9wxqvzm5l0mvqsq2f5ku
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/fractalbitcoin/

A GREAT BITCOIN RESOURCE:

• BOOK — The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous — https://saifedean.com...

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...

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?!

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.

• 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

Returning guest Barry Gary shares so many excellent tips for producing podcasts for companies and organizations. Barry is the host of The Louisville Cycling Podcast. He also produces other podcasts including Medchat and Parenting With You. Also, here is Barry’s first appearance on this show.

Barry and I discussed many things including:

• Equipment: Shure SM7b, Cloudlifter, dbx 286s, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, Yamaha monitors
• Apps: Adobe Audition, Riverside
• Processing: Compression, EQ
• Show development for clients
• Internal podcasts for clients
• Workflow changes: Stopped going on-site to record, and now does most of his editing in Adobe Audition now.

NEWS: In case you missed it, I'm now publishing a YouTube video everyday here on the PES channel. Please consider subscribing.

• 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