Podcast appearances and mentions of joe gilder

In this multi-topic video with musician and online teacher Joe Gilder of Home Studio Corner, we touch on important music topics like the best gear to get started, how to make money with your music, what people get wrong about music, music and business, as well as tech tools in music.#musician #songwriter #producers LINKS IN THIS VIDEO:Home Studio Corner: https://www.youtube.com/@HomeStudioCornerJoe's Web Site: https://www.homestudiocorner.com/Joe's Business YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@joegilderbizGet FREE stuff at https://makemusicincome.com/free/BECOME A POSITIVE SPIN SONGS PARTNERWork directly with composer and producer Eric Copeland to develop albums of music for pitching to sync licensing for TV, Film, Ads, and Gaming.Email Eric@MakeMusicIncome.com--SELL YOUR MUSIC ON NON-EXCLUSIVE LIBRARIES: https://payhip.com/b/pvsfLGET YOUR MUSIC TO TV, FILM, ADS, AND GAMING: https://payhip.com/b/KtoqHFREE EBOOK: THE DO-EVERYTHING CHECKLIST FOR YOUR SONGShttps://makemusicincome.com/checklistFREE COURSE: HOW TO UPLOAD TO POND5https://makemusicincome.com/pond5FREE EBOOK: 50 WAYS TO MAKE MUSIC INCOME V4https://makemusicincome.com/50waysFREE EBOOK!: TOOLS YOUR NEED TO MAKE MUSIC INCOME V2https://makemusicincome.com/toolsFREE STOCK MUSIC RESEARCH PAPER: The Ubiquitous Style, Form, and Instrumentation of Corporate Stock Musichttps://makemusicincome.com/ubiquitousONE-ON-ONE COACHING FOR COMPOSERS AND PRODUCERS:Get Feedback From Eric on Your Music Career: https://makemusicincome.com/coaching/JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST (Get an email when we release new videos!)http://eepurl.com/hF8ihrTHE OFFICIAL WEB SITE:https://makemusicincome.com/OUR WEEKLY PODCAST:https://anchor.fm/makemusicincomeDISTROKID: Get your music to Spotify, Apple, Youtube, and more for one yearly price.Get 7% Off:Click here: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/911910Get 50% off if you are a student or educator! Click here: https://distrokid.com/student/911910NEED GEAR?SWEETWATER SOUND: Support the channel by using this link to find the latest deals and get the gear you need at our favorite music store, Sweetwater Sound!https://sweetwater.sjv.io/q4JEB5DISCO: Show off your amazing portfolio and be where the music supervisors and music buyers are! Click here: https://disco.ac/signup?b=2095&u=34391IDENTIFYY: Get paid when your music is used on YouTubeClick here: https://identifyy.com?referral=MTMzMjc2POND5: Get into Music Licensing easily! Use this referral code to sign up and get started selling YOUR music with Pond5! Click here: https://www.pond5.com?ref=FromtheMomentMusicJOIN OUR COMMUNITY ON DISCORD:https://bit.ly/3fYDSVdMY SYNC LICENSING MUSICPositive Spin Songs - https://positivespinsongs.comMY PERSONAL MUSIC:https://www.ericcopelandmusic.comTimestamps:0:00 - Introducing Joe Gilder4:00 - Belief in Making Music Income5:10 - What People Get Wrong6:35 - Best Music Gear in 202516:18 - Mac or PC in 2025?18:00 - Where's My Music Money?23:46 - Your Own Music Business27:30 - YouTube Best Music Marketing30:50 - Value of Music Email List33:45 - Web/Socials Importance38:46 - How We Use A.I.47:30 - Joe's Business Channel51:25 - Does Joe Make Music?53:00 - Exciting Music Life or Job?

Welcome back to Season 2 Episode 2 of Sound Discussion!This month, we're diving into the vibrant world of the NAMM Show with our host Nate Kelmes, who recently attended this iconic event. Experience the excitement as Nate shares his firsthand account of the incredible connections he made, the inspiring conversations he had, and why he thinks you should absolutely go to NAMM next year.Join us as we explore the significance of attending trade shows like NAMM and the invaluable networking opportunities they provide for musicians, producers, and audio professionals alike. From learning about the latest gear to engaging in insightful discussions with industry leaders, Nate recounts how this experience reignited his passion for music production.In this episode, we also feature exclusive interviews with notable guests, including Joe Gilder and Gregor Beyerle, who share their perspectives on the evolving landscape of music creation and the importance of community in the industry. Plus, we discuss the benefits of DIY equipment building with Mitch Rose, who emphasizes the empowerment that comes from creating your own gear.Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting your musical journey, this episode is packed with inspiration, practical advice, and a deep appreciation for the art of music-making.Each interview is available here on YouTube:Joe Gilder: https://youtu.be/vlrikamHXu0Gregor Beyerle: https://youtu.be/jVjE8kAYboUMitch Rose: https://youtu.be/sgaysRBqffMTo learn more about our guests and their work, check out the links below:Joe Gilder: https://www.homestudiocorner.com/Gregor Beyerle: https://www.instagram.com/gregorbeyerlemusicMitch Rose: https://www.youtube.com/@DIYRecordingStudioAdditional links mentioned in this episode:NAMM: https://www.namm.org/Sensaphonics: https://www.sensaphonics.com/Presonus: https://www.presonus.com/Plugin Alliance: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/Z&H Designs: https://zhdesigns.audio/Send us an email and let us know what you thought about this episode: sounddiscussionpodcast@gmail.comYou can find more information here: https://www.sounddiscussionpodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Show notes created by https://headliner.app Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to episode 2 of Sound Discussion.Having introduced ourselves and the podcast in episode 1 in episode 2 we get into our first topic and welcome our first guest.This month we are joined by musician, youtube content creator and founder of the music community "Home Studio Corner" .... Joe GilderBased in Nashville Joe has released a number of albums of his own music and is very much a music entrepreneur. The free content and paid courses he creates have helped tens of thousands of musicians learn how to produce their own music at homeBen, Nate, Neil and Joe discuss imposter syndrome, how we have all felt it, what we do to deal with it and why everyone, yes everyone, still gets it not matter how successful you becomeFurther information about Joe is available via the links below:https://www.youtube.com/@HomeStudioCornerhttps://www.homestudiocorner.com/https://songwhip.com/joe-gilder Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Never start anything from scratch! Joe talked about writing songs, using a Presonus Studio Live mixer in a home studio, breaking through writers' block with lyrics, comping vs punching vocals, acoustic room treatment, and promoting your own music. Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: https://MixMasterBundle.com My guest today is Joe Gilder a musician and entrepreneur from Franklin, TN. As a musician, he's released a number of albums and EPs of his own music. As an entrepreneur, he founded Home Studio Corner in 2009, where he creates free content and paid courses to help musicians learn how to produce their own music at home. These days, Joe creates content for Home Studio Corner, The Recording Revolution, and PreSonus and Fender. Joe has been a guest on the show way back on episode RSR003 and RSR108! So please check that out to hear his background story. Today we are going to talk about making killer records like his band Staredown, and see what we can learn about writing, creating, mixing and mastering your next record ever. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://UltimateMixingMasterclass.com https://www.native-instruments.com use code ROCK10 to get 10% off! https://lewitt.link/rockstars https://www.Spectra1964.com https://MacSales.com/rockstars https://iZotope.com use code ROCK10 to get 10% off any individual plugin! https://www.adam-audio.com https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy  https://www.thetoyboxstudio.com/ Listen to this guest's discography on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/76NrZ9tMxjpo2rW7VdY6GT?si=c06871e045304226 If you love the podcast, then please leave a review: https://RSRockstars.com/Review CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SHOW NOTES AT: https://RSRockstars.com/424

Joe Gilder is a music producer, mixing engineer, musician, and songwriter based out of Nashville, TN, USA! He's also the owner of Home Studio Corner and is now the content creator for The Recording Revolution. In our conversation Joe and I go deep on the following:Getting started at Sweetwater as a sales repCreating value for clientsWorking efficientlyHow he streamlines making great video contentBeing fast and in the flow while recording and producingGetting it right at the sourceStock plugins as guardrailsTop-down mixingTracking guitarsCollecting ideas to stem creativityIt's ok to have imposter syndrome We can do hard thingsAnd so much more!You can learn more about Joe at https://www.homestudiocorner.com/aboutYou can follow Joe on Social MediaIG - https://www.instagram.com/joegilder/***Thanks to our sponsors!***Carl Bahner's resources for studio professionals - https://www.carlbahner.com/resourcesProgressions with Travis Ference - https://www.progressionspodcast.com/listen***Join the Secret Sonics Discord community here(!) - discord.gg/UP97b72W6t***BRAND NEW!*** SECRET SONICS PATREON - patreon.com/benwallickmusicReferences:Home Studio Corner - https://www.homestudiocorner.com/freeRecording revolution - https://www.recordingrevolution.com/Start by John Acuff - https://amzn.to/41OIhz5In Rainbows From the Basement - https://youtu.be/DWuAn6C8MfcStaredown EP - https://open.spotify.com/album/3oTnYerScs0AK35swgBRvu?si=RGDygQW9THCvWRhhp6JRzQConsider rating and reviewing our show on Apple Podcasts and sharing this or any of your favorite episodes with a friend or two.Thank you to Zvi Rodan, Mendy Portnoy, and Yakir Hyman for contributing to the podcast theme music!Thanks to Gavi Kutliroff for editing this episode!You can find out more about Secret Sonics and subscribe on your favorite podcast app by visiting www.secretsonics.coHave a great week, stay safe, and dig in!-Ben

Sometimes offering a product or service online makes sense because we see lots of people doing it. But when it comes to helping people with our own knowledge or creativity while making an income from it, sometimes it's easy to wonder how that would actually work for us. Joe Gilder is a musician, producer, and founder of HomeStudioCorner.com. He's worked with Sweetwater Sound, creates content for Presonus, and he's spent the last 15 years serving thousands of students through his online courses, events, and memberships.Music changes, technology changes, and so has Joe's business. Here's the story of how things have worked for Joe, and how they can work for you. -

Joe Gilder is a musician, songwriter, and producer living in the Nashville area with his wife Pam and 3 kids.  Joe started Home Studio Corner back in 2009. Over the years, he's created thousands of pieces of content — videos, podcasts, articles, training courses, and more — all with the goal of helping home studio folks make better music. In addition to Home Studio Corner, Joe's worked for Sweetwater and Presonus, as well as leading worship for a few churches in the Nashville area. Looking for free help? Check out his YouTube channel as well as these free resources. Looking to dive deeper? Check out my courses here. In this episode, Joe talks about:    How “Home Studio Corner” got started and what it is    Advice for content creators    Get It Right At The Source - G.I.R.A.T.S.    What Joe loves about working with drummer Tim Horsley (WDP ep 025)    Advice when recording drums    Ideas for growing your home studio clientele

Hi, Joe from Guitar Nerds here. This is the first episode in our 3rd series of The Home Recording Guide. In this series Matt and I will be building a new track from scratch using only real world equipment and the free plugins that are available on the most basic version of Presonus Studio One.If you're new to recording or your just starting to dabble in it then we highly recommend Presonus Studio One as the DAW to get involved in. We've found it to be such a fantastic creative tool, and it's made all of us better, more creative musicians by using it.In this week's episode we're chatting with Joe Gilder from The Home Studio Corner and Presonus. Joe has taught me so much through his YouTube videos and website. Almost all of his content is free, and all his videos are easy to understand, thorough, and a great way to learn the functionality of Studio One. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week's episode we take a critical look at a favorite independent artist of mine, Joe Gilder, and his 2017 EP "Someone to Blame".  We'll go song by song and look deeper into what the lyrics could possibly mean and search to find the overarching narrative of these tracks.If you want to listen to the album for yourself CLICK HERE -> https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nhpmsxC0Yi4IsDiSLSC2W17IjhgeDFmZ0  or paste the link into your browser Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile)

Max Daniels is an audio and mixing engineer based out of Bet Shemesh, Israel!You can find out more about Max at https://www.mixedbymax.com/References:The Six Figure Home Studio Podcast Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheSixFigureHomeStudio/Dueling Mixes with Graham Cochrane and Joe Gilder: https://www.duelingmixes.com/Even Feist: https://www.instagram.com/zeitfeist/?hl=enThanks for listening to this episode of Secret Sonics! I hope you enjoyed this episode :) Look out for new episodes weekly.You can find out more about Secret Sonics and subscribe on your favorite podcast app by visiting www.secretsonics.coFollow along via social media here:Facebook: www.facebook.com/SecretSonicsPodInstagram: www.instagram.com/secretsonics/Feel free to email me at secretsonics@gmail.com with any questions and feedback you might have. I'm open to learning about what topics you'd like to hear about and which people you'd like to hear from. In pursuit of making this podcast truly helpful to anybody looking to improve at music production, all suggestions are truly welcome!Have a great week and dig in!-Ben

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile)

Joe Gilder of Home Studio Corner joins Chris and Brian to chat about building a YouTube channel, adding value, and why sales experience will help you immensely in your career.   Dive in as Joe shares his story to find helpful info abound. Listen to the podcast now!   In this episode you’ll discover: How Joe’s sales background helped him “sell” his YouTube videos Why creating content in the form of a podcast or YouTube videos, etc. can boost your business How multiplying yourself lets you work more hours when your content works for you Why what’s popular with your friends and family isn’t necessarily what your fans like Why a Call To Action is essential to have (in moderation) How to get over the fear of asking Why giving out free content is a good idea to build trust Why you need to know your audience How sharing art is different from sharing photos of yourself The one thing you can do to improve this podcast! For full show notes, go to www.thesixfigurehomestudio.com/69 If you want to suggest a guest, an idea for the podcast, or you have some general feedback, then you can submit that via email to podcast@thesixfigurehomestudio.com

Joe shares with us a number of ways that you can go from dreaming of making your own record to enjoying the satisfaction of having your music everywhere for your future fans, friends, and family to listen to. Joe Gilder of Home Studio Corner is a songwriter, producer, and home studio engineer who has been recording and teaching recording for many years. His blog Home Studio Corner is dedicated to helping you make better records from your home studio. His partner site, Dueling Mixes, is a collaboration with Graham Cochrane of recording revolution, where you can learn how to mix from your home studio, following along with two great teachers each month in a larger community of home studio mixers. Joe was actually one of my first guests on the podcast back on Episode 3, and we’ve been friends ever since. I’m psyched to have him back on for this special follow up episode! Thanks to our sponsors:  Check out Chris Graham Mastering: http://RSRockstars.com/FreeMasteringSample Roswell Pro Audio: https://RoswellProAudio.com   Leave a Review  Click here for the show notes at: http://RSRockstars.com/108 -Also- Free mix training with Lij at: http://MixMasterBundle.com Get yourself a Rockstar T-shirt at: http://RSRockstars.com/Tshirt Download the theme music at: http://SkadooshMusic.com 

Featuring Joe Gilder - a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and mixing engineer based in Nashville. He's also the blogger, podcaster, and video tutorial wizard behind the website Home Studio Corner. Joe's latest EP "Fighter" is the third in a series of four new EPs that he's planned to release for 2017. Songs Featured: Listen Running Around https://www.facebook.com/joegildermusic/ http://www.nimbitmusic.com/joegildermusic http://www.homestudiocorner.com Subscribe on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are also very much appreciated. Facebook: www.facebook.com/talkinaboutthepassion Twitter: twitter.com/tatppodcast Instagram: www.instagram.com/niagaramoonmusic Email Thomas at tatppodcast@gmail.com with any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. Theme song for Talkin About The Passion is "Pantheon Bar" by Niagara Moon, off the album Eating Peaches.

10 bloggers unite for a Rockstar's Roundtable at the Toy Box Studio to tell stories about Summer NAMM 2017. We have a pretty exciting show this week! I had a great group of audio bloggers, podcasters, and YouTubers staying as guests at my studio, The Toy Box Studio. We threw together a live YouTube webinar where we had a Rockstars Roundtable and gave our 10 best takes of Summer NAMM 2017. Join Dane Myers, Chris Graham, Pete Woj, Warren Huart, Chris Selim, Joe Gilder, Brian Hood, Glenn Fricker, and I as we tell stories about the Summer National Association of Music Merchants 2017! Leave a Review  Get the full show notes at: http://RSRockstars.com/99 -Also- Free mix training with Lij at: MixMasterBundle.com Get yourself a Rockstar T-shirt at: RSRockstars.com/Tshirt Download the theme music at: SkadooshMusic.com

Today we interview Joe Gilder of Home Studio Corner! Joe has been another one of my long distance mentors and has helped thousands within the space of a Home Studio make better sounding music. We talk some methods, get philosophical, and even talk a little business as well.   Here are some links to find Joe: Website: http://www.homestudiocorner.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/joegildermusic/ Podcast: http://www.homestudiocorner.com/category/podcast/ The Simply Recording Podcast: http://simplyrecordingpodcast.com/ Music: http://www.nimbitmusic.com/joegildermusic YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/HomeStudioCorner Twitter: @joegildermusic   Here are some more links to find me: The YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/homestudiosimplified Show some love, win some gear: https://www.patreon.com/homestudiosimplified My Music/Portfolio: https://www.reverbnation.com/1sounddoctrine Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/homestudiosimplified/

Today we interview Joe Gilder of Home Studio Corner! Joe has been another one of my long distance mentors and has helped thousands within the space of a Home Studio make better sounding music. We talk some methods, get philosophical, and even talk a little business as well.   Here are some links to find Joe: Website: http://www.homestudiocorner.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/joegildermusic/ Podcast: http://www.homestudiocorner.com/category/podcast/ The Simply Recording Podcast: http://simplyrecordingpodcast.com/ Music: http://www.nimbitmusic.com/joegildermusic YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/HomeStudioCorner Twitter: @joegildermusic   Here are some more links to find me: The YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/homestudiosimplified Show some love, win some gear: https://www.patreon.com/homestudiosimplified My Music/Portfolio: https://www.reverbnation.com/1sounddoctrine Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/homestudiosimplified/

My guest this week is professional audio engineer Ryan Monette. Ryan graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. For the last 4.5 years he's been the Post-Production Audio Engineer on staff at Elevation Church, in Charlotte, NC, where he mixes their global TV show, and has many other responsibilities (boom operator, field recorder, sound designer, audio editor, etc.). You may have heard some of his work, as he sound-designed and mixed the opener video for the Circles conference for the past two years. He even had his own podcast for a short while (TheQueuecast.com). I asked Ryan to come on the show to share his journey towards becoming a professional audio engineer (a job that I've always wanted), and to get him to share some tips for anyone interested in working in audio/video professionally. Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins: Think long term and dream big. If you want to do anything with audio, start by getting a cheap USB microphone. Take advantage of free online courses to learn more about audio engineering. Get started with whatever you have. Your mix may sound completely different in a different environment, so listen with different headphones/speakers in different locations. Master the basics and keep going back to them. If you're mixing a podcast, make sure your levels are consistent. When mixing, always use a reference track. Show Notes Aaron: You graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in music production and engineering. For the last five years, you've been the post production audio engineer for Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. You have a lot of jobs there: boom operator, field recorder, sound designer, audio editor, and you mix their global TV show. Do you mix that live? Ryan: Not necessarily. We can get into that later. There's a process for that. Aaron: Some of the creative people here might have heard of some of your work. You sound designed and mixed the opening videos for the past two years of Circles Conference, which I was at. Have you been there for the past two years? Ryan: I haven't been personally, no. I have wanted to go. I love it from afar, and I want to go in person. Aaron: I wanted you to come on this show because when I first got started, I had dreams of being a professional audio engineer. I thought, “How cool would it be to work in audio and get paid for it? That'd be awesome!” I fell backwards into it by doing podcast editing as a hobby first, then for money, then I met Sean McCabe and ended up working for him full time. I edit podcasts and help out with a ton of other stuff. I asked you to come on the show to share your advice for anyone who's interested in working in audio/video professionally, and to talk about how you got there yourself. So tell me a little bit about how you got into audio. When did you first realize that this was something you wanted to do? Ryan's Journey to Becoming a Professional Audio Engineer Ryan: I love listening to your podcast, Aaron, and what I love about it is I feel like you and I have a lot of similarities in our backgrounds. You're a musician, a drummer, and I'm also a musician. I play several things. My primary instrument is bass, but along with that, I started on piano. I picked up bass, and with the bass I picked up guitar. I took some drum lessons here and there as well. I sing as well. I dabbled in a little bit of everything. I'm kind of a jack of all trades, master of none. I'm okay at a lot of things, but I'm not superb at one thing. Anyway, right around junior high or high school, I started playing the bass. I started playing in little bands here and there. When it came time for college, I had no clue what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I loved music. Aaron: Same here! Ryan: I was living in Las Vegas at the time, so I decided, well, everyone has to have that college experience, and I didn't want to go to college in the same city, so I decided that I needed that “being away from home” experience. I went to the University of Nevada, Reno. I took your basic, general classes, not knowing what I wanted to do. At this time, for my high school graduation, I had received a graduation present of a Macbook Pro. With that, of course, you get the wonderful iLife suite, including Garageband. As a musician, a whole new world was opened up to me. When I was in a band in high school, I was the gear head—I loved the PA and putting cables together. I was drawn to that. Once I had this Macbook Pro with Garageband and I had my bass and my guitar in my dorm, I was like, “I can create music!” I figured out how to work it and record myself. I bought a USB microphone, and that world was opened up. When I was there, I had a friend, and her brother went to this school where all they learned about was music. I was like, “Wait, you can do that? You can go to school for just music?” That's how I found out about Berklee School of Music. I applied, and you have to audition as well. I applied and auditioned, and the first time I tried, I actually didn't get into the music school I wanted to go to. Aaron: This sparks something in my mind. I feel like I might have read an article about Berklee or looked into it and thought, “No, they're really strict on who they accept, based on your performance.” That was intimidating to me at the time, because I never felt like I was that good of a drummer. Ryan: It was intimidating for me, too. Clearly, I wasn't up to par. Aaron: Yet you went for it. That's more than a lot of people would do. Ryan: Yeah. After I finished my first year at UNR, I moved back to Vegas and went to UNLV, the University of Nevada Las Vegas. I took all music classes, forgetting the general ed stuff you need to get a degree. I took all music classes—music theory, because I had never had actual music theory classes, so I thought I needed that. With that, there were some audio classes that I took as well. I was like, “Hey, I like this audio thing.” At the University of Nevada Las Vegas, I had my first exposure to a formal audio class, where I learned all the proper techniques. Later on that year, I applied and auditioned again for Berklee. I got accepted, and the next year, I moved to Boston and went to Berklee for about three and a half years. Then I graduated. When I went to Berklee, the only thing that drew me as a major was Music Production and Engineering. I naturally loved the gear side of things. I fell in love with recording. I was like, “This is what I want to do.” Aaron: You got to spend three and a half years there, studying and learning? Ryan: It is non-stop, 24/7, music, audio, and to be honest, I miss being in that environment so much. Aaron: That sounds fantastic. I always love setting aside time to take online classes, read books, and listen to interviews about audio. Think Long-Term Aaron: You were drawn to the audio engineering stuff, and then you graduated. Ryan: I can remember a specific time in my life, and I'm pretty sure it was my last semester at Berklee. They went by semesters instead of years. It was in one of my capstone classes. Our instructor asked us the typical, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question. Aaron: I love that question now. I hated it when I was 22. ** Think long term and dream big** Aaron: Plan out where you want to be, because if you can envision it, then you can figure out how to get there. But you have to start by saying, “I want to do this thing someday.” For me, it was, “I want to do work from a laptop. How do I get there?” Now I'm there. So you were 22 and someone asked you, “Ryan, where do you want to be? Where do you see yourself in five years?” Ryan: At that moment, I was trying to figure that out, naturally, as you do when you're approaching the end of college. While I was at Berklee, I loved music. I loved recording music, but my absolute favorite class—they only had one of them, but it was the class I yearned for, that I wanted to take and put in all these extra hours for—was audio for visual media, audio for video. By far, that was my favorite class. The whole class, we were working toward our final project. You choose a five to seven minute clip from a well known movie, and all the audio is completely stripped. You have to recreate everything. That's all the dialogue, all the foley, all the ambient background, all the hard effects, and so on. You have to connect with a film scoring student there at Berklee, and they have to provide the score. I absolutely loved every aspect of that project and the process. When it came time to decide what I wanted to do with my life, it was between audio engineering at a recording studio, working at Disney as an Imagineer, or doing audio at a church. I have always been involved with church, playing on worship teams and whatnot, so I also saw myself doing audio for a church. Long story short, I was really privileged to dip my feet in all of those things after college. After I graduated, I moved back to Las Vegas. Eventually, I found an incredible recording studio, probably one of the top two recording studios in Las Vegas, and I landed an internship. First Audio Engineering Jobs Ryan: I say “internship” loosely, because your typical studio internship is all the stereotypical grunt work—taking out the trash, doing the coffee, and whatnot. I showed up, and they were like, “You went to Berklee? Berklee guys are cool. Here, hop in this session and help us out.” It was open to me, thrown at me, and next thing I knew, I was assisting on sessions with huge clients, I won't name drop. Aaron: You can drop a couple of names if you want. Ryan: I had a pretty fun time helping out with a session with the famous engineer Eddie Kramer, who is engineering for Carlos Santana. Aaron: Dang, man! That's awesome. Ryan: That was pretty incredible. But while I was there, I had this gut feeling inside of me saying, “This isn't it.” Aaron: It's fine, but it's not quite right? Ryan: I could see myself staying there and working my way up, but it didn't feel right. A few months after I realized that I didn't want to stay at the studio, I applied and was offered a job at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I packed my bags, moved to Orlando, and I was working as a stage technician at the Epcot park. There, they found out that I was an audio guy, so they pushed me toward the live audio side of things. I was mixing shows and bands at Epcot and what was at the time Downtown Disney, now Disney Springs, area. Same thing. Almost as soon as I got there, the same gut feeling came in. I was like, “This isn't it. I'm more of a studio engineer. I definitely don't want to do live stuff.” Although I love Disney, it just wasn't sitting right. I was only there three months before the next great opportunity came up, which is where I am right now. One of my friends told me about a job opening for this church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Elevation Church. I had actually been following them because of their podcast. At the time, I was kind of like, “I've got a job, whatever.” For some reason, I ended up on their website, looking at the job. I was reading, and I was like, “Wait a minute, they're looking for someone to do audio for video. That's what I really want to do!” On a whim, I threw out my resume. Next thing you know, I've been here going on five years. Aaron: Did you mention that you were a podcast listener when you sent in your resume? Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: The connections you can make through podcasting is really incredible. Ryan: It is. And I've been working there for 5 years now. How to Get Into Audio Engineering Aaron: I want to jump into what you do at your job at Elevation, but let's pause and do a section on what advice you would tell someone who's wanting to get started. I wrote a couple of things down here. I think it's hilarious that you got a Macbook and your first microphone was a USB microphone. Ryan: Which was the Blue Snowball, by the way. Aaron: That's the worst microphone! Ryan: I had no idea how to use it, either. If I find some of the earliest recordings I did, there are times I'm clipping to the max, square waves. Aaron: Probably bad mic technique, too. But hey; it got you started! If you want to do anything with audio, start by getting a cheap USB microphone. Any USB mics will work for getting started. I like the Blue Yeti, but it's like $100. The ATR-2100 is fine, too. You just have to get something that can record some audio and start playing with it. Start playing with Garageband. Start playing with the free programs. Learn how to enable recording on a track, how to set your input device to the microphone, how to set your output device to wherever your headphones are plugged into, whether that's your mic or your computer. It took me so long to figure that stuff out. I was like, “Why can't I hear the audio in my headphones? What is going on?” Ryan: Same here. Aaron: You have to set input and output, then you have to record enable or do the input monitoring, all that stuff. But start with the USB microphone. Take some basic classes. There are so many great online classes. If you don't have any money at all, if you're super broke like I was when I started, watch some free YouTube videos. Read a book. Ryan: If you go to Coursera.org, they're a website where you can pay to take online courses and get certifications and whatnot, but they also offer free online courses. They even offer free online courses from Berklee. I've seen a music production class there. I've taken a free online song writing class. Check out free online courses, because they can be a pool of incredible knowledge. I took a photography class on there. Coursera is a great place. They're great if you want to take free online courses. Aaron: There are places where you can learn all this stuff. You just have to invest some time. You really just have to start: Don't wait until you have $500 for an interface and $200 for some professional headphones and microphone. Whether you want to start a podcast, start recording audio for a video, or record and mix a demo for a band, start doing something. Stop spending all your time thinking about how you can't do anything because you don't have certain gear or you're not in the right place. You'll learn as you do, especially in audio. You're going to make a ton of mistakes. Ryan: That's how you learn, though! That's one of the most valuable things I've learned in life. You learn from your mistakes. Aaron: You don't really learn when everything goes well. Just Start Aaron: Any other advice you would give somebody, thinking back on how you got to where you are right now? Ryan: Honestly, you hit the nail on the head with “just start.” It's as simple and cliche as Nike, “Just do it.” There is always going to be the next latest craze, the gear, and we've all been susceptible to that. We say, “Oh, well, I could do this if I had X.” It starts with the drive and determination, wanting to do it. There's knowledge out there everywhere. You just have to dig for it. Chances are, you have at least something you can start with. Record something on your phone. Aaron: I have a friend who makes some awesome music on his iPhone. Ryan: Oh, totally. It's as simple as getting an adapter. You can plug your guitar or whatever into your phone. Aaron: Kids these days have it so easy! Ryan: You have Garageband on your phone. I remember when I was figuring this out in high school, and we actually had a four track tape recorder. That was my first start. Get started with whatever you have. Aaron: What kind of stuff do you do at the church? What's your day to day life like? Are you there every day, or is it just a couple of days a week? Ryan: Oh no, I'm definitely there every day. It has been a whirlwind for sure. In the past five years, I have probably played every audio role that there is to be played here. My main thing now is audio for broadcasts, pretty much anything that leaves the church. Our biggest output is the sermon, which goes to a lot of places. It also goes in the TV episode, which we talked about, which goes locally, nationally, and, I believe, globally as well. That's a lot of what I've done. We also create a lot of films, short films, for our worship experiences, anything you can imagine that's video and audio related. Audio post production, like we talk about. I'm constantly on video shoots using field recorders, the boom op, anything you can think of. Audio for video, I've done it. The Gear Ryan Uses Aaron: Let's talk about your gear a little bit. What kind of stuff are you using most in everyday life? I'll do a quick recap: I have the Shure Beta 87A Mic as my main podcasting microphone. It's attached to a Scarlett 18i20 USB Interface (update: I'm now using my Zoom H6 exclusively), which is plugged into a quadcore iMac that's a couple years old. Nothing super fancy, but I'm really happy with where I am. I remember wanting all this stuff back in 2011, thinking how awesome it would be to have it. I have a Zoom H6 portable recorder and a couple of SM58 microphones. I've been pairing down my gear collection because I'm planning on moving in the spring. What kind of stuff are you working with? I use Logic Pro X for editing, and then Izotope iZotope RX 5 for cleaning up background noise or fixing clipping. What about you? What's your day to day favorite gear? Ryan: We use a lot. There's a bunch of gear for field recording and then in my office, which is where I'm at right now. I'll start with my office. Right now, I'm talking into my personal mic, which is a Rode NT1A. It's very affordable. The Rode NT1A is a nice beginner mic which works and sounds great, and I use it for a lot of voiceover projects. Aaron: I like those mics. Ryan: I'm talking into that right now. We also use the Shure SM7B. We have a nice Neumann that we'll use for bigger projects. We like to use Universal Audio Interfaces, so I've got one of those. They're great. They're rock solid. You really can't beat them. At our main recording/editing audio work station, we use Pro Tools. That's very standard, and I've been using that for years and years. I use a lot of plugins. I use a lot of the Waves Plugins. I do use RX as well, and that's the bulk of it. I do a lot of processing, depending on the project. I have a really huge sound library for if I'm doing narrative pieces that involve sound design, sound effects. I have a great app called Audio Finder, which a lot of electronic musicians use to help them find sounds. I use it to help me find sounds. It's a nice way to catalogue sounds if you're a sound designer or anything like that. You can basically tag all these audio files with meta data, and you can search for sounds by their title. Or, if you type in a word in the search bar, it can pull up things based off the the metadata. If you have notes on something, it can find it. Audio Finder is a great way to find sounds. I have some other things in here. I have the Artist Mix Controller made by Avid. I use those if I'm automating stuff. I use those a lot, actually, when I'm mixing the sermons. I do a lot of automation for that. If I'm mixing a piece with a music bed or something, I like to automate the music by hand. It feels more natural, as opposed to clicking and making little dots. That's the bulk of it here in the office. All of our audio engineers have a nice pair of Focal monitors. I also have another set of monitors I built myself. When I mix TV episodes, I have an output routed to a TV here in my office so I can hear how it translates on TV speakers. Recording Audio for Video Ryan: On the front end of things, if we're doing shoots for videos, we use Sound Devices field recorders. We have three different models: the Sound Devices 788T 8 Channel Recorder, a 702 2 Channel Recorder, and then a 633 6 Channel Recorder. That last one is one of their newer models, which is great. Sound Devices are steep in price, but they are rock solid. One of the most trustworthy, well known field recorder brands on the market. That's what you'll see on pretty much every big budget shoot in some way. I do a lot of freelance on the side, which gives me the opportunity EPK shoots or BTS shoots for, recently, a show on HBO called Outcast. Aaron: Outcast? I've been seeing that (I watch Westworld). Ryan: I'm pretty sure it's the same writers or producers or something. I know it's the same writer as The Walking Dead. They shoot here in North Carolina, so with a local production company, we've done some interviews with some of the cast and crew. It's been really neat to be on set and see what they're using. It's cool to see how similar their world is to what we're doing day to day, just with more money and more resources. It's the same thing. Most of their audio guys have some sort of Sound Devices. A lot of them use the 788 as a backup recording rig, and they've got larger multitrack recorders as well, that are also made by Sound Devices. Sound Devices is a great brand. They're crazy expensive, but when you buy that, you know you've basically got it for life. Aaron: Yeah, I'm looking at the Sound Devices 788T SSD 8 Channel Portable Solid State Audio Recorder. It's almost $7,000. I love that! So fancy. Ryan: That SSD does have an internal hard drive. Ours has a hard drive as well, so it's great, because it has the internal hard drive, but you can also use CF cards. You can record on two different mediums. In case something runs out of space, you have it in two places. Aaron: This is super professional stuff. Ryan: Yeah. It is. It's top of the line. Aaron: Fantastic. For all the rest of you, just go with the Zoom H4N or the H6. Ryan: Hey, we do have a Zoom H4N, and we do use that every now and then. Before I came on staff, our first field recorder was the Zoom H4N. Aaron: If I could start over and go back to before I had any kind of interface at all, I think I would buy myself an H4N or an H6. Not only are they portable field recorders so you can walk around with them—they have little stereo condensor mics on them—but they work as audio interfaces, too. You can plug it into your computer with a USB cable and record straight to your computer if you do any kind of podcasting or stuff like that. It's good for the price. Otherwise, the little two channel interfaces are great. They're about $100 for a good one, but they aren't portable. You can't take them to a show or out to a video shoot the way you can an H4N or an H6 or something. Ryan: Speaking of Zoom, they've recently come into the more professional field recording market. About a year ago, they releases the F8, I believe, which is an 8 channel field recorder with 8 mic pres. It's $999 for something very comparable to a Sound Device. It's not quite as high-fidelity, but for anyone starting out, you're really not going to notice the difference. Mixing On Expensive Headphones or Monitors Aaron: I was going to ask you this earlier. You mentioned that you had Focal monitors. Did you listen to the episode I did a few episodes back where I talked about mixing on headphones (Episode 69: Do You Need Expensive Headphones to Mix a Podcast?)? Ryan: Yes, I did. Aaron: I mix on $10 Panasonics. What do you think about that? You can be totally honest with me. You can tell me that it's a stupid idea or that it's okay. Ryan: I agree to a certain extent. I agree that you should be listening to what you're making on whatever the majority of people are going to be listening to it on. For a lot of audio engineers mixing music, that's iPod earbuds, those standard earbuds you get. Something like that. When I mix TV, I have an output routed to a TV in my office, so I can hear it on TV speakers. I do also believe in mixing on something with some sort of higher fidelity type of monitoring environment, whether that's nicer speakers or nicer headphones. Naturally, you're going to hear things differently. The main thing to take away is how things translate. If you're listening to something on one source and you make it sound good there, that's great, but in a different environment, it may sound completely different. iPhone earbuds may not have the bass that a car stereo has. You want to hear how it translates from one thing to another. That's why it's good to at least listen to it on two different sources and not just narrow yourself down to one cruddy thing. That's good in theory, but again, the key takeaway is translation. Aaron: Maybe it's a little bit different for me and I can get away with it because of the consistency of the microphones and the recording environment set we use. Ryan: Yeah, totally. Aaron: I think if I was doing more stuff like you are, with videos and clients and all that kind of stuff, I would absolutely be using my higher fidelity headphones. Ryan: Very true. The bulk of your work is dialogue, podcasts. Aaron: Yeah, that's really it. Just dudes talking into a microphone. Ryan: Yeah. I have done a lot of work here where I'm working in a small studio, but a lot of my mixes have played in auditoriums and arenas. If you're working on projects like music or film that have different audio frequencies and spectrums, remember that sound will be perceived differently in different places. Aaron: How do you even test for that? Ryan: Here, I at least have a sense of how our auditorium sounds, so I've trained my ear to hear in advance and understand how it's going to translate. For something like when we did a live recording in the biggest arena here in Charlotte, we had a video opener piece. I was on point for mixing that, so basically, I had to work with tech and production to find a time after setup where I can bring my session, copy it onto a laptop, and play it through the PA. Then I can make any final mix tweaks there in the auditorium or the arena. I perfected it in my studio, and any small tweaks I was able to do in that actual environment. Granted, a lot of the times, we may not have that luxury. There are also great plugins you can buy that simulate different monitoring environments, like Sonarworks. If you have certain pairs of headphones, you can tell the program, “I have these headphones, now make my mix sound like it's coming through these headphones or these speakers,” so you can hear how it might translate. In that program, they have a final output like the Beats headphones. You can hear how it might sound on there, super bass heavy. Aaron: I hear they're getting better, but I still have never bought any Beats headphones. I probably should (just for testing purposes). Ryan: There are definitely programs out there to help you see how things translate to different monitors. On Location Gear Ryan: We were talking about the gear we use for on location recording. Sound Devices would be our main recorders. For our mics, we use Schoeps. It's a shotgun microphone, so it's a narrow polar pattern with good off axis rejection. Schoeps is a great brand. Again, you'll see this on professional movie sets. That's the mic we use. We have some Sennheiser shotguns as well, the ME66, we have a couple of those, which is more their entry shotgun mics. Recently, I rented some of the MKH416. Aaron: I would like one of those. The Sennheiser 416 is well known as the classic TV shotgun mic, right? Ryan: Exactly. I rented those out because I wanted to try it out for that reason. The Schoeps is very good and very well known on set as well, but so is the 416. I rented it to try it out. It's a trusted mic that a lot of people use for these professional things, and it doesn't really break the bank for what it is. Aaron: They're like $1,000, I think. Ryan: Yeah, and it sounded great. Aaron: The next mic I get is either going to be that or the Rode NTG 3. Ryan: I've heard a lot of great things about that. I haven't tried one myself. Aaron: That's the shotgun mics we shot my podcasting courses with. Ryan: Yeah, I know that Sean uses that for all of his videos. Aaron: I'm excited about getting to go work with those (I'm moving to San Antonio in March or April). Master the Basics Aaron: That's a pretty good run through of your gear. I'm sure you could keep going and discuss a lot more, but I don't think we need to go into that. It seems like you guys are at a super professional, high quality. You have made big investments in professional gear, which is fantastic. I encourage everyone to strive for that, to aim for that, but like we said earlier, use what you have right now. I don't have anything close to what you guys have, but I'm still doing my podcast. I'm doing the best I can with what I have. Ryan: It still sounds great. Aaron: Thanks! It's mostly just knowing how to set gain levels and not having a noisy room. It's crazy how far the basics will get you— everything else is just icing on the cake. I've been watching this video course called Zen and the Art of Work, which I really recommend to everybody. It's mindfulness training mixed with productivity training, which is such a great combination. In this course, he says, “So many of the masters continually revisit the basics.” Mastery is staying on a path. It's not reaching some final goal, it's more about being with the work and investing in getting better, but also revisiting the basics. He was talking about playing piano. He was like, “A lot of times, I just start by touching the keys, pressing the keys, and then doing basic scales over and over again.” It's true. When you get so good at the basics that you don't have to think about it, that's when you start to expand and get to that level where people say, “Wow, you're so good at that. How did you get so good?” You're like, “That was just doing the basics. It's not anything fancy.” It's so important to master the basics and keep going back to them. Learning More Aaron: What's next for you? How do you invest in yourself and improve? Or are you working so much that you always have more learning opportunities? Do you buy books or courses or follow any websites to learn more about this audio stuff? Ryan: Honestly? We had a shift at work to where my role has shifted to mainly just broadcasts. That has enabled me to have a little bit more flexibility and free time, so I've been doing a lot more freelance work. That's great, because it energizes me and keeps me engaged. It keeps me from routine. Routine is great. I love routine, that's very much my personality, but freelance work keeps things interesting. For me, it's all about where and how I can get inspired and constantly feeding that. It's about feeding my desire for creativity. We're all creatives. We like to create. We were designed to be creators, really. Everything I try to do is about how I can become a better creator and what I can create next. It's about finding things that inspire me, really. We touched lightly on a few of the resources that I like, things I've learned and places I've picked things up. If you're interested in audio for post production, there are a couple of great books by Ric Viers. I have two books by him that are really great. The first one is The Sound Effects Bible, and it's not just sound effects in there. He talks about everything from gear to microphones, basics, setting proper gains, compression, some mixing techniques, etc. He also has The Location Sound Bible. There are a lot of similarities, but there's also a lot of talk about gear, shotgun mics, lop mics, recorders, and then he also dives into some of the basics when it comes to mixing, proper gain staging, and so on. Those are a really great pool of knowledge in book form. There are a lot of other books out there, but I have found those two to be really helpful. Other than that, when it comes to audio for video, it's a very small, niche field. There isn't a crazy amount of stuff out there, like there might be for mixing music. For that, you've got tons. You've got Pensado's Place, all these people on YouTube putting out channels on mixing, mixing from home, mixing on a budget, etc. There's plenty of that. Aaron: Graham Cochrane and Joe Gilder are pretty awesome resources for anyone who wants to start a home studio. Ryan: YouTube can be a pool of knowledge for anything and everything, too. You have to dig a little bit and do some searching. On the inspiration side, for me, since I love audio for video, Sound Works Collection is a great place. They'll do mini videos interviewing the sound people that did sound for X movie. Whether it was the last Harry Potter or anything and everything, big budget films, they'll sit down with the recording people, the sound designers, the mixers… It's really cool, because they'll show footage of them doing stuff on location or the foley artists. It's cool to see their process. For me, that helps me stay inspired. It gives me ideas to do other things. They have a podcast as well, and that's great. The videos can be kind of short, maybe 10 minutes or so, but the podcast will go on at length, talking to the audio guys who have made sound for videos possible. It will also be music composers for movies as well. That's really great. I found that great not only as inspiration, but to know what and how audio professionals for big budget films get inside their minds, how they're thinking, and what their process looks like. It's neat to see stuff about sound engineers for big movies and realize that we're not so different. Dealing With a Broad Loudness Spectrum (Dynamics) Aaron: I have a nerdy question here. This is about normalizing and compression, I think. Aiya had asked, “I'm so torn about normalizing sound clips. If I'm working on a longer project in segments, would it be better to adjust my peaks manually for the sake of consistency? It's for a video project.” I'm hearing that there are differences in video volumes. How do you deal with that? Do you do compression? Do you do automation for the different parts? How do you deal with dynamics? Ryan: It depends on the project. I'll talk about how I would mix a sermon, because that's very dynamic. Our pastor will go from whispering, holding his handheld mic close to his stomach, to screaming, holding the microphone, cupping the capsule. Power and respect to him, because it creates a certain atmosphere, which has a powerful effect. That's what I'm dealing with on a weekly basis. That dynamic range is tremendous. Keep in mind, this is going to TV eventually. TV has very strict restrictions. It's not so much on level, but on perceived level. There's a difference between what you see meter and what you're hearing. I can talk at length about that, too. Aaron: Could you give us a super short version? I'm kind of aware of that, but since I just mix in Logic, I'm not sure how to measure it. Is there a way to measure it in Logic? Do you know? Is there a plugin you use? Ryan: I use a plugin from Waves. It's a loudness meter, and its just that. It has a lot of presets, so I'll use the TV standard preset. I'll use it for ATSE85, and I'll use it for a dialogue bus. They've also got one for a master bus. The standard right there is your average level around -24 dB LUFS, so that's full scale. If you have a classic meters, your peak would be zero, so that would average metering right around -10. At least for TV, I've got a hard limiter at -10 dB, to where nothing can go above that. The difference between levels on a meter vs. perceived loudness is the differences between what we hear and the actual energy. In our TV program, we'll have the sermon, but we'll also have a talking heads segments, which is dialogue and a music bed. We'll also go into segments where they'll go into worship from our live album, which had been mixed and mastered as an album. That thing is slammed. If you look at the wave form, it's a sausage. If I'm setting all that by the meters alone and they're all hitting -10, it may look right, but if I look at my loudness meter, that worship segment is going to be off the charts. There's so much more content in there. There's so much going on with all the different frequency ranges as opposed to a dialogue track, which is a narrow field in the frequency spectrum. That's the gist of it. When it comes to my technique for controlling dynamics, for something like mixing a sermon, if I'm going down my plugin chain, the first thing I naturally have is a high pass filter. I'm rolling off those unnecessary lows that are hogging energy. The next thing I'll do is use a compressor, and I'll set the attack to right in the middle, so not fast or slow, and I'll have the release time at fast. We don't want to hear it pumping, letting go. That's catching my peaks. It's not doing a crazy amount, but it kind of is. That's helping do a lot of the bulk compression. Before anything really hits the compressor, I will go through, and as I work my way through the mix, I will clip gain the wave form, so that, say, if he's whispering somewhere, I might keep that, depending on how I have my compressor set. Then, if we go up to a part where he's screaming and my wave form is huge, I will take that down and create those nodes, those dots in the wave form, and drag the actual clip volume down, that gain down. That way, it's not going into the compressor at this high gain level. It's hitting the compressor evenly as the rest of it would. That way, it's not driving the compressor crazy. Then I'll go through and do some EQ and DSing and whatnot. I might add some more compressors in there, just to grab some of those little things coming through. After that, it's subtle, just smoothing it out. Aaron: It is a little bit of both. If she has access to an audio editing program—I don't know what she's using for editing. If you can put a compressor on the track, do that. It's not exactly the same, but I did a YouTube video about how I process podcast vocals, and it's very similar. For podcast vocals, I start with a Logic noise removal plugin. Ryan: I actually have my noise suppressor, and I'll use that later on down in my signal chain. My way of thinking is that if I've got all this compression going on, the compression is narrowing that dynamic range, so it's bringing up that noise floor. I tend to do my noise suppression after the bulk of that compression, because the noise floor is higher and it's easier to work on a supressor. If that makes sense. Aaron: I've thought a lot about whether you should do the noise removal before or after you add a bunch of gain with a compressor or something, and I can't think of a good reason that it matters. You can take out the noise before you add a bunch of gain, or you can add a bunch of gain and take out the noise afterwards. Which is better? I don't know. Anyways, after the noise removal plugin, I put an EQ with a high pass filter, a peak compressor, an RMS or an average level compressor, and then a limiter. Ryan: Like I mentioned earlier, before I had my long-winded answer, it also depends on what it is you're mixing—whether it's music, or a podcast, or something for film. When it comes to dialogue for film, you want it to sound as natural as possible, but you also want to be able to hear if someone is whispering. When it comes to that, I'll still use a compressor, but it will be very, very light. If there's anything I need to do to meet loudness, that I will automate the volume on my dialogue bus. I'll bring that up. That way, it sounds a little bit more natural, instead of solely relying on a compressor to do all the work for you. Aaron: That makes sense. For podcasts, if I notice that there's a section where someone was talking much quieter, like if a guest backed away and talked like that for four or five minutes and then went back to the normal distance from the microphone, in Logic, I'll turn that into its own clip. I make a cut on either side of the quiet part, and then, in Logic, you can double click on it and change gain by hitting Control G. Then you can add 3, 4, or 5 dB to it. That works out pretty well. If it's every five seconds or I have to do it more than five or six times in an episode, I won't do the clip gain changes, I'll just use a compressor. Look at the overall audio file and see if there are long stretches where you can use automation to change the gain, or change the clip gain. Common Audio Mistakes Podcasters Make Ryan: You asked a question that I think would be good to talk about in regards to podcasting. You had asked, “What do you like about podcasts? What common mistakes do you hear people make?” Initially, I read this and thought, “I don't know,” but I spent some time thinking about it. This is great, because it piggybacks off the loudness thing. A lot of the mistakes that I hear when it comes to podcasts in regards to audio is the levels and loudness aspect. I'll listen to some podcasts that sound great, and I'll put on another podcast where the whole thing is super quiet. Then they start laughing, and it's really loud. There are some, like mine, where they have a music bed underneath the entire thing, and then sometimes the music bed is so quiet that you hardly know it's there. You're like, “What the heck is that noise in the background?” Sometimes, it's the opposite. Sometimes, the music bed is way too loud. That's a few of the things I've noticed. A lot of the fixes relate to what we just talked about. It helps to have knowledge of levels and perceived loudness. If you're mixing a podcast, make sure your levels are consistent. One of the biggest things I can recommend for anyone mixing anything, whether it's music, movies, a podcast, is the importance of having a reference track. Aaron: Yeah, I don't talk about that enough. Ryan: That is huge. Professional audio engineers who mix platinum records still do this. They will pull in a track from a different song that is mixed well and is mixed how they want theirs to sound, and they'll have it muted in their session. When they want to have a reference to listen to or train their ear, they'll un-mute it, and they'll go, “Oh, okay.” I'm sure you've done the same thing as me, where you'll be so involved in a mix, you're in it, and you think it sounds great, and then maybe you go away. You go home, sleep, and maybe you come back, and you open it up and you go, “Woah! What was I thinking!” You can get so involved in it that the blinders go up. You get tunnel vision, and you're not aware to some things. It's good to have a reference track or get an outsider's opinion on a mix. The main takeaway here is the reference track. That would help with anything, whether it's the timbre, how you're EQing, or the loudness. You pull in their track and it's far louder than yours, and you automatically know that you need to do something about it. Aaron: That's a great idea. You can kind of do this before or after. You go through and you edit your whole podcast, get everything set up the way you want, create an extra track, and then find a podcast that sounds really good—This American Life or pretty much anything by NPR—download an episode, drop it into your editing program, and play it, mute it, and see what the difference is. Maybe you need to add some gain with an adaptive limiter or with a compressor, or maybe you can tell that your track sounds way sharper or harsher. Are there are too many high frequencies or too much bass compared to your reference track? You can adjust those things. I'm so glad you mentioned that. I've never thought of that before, and that's such a good idea. Ryan: It's one of those things you don't think of much, but once you do it, you're like, “Oh my gosh!” It's really eye opening and really helpful. You can find Ryan online at ryanmonette.com, and follow him on Twitter @RyanMonette.

My guest this week is professional audio engineer Ryan Monette. Ryan graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. For the last 4.5 years he's been the Post-Production Audio Engineer on staff at Elevation Church, in Charlotte, NC, where he mixes their global TV show, and has many other responsibilities (boom operator, field recorder, sound designer, audio editor, etc.). You may have heard some of his work, as he sound-designed and mixed the opener video for the Circles conference for the past two years. He even had his own podcast for a short while (TheQueuecast.com). I asked Ryan to come on the show to share his journey towards becoming a professional audio engineer (a job that I've always wanted), and to get him to share some tips for anyone interested in working in audio/video professionally.Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins:Think long term and dream big.If you want to do anything with audio, start by getting a cheap USB microphone.Take advantage of free online courses to learn more about audio engineering.Get started with whatever you have.Your mix may sound completely different in a different environment, so listen with different headphones/speakers in different locations.Master the basics and keep going back to them.If you’re mixing a podcast, make sure your levels are consistent.When mixing, always use a reference track.Show NotesAaron: You graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in music production and engineering. For the last five years, you’ve been the post production audio engineer for Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. You have a lot of jobs there: boom operator, field recorder, sound designer, audio editor, and you mix their global TV show. Do you mix that live?Ryan: Not necessarily. We can get into that later. There’s a process for that.Aaron: Some of the creative people here might have heard of some of your work. You sound designed and mixed the opening videos for the past two years of Circles Conference, which I was at. Have you been there for the past two years?Ryan: I haven’t been personally, no. I have wanted to go. I love it from afar, and I want to go in person.Aaron: I wanted you to come on this show because when I first got started, I had dreams of being a professional audio engineer. I thought, “How cool would it be to work in audio and get paid for it? That’d be awesome!”I fell backwards into it by doing podcast editing as a hobby first, then for money, then I met Sean McCabe and ended up working for him full time. I edit podcasts and help out with a ton of other stuff. I asked you to come on the show to share your advice for anyone who’s interested in working in audio/video professionally, and to talk about how you got there yourself. So tell me a little bit about how you got into audio. When did you first realize that this was something you wanted to do?Ryan’s Journey to Becoming a Professional Audio EngineerRyan: I love listening to your podcast, Aaron, and what I love about it is I feel like you and I have a lot of similarities in our backgrounds. You’re a musician, a drummer, and I’m also a musician. I play several things. My primary instrument is bass, but along with that, I started on piano. I picked up bass, and with the bass I picked up guitar. I took some drum lessons here and there as well.I sing as well. I dabbled in a little bit of everything. I’m kind of a jack of all trades, master of none. I’m okay at a lot of things, but I’m not superb at one thing. Anyway, right around junior high or high school, I started playing the bass. I started playing in little bands here and there. When it came time for college, I had no clue what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I loved music.Aaron: Same here!Ryan: I was living in Las Vegas at the time, so I decided, well, everyone has to have that college experience, and I didn’t want to go to college in the same city, so I decided that I needed that “being away from home” experience. I went to the University of Nevada, Reno. I took your basic, general classes, not knowing what I wanted to do. At this time, for my high school graduation, I had received a graduation present of a Macbook Pro.With that, of course, you get the wonderful iLife suite, including Garageband. As a musician, a whole new world was opened up to me. When I was in a band in high school, I was the gear head—I loved the PA and putting cables together.I was drawn to that. Once I had this Macbook Pro with Garageband and I had my bass and my guitar in my dorm, I was like, “I can create music!” I figured out how to work it and record myself. I bought a USB microphone, and that world was opened up. When I was there, I had a friend, and her brother went to this school where all they learned about was music. I was like, “Wait, you can do that? You can go to school for just music?”That’s how I found out about Berklee School of Music. I applied, and you have to audition as well. I applied and auditioned, and the first time I tried, I actually didn’t get into the music school I wanted to go to.Aaron: This sparks something in my mind. I feel like I might have read an article about Berklee or looked into it and thought, “No, they’re really strict on who they accept, based on your performance.” That was intimidating to me at the time, because I never felt like I was that good of a drummer.Ryan: It was intimidating for me, too. Clearly, I wasn’t up to par.Aaron: Yet you went for it. That’s more than a lot of people would do.Ryan: Yeah. After I finished my first year at UNR, I moved back to Vegas and went to UNLV, the University of Nevada Las Vegas. I took all music classes, forgetting the general ed stuff you need to get a degree. I took all music classes—music theory, because I had never had actual music theory classes, so I thought I needed that. With that, there were some audio classes that I took as well. I was like, “Hey, I like this audio thing.”At the University of Nevada Las Vegas, I had my first exposure to a formal audio class, where I learned all the proper techniques. Later on that year, I applied and auditioned again for Berklee. I got accepted, and the next year, I moved to Boston and went to Berklee for about three and a half years. Then I graduated. When I went to Berklee, the only thing that drew me as a major was Music Production and Engineering. I naturally loved the gear side of things. I fell in love with recording. I was like, “This is what I want to do.”Aaron: You got to spend three and a half years there, studying and learning?Ryan: It is non-stop, 24/7, music, audio, and to be honest, I miss being in that environment so much.Aaron: That sounds fantastic. I always love setting aside time to take online classes, read books, and listen to interviews about audio.Think Long-TermAaron: You were drawn to the audio engineering stuff, and then you graduated.Ryan: I can remember a specific time in my life, and I’m pretty sure it was my last semester at Berklee. They went by semesters instead of years. It was in one of my capstone classes. Our instructor asked us the typical, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question.Aaron: I love that question now. I hated it when I was 22.** Think long term and dream big**Aaron: Plan out where you want to be, because if you can envision it, then you can figure out how to get there. But you have to start by saying, “I want to do this thing someday.” For me, it was, “I want to do work from a laptop. How do I get there?” Now I’m there. So you were 22 and someone asked you, “Ryan, where do you want to be? Where do you see yourself in five years?”Ryan: At that moment, I was trying to figure that out, naturally, as you do when you’re approaching the end of college. While I was at Berklee, I loved music. I loved recording music, but my absolute favorite class—they only had one of them, but it was the class I yearned for, that I wanted to take and put in all these extra hours for—was audio for visual media, audio for video.By far, that was my favorite class. The whole class, we were working toward our final project. You choose a five to seven minute clip from a well known movie, and all the audio is completely stripped. You have to recreate everything. That’s all the dialogue, all the foley, all the ambient background, all the hard effects, and so on. You have to connect with a film scoring student there at Berklee, and they have to provide the score. I absolutely loved every aspect of that project and the process. When it came time to decide what I wanted to do with my life, it was between audio engineering at a recording studio, working at Disney as an Imagineer, or doing audio at a church.I have always been involved with church, playing on worship teams and whatnot, so I also saw myself doing audio for a church. Long story short, I was really privileged to dip my feet in all of those things after college. After I graduated, I moved back to Las Vegas. Eventually, I found an incredible recording studio, probably one of the top two recording studios in Las Vegas, and I landed an internship.First Audio Engineering JobsRyan: I say “internship” loosely, because your typical studio internship is all the stereotypical grunt work—taking out the trash, doing the coffee, and whatnot. I showed up, and they were like, “You went to Berklee? Berklee guys are cool. Here, hop in this session and help us out.” It was open to me, thrown at me, and next thing I knew, I was assisting on sessions with huge clients, I won’t name drop.Aaron: You can drop a couple of names if you want.Ryan: I had a pretty fun time helping out with a session with the famous engineer Eddie Kramer, who is engineering for Carlos Santana.Aaron: Dang, man! That’s awesome.Ryan: That was pretty incredible. But while I was there, I had this gut feeling inside of me saying, “This isn’t it.”Aaron: It’s fine, but it’s not quite right?Ryan: I could see myself staying there and working my way up, but it didn’t feel right. A few months after I realized that I didn’t want to stay at the studio, I applied and was offered a job at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.I packed my bags, moved to Orlando, and I was working as a stage technician at the Epcot park. There, they found out that I was an audio guy, so they pushed me toward the live audio side of things. I was mixing shows and bands at Epcot and what was at the time Downtown Disney, now Disney Springs, area. Same thing. Almost as soon as I got there, the same gut feeling came in.I was like, “This isn’t it. I’m more of a studio engineer. I definitely don’t want to do live stuff.” Although I love Disney, it just wasn’t sitting right. I was only there three months before the next great opportunity came up, which is where I am right now. One of my friends told me about a job opening for this church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Elevation Church. I had actually been following them because of their podcast.At the time, I was kind of like, “I’ve got a job, whatever.” For some reason, I ended up on their website, looking at the job. I was reading, and I was like, “Wait a minute, they’re looking for someone to do audio for video. That’s what I really want to do!” On a whim, I threw out my resume. Next thing you know, I’ve been here going on five years.Aaron: Did you mention that you were a podcast listener when you sent in your resume?Ryan: Yeah.Aaron: The connections you can make through podcasting is really incredible.Ryan: It is. And I’ve been working there for 5 years now.How to Get Into Audio EngineeringAaron: I want to jump into what you do at your job at Elevation, but let’s pause and do a section on what advice you would tell someone who’s wanting to get started. I wrote a couple of things down here. I think it’s hilarious that you got a Macbook and your first microphone was a USB microphone.Ryan: Which was the Blue Snowball, by the way.Aaron: That’s the worst microphone!Ryan: I had no idea how to use it, either. If I find some of the earliest recordings I did, there are times I’m clipping to the max, square waves.Aaron: Probably bad mic technique, too. But hey; it got you started!If you want to do anything with audio, start by getting a cheap USB microphone.Any USB mics will work for getting started. I like the Blue Yeti, but it’s like $100. The ATR-2100 is fine, too. You just have to get something that can record some audio and start playing with it.Start playing with Garageband. Start playing with the free programs. Learn how to enable recording on a track, how to set your input device to the microphone, how to set your output device to wherever your headphones are plugged into, whether that’s your mic or your computer. It took me so long to figure that stuff out. I was like, “Why can’t I hear the audio in my headphones? What is going on?”Ryan: Same here.Aaron: You have to set input and output, then you have to record enable or do the input monitoring, all that stuff. But start with the USB microphone. Take some basic classes. There are so many great online classes. If you don’t have any money at all, if you’re super broke like I was when I started, watch some free YouTube videos. Read a book.Ryan: If you go to Coursera.org, they’re a website where you can pay to take online courses and get certifications and whatnot, but they also offer free online courses. They even offer free online courses from Berklee. I’ve seen a music production class there. I’ve taken a free online song writing class.Check out free online courses, because they can be a pool of incredible knowledge.I took a photography class on there. Coursera is a great place. They’re great if you want to take free online courses.Aaron: There are places where you can learn all this stuff. You just have to invest some time. You really just have to start: Don’t wait until you have $500 for an interface and $200 for some professional headphones and microphone. Whether you want to start a podcast, start recording audio for a video, or record and mix a demo for a band, start doing something.Stop spending all your time thinking about how you can’t do anything because you don’t have certain gear or you’re not in the right place. You’ll learn as you do, especially in audio. You’re going to make a ton of mistakes.Ryan: That’s how you learn, though! That’s one of the most valuable things I’ve learned in life. You learn from your mistakes.Aaron: You don’t really learn when everything goes well.Just StartAaron: Any other advice you would give somebody, thinking back on how you got to where you are right now?Ryan: Honestly, you hit the nail on the head with “just start.” It’s as simple and cliche as Nike, “Just do it.” There is always going to be the next latest craze, the gear, and we’ve all been susceptible to that. We say, “Oh, well, I could do this if I had X.” It starts with the drive and determination, wanting to do it. There’s knowledge out there everywhere. You just have to dig for it.Chances are, you have at least something you can start with. Record something on your phone.Aaron: I have a friend who makes some awesome music on his iPhone.Ryan: Oh, totally. It’s as simple as getting an adapter. You can plug your guitar or whatever into your phone.Aaron: Kids these days have it so easy!Ryan: You have Garageband on your phone. I remember when I was figuring this out in high school, and we actually had a four track tape recorder. That was my first start. Get started with whatever you have.Aaron: What kind of stuff do you do at the church? What’s your day to day life like? Are you there every day, or is it just a couple of days a week?Ryan: Oh no, I’m definitely there every day. It has been a whirlwind for sure. In the past five years, I have probably played every audio role that there is to be played here. My main thing now is audio for broadcasts, pretty much anything that leaves the church. Our biggest output is the sermon, which goes to a lot of places.It also goes in the TV episode, which we talked about, which goes locally, nationally, and, I believe, globally as well. That’s a lot of what I’ve done. We also create a lot of films, short films, for our worship experiences, anything you can imagine that’s video and audio related. Audio post production, like we talk about. I’m constantly on video shoots using field recorders, the boom op, anything you can think of. Audio for video, I’ve done it.The Gear Ryan UsesAaron: Let’s talk about your gear a little bit. What kind of stuff are you using most in everyday life? I’ll do a quick recap: I have the Shure Beta 87A Mic as my main podcasting microphone. It’s attached to a Scarlett 18i20 USB Interface (update: I’m now using my Zoom H6 exclusively), which is plugged into a quadcore iMac that’s a couple years old.Nothing super fancy, but I’m really happy with where I am. I remember wanting all this stuff back in 2011, thinking how awesome it would be to have it. I have a Zoom H6 portable recorder and a couple of SM58 microphones. I’ve been pairing down my gear collection because I’m planning on moving in the spring.What kind of stuff are you working with? I use Logic Pro X for editing, and then Izotope iZotope RX 5 for cleaning up background noise or fixing clipping. What about you? What’s your day to day favorite gear?Ryan: We use a lot. There’s a bunch of gear for field recording and then in my office, which is where I’m at right now. I’ll start with my office. Right now, I’m talking into my personal mic, which is a Rode NT1A. It’s very affordable.The Rode NT1A is a nice beginner mic which works and sounds great, and I use it for a lot of voiceover projects.Aaron: I like those mics.Ryan: I’m talking into that right now. We also use the Shure SM7B. We have a nice Neumann that we’ll use for bigger projects. We like to use Universal Audio Interfaces, so I’ve got one of those. They’re great. They’re rock solid. You really can’t beat them.At our main recording/editing audio work station, we use Pro Tools. That’s very standard, and I’ve been using that for years and years. I use a lot of plugins. I use a lot of the Waves Plugins. I do use RX as well, and that’s the bulk of it. I do a lot of processing, depending on the project.I have a really huge sound library for if I’m doing narrative pieces that involve sound design, sound effects. I have a great app called Audio Finder, which a lot of electronic musicians use to help them find sounds. I use it to help me find sounds. It’s a nice way to catalogue sounds if you’re a sound designer or anything like that.You can basically tag all these audio files with meta data, and you can search for sounds by their title. Or, if you type in a word in the search bar, it can pull up things based off the the metadata. If you have notes on something, it can find it. Audio Finder is a great way to find sounds.I have some other things in here. I have the Artist Mix Controller made by Avid. I use those if I’m automating stuff. I use those a lot, actually, when I’m mixing the sermons. I do a lot of automation for that. If I’m mixing a piece with a music bed or something, I like to automate the music by hand.It feels more natural, as opposed to clicking and making little dots. That’s the bulk of it here in the office. All of our audio engineers have a nice pair of Focal monitors. I also have another set of monitors I built myself. When I mix TV episodes, I have an output routed to a TV here in my office so I can hear how it translates on TV speakers.Recording Audio for VideoRyan: On the front end of things, if we’re doing shoots for videos, we use Sound Devices field recorders. We have three different models: the Sound Devices 788T 8 Channel Recorder, a 702 2 Channel Recorder, and then a 633 6 Channel Recorder. That last one is one of their newer models, which is great.Sound Devices are steep in price, but they are rock solid.One of the most trustworthy, well known field recorder brands on the market. That’s what you’ll see on pretty much every big budget shoot in some way. I do a lot of freelance on the side, which gives me the opportunity EPK shoots or BTS shoots for, recently, a show on HBO called Outcast.Aaron: Outcast? I’ve been seeing that (I watch Westworld).Ryan: I’m pretty sure it’s the same writers or producers or something. I know it’s the same writer as The Walking Dead. They shoot here in North Carolina, so with a local production company, we’ve done some interviews with some of the cast and crew. It’s been really neat to be on set and see what they’re using. It’s cool to see how similar their world is to what we’re doing day to day, just with more money and more resources.It’s the same thing. Most of their audio guys have some sort of Sound Devices. A lot of them use the 788 as a backup recording rig, and they’ve got larger multitrack recorders as well, that are also made by Sound Devices. Sound Devices is a great brand. They’re crazy expensive, but when you buy that, you know you’ve basically got it for life.Aaron: Yeah, I’m looking at the Sound Devices 788T SSD 8 Channel Portable Solid State Audio Recorder. It’s almost $7,000. I love that! So fancy.Ryan: That SSD does have an internal hard drive. Ours has a hard drive as well, so it’s great, because it has the internal hard drive, but you can also use CF cards. You can record on two different mediums. In case something runs out of space, you have it in two places.Aaron: This is super professional stuff.Ryan: Yeah. It is. It’s top of the line.Aaron: Fantastic. For all the rest of you, just go with the Zoom H4N or the H6.Ryan: Hey, we do have a Zoom H4N, and we do use that every now and then. Before I came on staff, our first field recorder was the Zoom H4N.Aaron: If I could start over and go back to before I had any kind of interface at all, I think I would buy myself an H4N or an H6. Not only are they portable field recorders so you can walk around with them—they have little stereo condensor mics on them—but they work as audio interfaces, too. You can plug it into your computer with a USB cable and record straight to your computer if you do any kind of podcasting or stuff like that.It’s good for the price. Otherwise, the little two channel interfaces are great. They’re about $100 for a good one, but they aren’t portable. You can’t take them to a show or out to a video shoot the way you can an H4N or an H6 or something.Ryan: Speaking of Zoom, they’ve recently come into the more professional field recording market. About a year ago, they releases the F8, I believe, which is an 8 channel field recorder with 8 mic pres. It’s $999 for something very comparable to a Sound Device. It’s not quite as high-fidelity, but for anyone starting out, you’re really not going to notice the difference.Mixing On Expensive Headphones or MonitorsAaron: I was going to ask you this earlier. You mentioned that you had Focal monitors. Did you listen to the episode I did a few episodes back where I talked about mixing on headphones (Episode 69: Do You Need Expensive Headphones to Mix a Podcast?)?Ryan: Yes, I did.Aaron: I mix on $10 Panasonics. What do you think about that? You can be totally honest with me. You can tell me that it’s a stupid idea or that it’s okay.Ryan: I agree to a certain extent. I agree that you should be listening to what you’re making on whatever the majority of people are going to be listening to it on. For a lot of audio engineers mixing music, that’s iPod earbuds, those standard earbuds you get. Something like that. When I mix TV, I have an output routed to a TV in my office, so I can hear it on TV speakers.I do also believe in mixing on something with some sort of higher fidelity type of monitoring environment, whether that’s nicer speakers or nicer headphones. Naturally, you’re going to hear things differently. The main thing to take away is how things translate.If you’re listening to something on one source and you make it sound good there, that’s great, but in a different environment, it may sound completely different.iPhone earbuds may not have the bass that a car stereo has. You want to hear how it translates from one thing to another. That’s why it’s good to at least listen to it on two different sources and not just narrow yourself down to one cruddy thing. That’s good in theory, but again, the key takeaway is translation.Aaron: Maybe it’s a little bit different for me and I can get away with it because of the consistency of the microphones and the recording environment set we use.Ryan: Yeah, totally.Aaron: I think if I was doing more stuff like you are, with videos and clients and all that kind of stuff, I would absolutely be using my higher fidelity headphones.Ryan: Very true. The bulk of your work is dialogue, podcasts.Aaron: Yeah, that’s really it. Just dudes talking into a microphone.Ryan: Yeah. I have done a lot of work here where I’m working in a small studio, but a lot of my mixes have played in auditoriums and arenas.If you’re working on projects like music or film that have different audio frequencies and spectrums, remember that sound will be perceived differently in different places.Aaron: How do you even test for that?Ryan: Here, I at least have a sense of how our auditorium sounds, so I’ve trained my ear to hear in advance and understand how it’s going to translate. For something like when we did a live recording in the biggest arena here in Charlotte, we had a video opener piece. I was on point for mixing that, so basically, I had to work with tech and production to find a time after setup where I can bring my session, copy it onto a laptop, and play it through the PA.Then I can make any final mix tweaks there in the auditorium or the arena. I perfected it in my studio, and any small tweaks I was able to do in that actual environment. Granted, a lot of the times, we may not have that luxury. There are also great plugins you can buy that simulate different monitoring environments, like Sonarworks.If you have certain pairs of headphones, you can tell the program, “I have these headphones, now make my mix sound like it’s coming through these headphones or these speakers,” so you can hear how it might translate. In that program, they have a final output like the Beats headphones. You can hear how it might sound on there, super bass heavy.Aaron: I hear they’re getting better, but I still have never bought any Beats headphones. I probably should (just for testing purposes).Ryan: There are definitely programs out there to help you see how things translate to different monitors.On Location GearRyan: We were talking about the gear we use for on location recording. Sound Devices would be our main recorders. For our mics, we use Schoeps. It’s a shotgun microphone, so it’s a narrow polar pattern with good off axis rejection. Schoeps is a great brand. Again, you’ll see this on professional movie sets.That’s the mic we use. We have some Sennheiser shotguns as well, the ME66, we have a couple of those, which is more their entry shotgun mics. Recently, I rented some of the MKH416.Aaron: I would like one of those. The Sennheiser 416 is well known as the classic TV shotgun mic, right?Ryan: Exactly. I rented those out because I wanted to try it out for that reason. The Schoeps is very good and very well known on set as well, but so is the 416. I rented it to try it out. It’s a trusted mic that a lot of people use for these professional things, and it doesn’t really break the bank for what it is.Aaron: They’re like $1,000, I think.Ryan: Yeah, and it sounded great.Aaron: The next mic I get is either going to be that or the Rode NTG 3.Ryan: I’ve heard a lot of great things about that. I haven’t tried one myself.Aaron: That’s the shotgun mics we shot my podcasting courses with.Ryan: Yeah, I know that Sean uses that for all of his videos.Aaron: I’m excited about getting to go work with those (I’m moving to San Antonio in March or April).Master the BasicsAaron: That’s a pretty good run through of your gear. I’m sure you could keep going and discuss a lot more, but I don’t think we need to go into that. It seems like you guys are at a super professional, high quality. You have made big investments in professional gear, which is fantastic. I encourage everyone to strive for that, to aim for that, but like we said earlier, use what you have right now. I don’t have anything close to what you guys have, but I’m still doing my podcast. I’m doing the best I can with what I have.Ryan: It still sounds great.Aaron: Thanks! It’s mostly just knowing how to set gain levels and not having a noisy room. It’s crazy how far the basics will get you— everything else is just icing on the cake.I’ve been watching this video course called Zen and the Art of Work, which I really recommend to everybody. It’s mindfulness training mixed with productivity training, which is such a great combination.In this course, he says, “So many of the masters continually revisit the basics.” Mastery is staying on a path. It’s not reaching some final goal, it’s more about being with the work and investing in getting better, but also revisiting the basics. He was talking about playing piano. He was like, “A lot of times, I just start by touching the keys, pressing the keys, and then doing basic scales over and over again.”It’s true. When you get so good at the basics that you don’t have to think about it, that’s when you start to expand and get to that level where people say, “Wow, you’re so good at that. How did you get so good?” You’re like, “That was just doing the basics. It’s not anything fancy.”It’s so important to master the basics and keep going back to them.Learning MoreAaron: What’s next for you? How do you invest in yourself and improve? Or are you working so much that you always have more learning opportunities? Do you buy books or courses or follow any websites to learn more about this audio stuff?Ryan: Honestly? We had a shift at work to where my role has shifted to mainly just broadcasts. That has enabled me to have a little bit more flexibility and free time, so I’ve been doing a lot more freelance work. That’s great, because it energizes me and keeps me engaged. It keeps me from routine. Routine is great.I love routine, that’s very much my personality, but freelance work keeps things interesting.For me, it’s all about where and how I can get inspired and constantly feeding that. It’s about feeding my desire for creativity. We’re all creatives. We like to create. We were designed to be creators, really. Everything I try to do is about how I can become a better creator and what I can create next. It’s about finding things that inspire me, really. We touched lightly on a few of the resources that I like, things I’ve learned and places I’ve picked things up.If you’re interested in audio for post production, there are a couple of great books by Ric Viers. I have two books by him that are really great. The first one is The Sound Effects Bible, and it’s not just sound effects in there. He talks about everything from gear to microphones, basics, setting proper gains, compression, some mixing techniques, etc. He also has The Location Sound Bible.There are a lot of similarities, but there’s also a lot of talk about gear, shotgun mics, lop mics, recorders, and then he also dives into some of the basics when it comes to mixing, proper gain staging, and so on. Those are a really great pool of knowledge in book form. There are a lot of other books out there, but I have found those two to be really helpful.Other than that, when it comes to audio for video, it’s a very small, niche field. There isn’t a crazy amount of stuff out there, like there might be for mixing music. For that, you’ve got tons. You’ve got Pensado’s Place, all these people on YouTube putting out channels on mixing, mixing from home, mixing on a budget, etc. There’s plenty of that.Aaron: Graham Cochrane and Joe Gilder are pretty awesome resources for anyone who wants to start a home studio.Ryan: YouTube can be a pool of knowledge for anything and everything, too. You have to dig a little bit and do some searching. On the inspiration side, for me, since I love audio for video, Sound Works Collection is a great place. They’ll do mini videos interviewing the sound people that did sound for X movie. Whether it was the last Harry Potter or anything and everything, big budget films, they’ll sit down with the recording people, the sound designers, the mixers…It’s really cool, because they’ll show footage of them doing stuff on location or the foley artists. It’s cool to see their process. For me, that helps me stay inspired. It gives me ideas to do other things. They have a podcast as well, and that’s great. The videos can be kind of short, maybe 10 minutes or so, but the podcast will go on at length, talking to the audio guys who have made sound for videos possible.It will also be music composers for movies as well. That’s really great. I found that great not only as inspiration, but to know what and how audio professionals for big budget films get inside their minds, how they’re thinking, and what their process looks like.It’s neat to see stuff about sound engineers for big movies and realize that we’re not so different.Dealing With a Broad Loudness Spectrum (Dynamics)Aaron: I have a nerdy question here. This is about normalizing and compression, I think. Aiya had asked, “I’m so torn about normalizing sound clips. If I’m working on a longer project in segments, would it be better to adjust my peaks manually for the sake of consistency? It’s for a video project.” I’m hearing that there are differences in video volumes. How do you deal with that? Do you do compression? Do you do automation for the different parts? How do you deal with dynamics?Ryan: It depends on the project. I’ll talk about how I would mix a sermon, because that’s very dynamic. Our pastor will go from whispering, holding his handheld mic close to his stomach, to screaming, holding the microphone, cupping the capsule. Power and respect to him, because it creates a certain atmosphere, which has a powerful effect. That’s what I’m dealing with on a weekly basis.That dynamic range is tremendous. Keep in mind, this is going to TV eventually. TV has very strict restrictions. It’s not so much on level, but on perceived level. There’s a difference between what you see meter and what you’re hearing. I can talk at length about that, too.Aaron: Could you give us a super short version? I’m kind of aware of that, but since I just mix in Logic, I’m not sure how to measure it. Is there a way to measure it in Logic? Do you know? Is there a plugin you use?Ryan: I use a plugin from Waves. It’s a loudness meter, and its just that. It has a lot of presets, so I’ll use the TV standard preset. I’ll use it for ATSE85, and I’ll use it for a dialogue bus. They’ve also got one for a master bus. The standard right there is your average level around -24 dB LUFS, so that’s full scale. If you have a classic meters, your peak would be zero, so that would average metering right around -10. At least for TV, I’ve got a hard limiter at -10 dB, to where nothing can go above that.The difference between levels on a meter vs. perceived loudness is the differences between what we hear and the actual energy.In our TV program, we’ll have the sermon, but we’ll also have a talking heads segments, which is dialogue and a music bed. We’ll also go into segments where they’ll go into worship from our live album, which had been mixed and mastered as an album. That thing is slammed. If you look at the wave form, it’s a sausage. If I’m setting all that by the meters alone and they’re all hitting -10, it may look right, but if I look at my loudness meter, that worship segment is going to be off the charts.There’s so much more content in there. There’s so much going on with all the different frequency ranges as opposed to a dialogue track, which is a narrow field in the frequency spectrum. That’s the gist of it. When it comes to my technique for controlling dynamics, for something like mixing a sermon, if I’m going down my plugin chain, the first thing I naturally have is a high pass filter. I’m rolling off those unnecessary lows that are hogging energy.The next thing I’ll do is use a compressor, and I’ll set the attack to right in the middle, so not fast or slow, and I’ll have the release time at fast. We don’t want to hear it pumping, letting go. That’s catching my peaks. It’s not doing a crazy amount, but it kind of is. That’s helping do a lot of the bulk compression. Before anything really hits the compressor, I will go through, and as I work my way through the mix, I will clip gain the wave form, so that, say, if he’s whispering somewhere, I might keep that, depending on how I have my compressor set.Then, if we go up to a part where he’s screaming and my wave form is huge, I will take that down and create those nodes, those dots in the wave form, and drag the actual clip volume down, that gain down. That way, it’s not going into the compressor at this high gain level. It’s hitting the compressor evenly as the rest of it would. That way, it’s not driving the compressor crazy. Then I’ll go through and do some EQ and DSing and whatnot. I might add some more compressors in there, just to grab some of those little things coming through. After that, it’s subtle, just smoothing it out.Aaron: It is a little bit of both. If she has access to an audio editing program—I don’t know what she’s using for editing. If you can put a compressor on the track, do that. It’s not exactly the same, but I did a YouTube video about how I process podcast vocals, and it’s very similar. For podcast vocals, I start with a Logic noise removal plugin.Ryan: I actually have my noise suppressor, and I’ll use that later on down in my signal chain. My way of thinking is that if I’ve got all this compression going on, the compression is narrowing that dynamic range, so it’s bringing up that noise floor. I tend to do my noise suppression after the bulk of that compression, because the noise floor is higher and it’s easier to work on a supressor. If that makes sense.Aaron: I’ve thought a lot about whether you should do the noise removal before or after you add a bunch of gain with a compressor or something, and I can’t think of a good reason that it matters. You can take out the noise before you add a bunch of gain, or you can add a bunch of gain and take out the noise afterwards. Which is better? I don’t know. Anyways, after the noise removal plugin, I put an EQ with a high pass filter, a peak compressor, an RMS or an average level compressor, and then a limiter.Ryan: Like I mentioned earlier, before I had my long-winded answer, it also depends on what it is you’re mixing—whether it’s music, or a podcast, or something for film.When it comes to dialogue for film, you want it to sound as natural as possible, but you also want to be able to hear if someone is whispering.When it comes to that, I’ll still use a compressor, but it will be very, very light. If there’s anything I need to do to meet loudness, that I will automate the volume on my dialogue bus. I’ll bring that up. That way, it sounds a little bit more natural, instead of solely relying on a compressor to do all the work for you.Aaron: That makes sense. For podcasts, if I notice that there’s a section where someone was talking much quieter, like if a guest backed away and talked like that for four or five minutes and then went back to the normal distance from the microphone, in Logic, I’ll turn that into its own clip. I make a cut on either side of the quiet part, and then, in Logic, you can double click on it and change gain by hitting Control G. Then you can add 3, 4, or 5 dB to it.That works out pretty well. If it’s every five seconds or I have to do it more than five or six times in an episode, I won’t do the clip gain changes, I’ll just use a compressor.Look at the overall audio file and see if there are long stretches where you can use automation to change the gain, or change the clip gain.Common Audio Mistakes Podcasters MakeRyan: You asked a question that I think would be good to talk about in regards to podcasting. You had asked, “What do you like about podcasts? What common mistakes do you hear people make?” Initially, I read this and thought, “I don’t know,” but I spent some time thinking about it. This is great, because it piggybacks off the loudness thing.A lot of the mistakes that I hear when it comes to podcasts in regards to audio is the levels and loudness aspect. I’ll listen to some podcasts that sound great, and I’ll put on another podcast where the whole thing is super quiet. Then they start laughing, and it’s really loud. There are some, like mine, where they have a music bed underneath the entire thing, and then sometimes the music bed is so quiet that you hardly know it’s there.You’re like, “What the heck is that noise in the background?” Sometimes, it’s the opposite. Sometimes, the music bed is way too loud. That’s a few of the things I’ve noticed. A lot of the fixes relate to what we just talked about. It helps to have knowledge of levels and perceived loudness.If you’re mixing a podcast, make sure your levels are consistent.One of the biggest things I can recommend for anyone mixing anything, whether it’s music, movies, a podcast, is the importance of having a reference track.Aaron: Yeah, I don’t talk about that enough.Ryan: That is huge. Professional audio engineers who mix platinum records still do this. They will pull in a track from a different song that is mixed well and is mixed how they want theirs to sound, and they’ll have it muted in their session. When they want to have a reference to listen to or train their ear, they’ll un-mute it, and they’ll go, “Oh, okay.”I’m sure you’ve done the same thing as me, where you’ll be so involved in a mix, you’re in it, and you think it sounds great, and then maybe you go away. You go home, sleep, and maybe you come back, and you open it up and you go, “Woah! What was I thinking!” You can get so involved in it that the blinders go up. You get tunnel vision, and you’re not aware to some things.It’s good to have a reference track or get an outsider’s opinion on a mix.The main takeaway here is the reference track. That would help with anything, whether it’s the timbre, how you’re EQing, or the loudness. You pull in their track and it’s far louder than yours, and you automatically know that you need to do something about it.Aaron: That’s a great idea. You can kind of do this before or after. You go through and you edit your whole podcast, get everything set up the way you want, create an extra track, and then find a podcast that sounds really good—This American Life or pretty much anything by NPR—download an episode, drop it into your editing program, and play it, mute it, and see what the difference is. Maybe you need to add some gain with an adaptive limiter or with a compressor, or maybe you can tell that your track sounds way sharper or harsher.Are there are too many high frequencies or too much bass compared to your reference track? You can adjust those things. I’m so glad you mentioned that. I’ve never thought of that before, and that’s such a good idea.Ryan: It’s one of those things you don’t think of much, but once you do it, you’re like, “Oh my gosh!” It’s really eye opening and really helpful.You can find Ryan online at ryanmonette.com, and follow him on Twitter @RyanMonette.

This week we talk a little bit about me being Nashville’s Lightning 100 Local Artist of the Week. Plus, as always, I answer YOUR questions. Follow me on Twitter here: @joegildermusic Connect on Facebook. Subscribe to my calendar. Ask questions at www.askjoegilder.com Subscribe via: iTunes RSS Feed

Hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of Songversations, our podcast where me, Björgvin, interviews songwriters about their methods when it comes to songwriting. Our first guest is songwriter, producer and entrepreneur Joe Gilder from Nashville. He created a crazy challenge for himself and wrote 50 songs in 12 weeks and he tells us […]

RSR003 - Joe Gilder - HomeStudioCorner.com Recordingstudiorockstars.com Text RSROCKSTARS to 33-444 and get free content delivered to your email! Get FREE Mix Training Videos at MixMasterBundle.com     My guest today is Joe Gilder. He is songwriter, producer, engineer, teacher and innovator in the online world of music production, blogging, and podcasting. Joe’s focus is the home studio owner, to help you create the best recordings you can. He has created a fantastic resource and website called HomeStudioCorner.com   In his own words: “Home Studio Corner (HSC) exists to help home studios excel. It gives you LOTS of ways to expand your recording knowledge, hone your recording skills, and make better recordings.”   Joe offers articles, videos, podcasts, and training products so that you can start learning for free now and dive in for much more in depth training when you are ready.   Here are some of the topics we discussed on the show.   Dueling Mixes: Dueling Mixes is for users who are comfortable with their DAW and want to go deeper into what the program can do. The site offers alternate mixes of the same song so the user can compare the two and see how different a single track can be mixed. They can also download the original track to mix the song themselves. Joe and his co-host Graham Cochrane create videos on how they mix the songs to give you insights into the process.   “Home Studio Corner” & “Simply Recording” Podcast: Joe talks about the production of one of his albums from 2010. He brings up the 80/20 rule which states 80% of your results comes from 20% of the inputs given. He talked about how he was going to write 50 songs in 12 weeks to create at least 10 that he was proud of.   Predicting The Cost of a Record: Joe talks about how to plan out how long and how much time it will cost to complete a record. This goes back to knowing how long it takes you to accomplish something in order to accurately predict how long the process will take. Joe talks about the value of salesmanship when quoting a client on how much his services will cost.   Recording Advice - Q&A: Q- “What is the most important advice you have?” A - “Getting it right at the source.” Q - “What was an important failure or setback that became an important learning lesson for you in the studio or in your musical journey? A - “The more I learned about the proper way to record music, the less time I spent creating it.” Q - “Tell us about a moment of success in your recording career.” A - “Listening back to old recordings and noticing how the emotion of the songs are still coming through, even after so much time.” Q - “Where can we find your album “Better This Way?” A - “You can find it at http://www.joegildermusic.com/ Q - “Tell us about something you’re excited about right now.” A - “I am most excited about writing more music, especially in the studio with my drummer and bassist.” Q - “How do you imagine capturing that writing process with a group of people like that?” A - “I think it would be let’s just set up a recording session and jam until we come up with something or jam to a click to build a track that way.”   The “Jam Session” Q&A: Q - “What was holding you back from getting started in recording?” A - “Feeling like I had to do everything myself.” Q - “What was some of the best advice you received about recording?” A - “Get it right at the source.” Q - “How about a tip hack or secret sauce that you would like to share from your experience?” A - “Committing to time-based effects at the time of the recording.” Q - “Do you have a favorite book you would like to share?” A - “I love the War of Art by Steven Pressfield.” Q - “Can you share a favorite hardware tool of the studio?” A - “I love the Avid Eleven Rack for the different guitar tones I can get.” Q - “How about a favorite software tool?” A - “Presonus Studio One. I don’t even have Pro Tools installed anymore.” Q - “Would you like to just drop a reference to one favorite new feature that exists in it that you’re liking a lot right now?” A - “I like the feature that lets you to route the plug-in chain on any channel and split the signal, and do different things on each part of the signal” Q - “How about a great resource for the business part of the recording studio?” A - “The Audio Income Project is the great resource for freelance engineers at http://www.audioincome.com/sp/24311-order” Q - “If you were dropped into a strange city and you could only take a simple setup for recording, what would you choose, how would you find people to record, and how would you make ends meet right away to continue recording?” A - “The rig - a laptop with Presonus, an interface, and a mic. People to record - you have to go to where the musicians are and find them. Q - “What if someone is in a town that doesn’t have many musicians?” A - “Everything can be done online now. http://crowdaudio.com/ is a great place for finding songs to mix.” Q - “How can our listeners follow you?” A - “http://www.homestudiocorner.com/, Simply Recording Podcast,   https://twitter.com/joegildermusic, https://www.facebook.com/joegilder For more about Joe go to HomeStudioCorner.com RSR003 - Joe Gilder - HomeStudioCorner.com   Recordingstudiorockstars.com Text RSROCKSTARS to 33-444 and get free content delivered to your email!   My guest today is Joe Gilder. He is songwriter, producer, engineer, teacher and innovator in the online world of music production, blogging, and podcasting. Joe’s focus is the home studio owner, to help you create the best recordings you can. He has created a fantastic resource and website called HomeStudioCorner.com   In his own words: "Home Studio Corner (HSC) exists to help home studios excel. It gives you LOTS of ways to expand your recording knowledge, hone your recording skills, and make better recordings."   Joe offers articles, videos, podcasts, and training products so that you can start learning for free now and dive in for much more in depth training when you are ready.   Here are some of the topics we discussed on the show.   Dueling Mixes: Dueling Mixes is for users who are comfortable with their DAW and want to go deeper into what the program can do. The site offers alternate mixes of the same song so the user can compare the two and see how different a single track can be mixed. They can also download the original track to mix the song themselves. Joe and his co-host Graham Cochrane create videos on how they mix the songs to give you insights into the process.   “Home Studio Corner” & “Simply Recording” Podcast: Joe talks about the production of one of his albums from 2010. He brings up the 80/20 rule which states 80% of your results comes from 20% of the inputs given. He talked about how he was going to write 50 songs in 12 weeks to create at least 10 that he was proud of.   Predicting The Cost of a Record: Joe talks about how to plan out how long and how much time it will cost to complete a record. This goes back to knowing how long it takes you to accomplish something in order to accurately predict how long the process will take. Joe talks about the value of salesmanship when quoting a client on how much his services will cost.   Recording Advice - Q&A: Q- “What is the most important advice you have?” A - “Getting it right at the source.” Q - “What was an important failure or setback that became an important learning lesson for you in the studio or in your musical journey? A - “The more I learned about the proper way to record music, the less time I spent creating it.” Q - “Tell us about a moment of success in your recording career.” A - “Listening back to old recordings and noticing how the emotion of the songs are still coming through, even after so much time.” Q - “Where can we find your album “Better This Way?” A - “You can find it at http://www.joegildermusic.com/ Q - “Tell us about something you’re excited about right now.” A - “I am most excited about writing more music, especially in the studio with my drummer and bassist.” Q - “How do you imagine capturing that writing process with a group of people like that?” A - “I think it would be let’s just set up a recording session and jam until we come up with something or jam to a click to build a track that way.”   The “Jam Session” Q&A: Q - “What was holding you back from getting started in recording?” A - “Feeling like I had to do everything myself.” Q - “What was some of the best advice you received about recording?” A - “Get it right at the source.” Q - “How about a tip hack or secret sauce that you would like to share from your experience?” A - “Committing to time-based effects at the time of the recording.” Q - “Do you have a favorite book you would like to share?” A - “I love the War of Art by Steven Pressfield.” Q - “Can you share a favorite hardware tool of the studio?” A - “I love the Avid Eleven Rack for the different guitar tones I can get.” Q - “How about a favorite software tool?” A - “Presonus Studio One. I don’t even have Pro Tools installed anymore.” Q - “Would you like to just drop a reference to one favorite new feature that exists in it that you’re liking a lot right now?” A - “I like the feature that lets you to route the plug-in chain on any channel and split the signal, and do different things on each part of the signal” Q - “How about a great resource for the business part of the recording studio?” A - “The Audio Income Project is the great resource for freelance engineers at http://www.audioincome.com/sp/24311-order” Q - “If you were dropped into a strange city and you could only take a simple setup for recording, what would you choose, how would you find people to record, and how would you make ends meet right away to continue recording?” A - “The rig - a laptop with Presonus, an interface, and a mic. People to record - you have to go to where the musicians are and find them. Q - “What if someone is in a town that doesn’t have many musicians?” A - “Everything can be done online now. http://crowdaudio.com/ is a great place for finding songs to mix.” Q - “How can our listeners follow you?” A - “http://www.homestudiocorner.com/, Simply Recording Podcast, https://twitter.com/joegildermusic, https://www.facebook.com/joegilder   For more about Joe go to HomeStudioCorner.com

Key Takeaways: Eliminate background noises before you hit record. Turn off fans, AC, or heaters, and set your phone to airplane mode. Listeners notice sound quality. Background noise and room echo is distracting and degrades the listening experience. If you have a noisy room or a room with a lot of echo and you can't treat it, record with a dynamic mic instead of a condenser and grab blankets or couch cushions and make a blanket tent or pillow fort. Some materials (sound panels) are more sound absorbent than others. Look up Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRC) numbers before buying materials to help absorb sound It's possible to improve sound quality a little bit with post production, but it's better to fix the problems before recording. How Do I Get Rid of the Hollow Sound or Room Echo In My Podcast Recording? I've noticed that a lot of people struggle with room echo and background noises, so I wanted to do this episode to help you start taking steps towards inproving the quality of your recordings. Sound Proofing and Sound Treatment Sound Proofing is the process of sealing your room so that outside noises don't get recorded by your microphone. This is normally done by installing special sound-absorbing fiberglass or mineral wool in the walls, floor or ceilings. You may not have much control over how sound proof your room is, but there are some things you can do to control the sounds being created in your space. Eliminate as much excess noise as you can: If you have loud AC or heating, turn it off while you record. Turn off notifications on your computer and phone. Set your phone to airplane mode. If you have pets, put them in a kennel or in a room far away from where you're recording. Put up a sign to let people know you're recording. Throw a thick blanket by the bottom of the door, or cover your windows to help reduce noise coming in. Remember: Eliminate background noises before you hit record. Turn off fans, AC, or heaters, and set your phone to airplane mode. Sound Treatment is reducing the echos and sound reflections in a room by adding things like sound-absorbing foam panels, bass traps, and sound diffusors. The Different Kinds of Echo Standing waves happen in rectangular rooms when a sound wave bounces off one wall, then back and forth between the two walls until the energy dissipates. This is most common in low-end frequencies, but can happen in high frequencies as well. Too much energy in the low-mid range (200-500hz) can cause a track to sound muddy or boomy. Remember: Listeners notice sound quality. Background noise and room echo is distracting and degrades the listening experience. Flutter echo is a ringing sound caused by sound bouncing off of parallel walls. You'll hear this in the high-end of the frequency range. Choosing the Right Room to Record In We don't always have a choice about the room we record in. When I started recording the seanwes podcast back in late 2013, I was recording in my “office” (which is just my dining room with a standing desk). It was a small room with only a little furniture in it, so there was quite a bit of flutter echo in my recordings. I tried to compensate for this by bringing in some big couch cushions. I ended up moving to a spare bedroom and building some sound absorbing panels to help with the reflections. (They did help.) The ideal room will be a room with quite a bit of soft stuff in it. Furniture like chairs, couches and bookshelves can all help absorb and diffuse sound waves. “Pretty much every room has its own sound, when you walk in the room, there is an enormous amount of factors that control what that room sounds like. The size of the room, the materials that make up the floor, the walls, any furniture in the room, all these things affect the sound of that particular room.” – Joe Gilder, Home Studio Corner The Kind of Mic You Use Matters I've found that most dynamic microphones are less sensitive to background noise and reflections than condenser microphones. Condenser microphones are more sensitive, more detailed, but they pick up EVERYTHING. So if you have a perfectly treated room with good acoustics, a condenser mic will give you great sound. If you are in a room that hasn't been treated and soundproofed, you'll run into problems. If you have a noisy room or a room with a lot of echo and you can't treat it, record with a dynamic mic instead of a condenser. Here's the gear I recommend if you're interested. When I first started recording podcasts, I was using a Shure PG42. It's a decent condenser USB mic, but I was recording in my dining room, so there was a lot of echo. If I had known then what I know now, I would have sold the PG42 and switched to a dynamic mic. Mic Technique for Podcasters Mic technique is another big part of how much room sound you'll hear in your recordings. The further away from the mic you are, the more room sound you'll hear. You should try to stay between 3 and 6 inches away from your mic while recording. How to Treat Room Echo I learned something new while doing research for this episode. It's something called NRC: Noise Reduction Coefficient. The NRC is a single-number (0 to 1) index determined in a lab test and used for rating how absorptive a material is. So a 0 is not sound absorbant at all (a surface that is complete reflective when it comes to sound waves), and 1 means the surgace absorbs all sound (no sound reflection at all). Here are the noise reduction coefficients numbers for some common materials: Brick, unpainted .00 – .05 Carpet, indoor-outdoor .15 – .20 Cork, wall tiles (1″ thick) .30 – .70 Drapery, light weight (10oz.) .05 – .15 Fiberglass, 3-1/2″ batt .90 – .95 Fiberglass, 1″ Semi-rigid .50 – .75 Marble .00 Plywood .10 – .15 Moving Blankets 0.3 – 0.5 Some materials are more sound absorbant than others. Look up Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRC) numbers before buying materials to help absorb sound. Sound Treatment Solutions for Podcasters If you're interested in buying sound treatment materials, here's what you need to know. 1. Egg Crate Foam. Almost worthless for low end frequencies, but decent for absorbing frequencies in the mid and high mid ranges. Pretty ugly, so I'd suggest buying acoustic foam instead. 2. Portable Sound Shields. The idea here is to have a shield wrap around the back of your microphone to stop your voice from reflecting off the wall in front of you and bouncing around. These work well (from what I hear) and start at around $50. 3. Furniture. Bookshelves, desks and couches/chairs can all help with sound absorbtion/diffusion, depending on the material they're made out of. 4. Blankets. Most blankets are only going to absorb the high end frequencies, and only if they're thick. A good thick duvet will be your best bet. 5. Carpet. Having carpet in your room will help a little. Thicker is better, but don't expect too much. 6. Bass Traps. Bass traps are usually wood frames with a lot of sound-absorbing mineral wool or fiberglass, usually at least 3 inches thick for absorbing extra low end frequencies. Very commonly places in the corners of a room. 7. Sound Diffusors. Sound diffusers are designed to scatter or disperse sound by using irregular hard surfaces to break up and scatter the sound waves. So imagine a table top covered with pieces of two by fours cut to various heights, that's what most sound diffusion panels look like. You can buy these online or build them yourself. 8. Acoustic Foam. Most acoustic foam doesn't do anything to stop low frequencies, but it will absorb the higher frequencies. If you hear a lot of flutter echo in your room, you can invest money in some acoustic foam panels to help treat it. DIY Sound Absorption and Diffusion Products for Podcasters You can build a lot of these absorption and diffusion products yourself. Check out: Build your own acoustic foam shield Build your own sound absorption panels (I used this site to build 6 of my own) Build your own bass traps Fixing Room Echo and Noise in Post Production You can use EQ to remove or reduce certain frequencies, 400hz for example. Listen to your recording and try to identify the frequcies where the room echo is most noticable, and then cut a couple db. Be careful not to remove too much; that will make your voice sound unnatural. There are various de-reverb and noise removal plugins available for audio editing apps like Logic Pro X and GarageBand, and Audacity has a noise removal feature built-in. My favorite method so far for cleaning up room echo has been an EQ plugin to remove some of the low-mid range (between 300 and 1200 hz). My favorite for removing background noise is a tie between Logic Pro X's legacy Speach Enhancer plugin (it has a nice denoise feature), or Izotope's RX plugins, which are often on sale for $29 (there's a plugin included in that pack called Dialog Denoiser that also works great for removing background and line noise). One other great option is the Auphonic website, which will clean and enhance up to 2 hours of audio per month (you'll pay for more time after that). The only downside is that it'll take a little longer because you'll have to upload the audio to a website for processing instead doing it on your computer. It's possible to improve sound quality a little bit with post production, but it's better to fix the problems before recording. Finally, if you're having problems with buzzing or other electronic noise in your recordings that you can't identify the source for, you may have a problem with your power supply. Buy a Furman power conditioner ($60), plug your computer and audio gear into that, and see if that solves the issue. If it doesn't, you may have faulty recording equipment or cables. Q&A: Kelsey asked: Can you discuss room noise related to living near an airport and frequent thunderstorms? Sound proofing is going to be your best bet here, but it's going to be challenging because you'll have to do some major construction to sound proof a room. Some people build a “floating room”, which is a room frame inside a room to make it more sound proof. You can read more about that here. Other than that, I would suggest learning more using post-production to fix or remove background noises. There are lots of software solutions for cleaning up audio files (see the several I listed above). Terence Tang asked: Without A/C or fans on, it gets hot in the room. For podcasting, it's fine because you can't see the person sweating, but what about with video? I don't want to be drenched in sweat on camera. Any suggestions? First; are you sure your viewers don't want to see your drenched in sweat? Seriously though, you can buy a quiet fan to help push some air, or just run the AC at full blast until right before you hit record. If you're recording with a shotgun mic, place the fan directly behind the mic to reduce the amount of fan noise the mic will hear. For podcasters wondering the same thing: The supercardioid microphone I'm currently (Shure Beta 87A) using doesn't pick up fan noise, but you should always make a test recording to hear how your recording sounds. If you can leave a quiet fan running without having it be terribly noticable, go for it. Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/

Key Takeaways: Eliminate background noises before you hit record. Turn off fans, AC, or heaters, and set your phone to airplane mode. Listeners notice sound quality. Background noise and room echo is distracting and degrades the listening experience. If you have a noisy room or a room with a lot of echo and you can’t treat it, record with a dynamic mic instead of a condenser and grab blankets or couch cushions and make a blanket tent or pillow fort. Some materials (sound panels) are more sound absorbent than others. Look up Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRC) numbers before buying materials to help absorb sound It’s possible to improve sound quality a little bit with post production, but it’s better to fix the problems before recording. How Do I Get Rid of the Hollow Sound or Room Echo In My Podcast Recording? I’ve noticed that a lot of people struggle with room echo and background noises, so I wanted to do this episode to help you start taking steps towards inproving the quality of your recordings. Sound Proofing and Sound Treatment Sound Proofing is the process of sealing your room so that outside noises don’t get recorded by your microphone. This is normally done by installing special sound-absorbing fiberglass or mineral wool in the walls, floor or ceilings. You may not have much control over how sound proof your room is, but there are some things you can do to control the sounds being created in your space. Eliminate as much excess noise as you can: If you have loud AC or heating, turn it off while you record. Turn off notifications on your computer and phone. Set your phone to airplane mode. If you have pets, put them in a kennel or in a room far away from where you’re recording. Put up a sign to let people know you’re recording. Throw a thick blanket by the bottom of the door, or cover your windows to help reduce noise coming in. Remember: Eliminate background noises before you hit record. Turn off fans, AC, or heaters, and set your phone to airplane mode. Sound Treatment is reducing the echos and sound reflections in a room by adding things like sound-absorbing foam panels, bass traps, and sound diffusors. The Different Kinds of Echo Standing waves happen in rectangular rooms when a sound wave bounces off one wall, then back and forth between the two walls until the energy dissipates. This is most common in low-end frequencies, but can happen in high frequencies as well. Too much energy in the low-mid range (200-500hz) can cause a track to sound muddy or boomy. Remember: Listeners notice sound quality. Background noise and room echo is distracting and degrades the listening experience. Flutter echo is a ringing sound caused by sound bouncing off of parallel walls. You’ll hear this in the high-end of the frequency range. Choosing the Right Room to Record In We don’t always have a choice about the room we record in. When I started recording the seanwes podcast back in late 2013, I was recording in my “office” (which is just my dining room with a standing desk). It was a small room with only a little furniture in it, so there was quite a bit of flutter echo in my recordings. I tried to compensate for this by bringing in some big couch cushions. I ended up moving to a spare bedroom and building some sound absorbing panels to help with the reflections. (They did help.) The ideal room will be a room with quite a bit of soft stuff in it. Furniture like chairs, couches and bookshelves can all help absorb and diffuse sound waves. “Pretty much every room has its own sound, when you walk in the room, there is an enormous amount of factors that control what that room sounds like. The size of the room, the materials that make up the floor, the walls, any furniture in the room, all these things affect the sound of that particular room.” – Joe Gilder, Home Studio Corner The Kind of Mic You Use Matters I've found that most dynamic microphones are less sensitive to background noise and reflections than condenser microphones. Condenser microphones are more sensitive, more detailed, but they pick up EVERYTHING. So if you have a perfectly treated room with good acoustics, a condenser mic will give you great sound. If you are in a room that hasn’t been treated and soundproofed, you’ll run into problems. If you have a noisy room or a room with a lot of echo and you can’t treat it, record with a dynamic mic instead of a condenser. Here's the gear I recommend if you're interested. When I first started recording podcasts, I was using a Shure PG42. It’s a decent condenser USB mic, but I was recording in my dining room, so there was a lot of echo. If I had known then what I know now, I would have sold the PG42 and switched to a dynamic mic. Mic Technique for Podcasters Mic technique is another big part of how much room sound you’ll hear in your recordings. The further away from the mic you are, the more room sound you’ll hear. You should try to stay between 3 and 6 inches away from your mic while recording. How to Treat Room Echo I learned something new while doing research for this episode. It’s something called NRC: Noise Reduction Coefficient. The NRC is a single-number (0 to 1) index determined in a lab test and used for rating how absorptive a material is. So a 0 is not sound absorbant at all (a surface that is complete reflective when it comes to sound waves), and 1 means the surgace absorbs all sound (no sound reflection at all). Here are the noise reduction coefficients numbers for some common materials: Brick, unpainted .00 – .05 Carpet, indoor-outdoor .15 – .20 Cork, wall tiles (1″ thick) .30 – .70 Drapery, light weight (10oz.) .05 – .15 Fiberglass, 3-1/2″ batt .90 – .95 Fiberglass, 1″ Semi-rigid .50 – .75 Marble .00 Plywood .10 – .15 Moving Blankets 0.3 – 0.5 Some materials are more sound absorbant than others. Look up Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRC) numbers before buying materials to help absorb sound. Sound Treatment Solutions for Podcasters If you’re interested in buying sound treatment materials, here’s what you need to know. 1. Egg Crate Foam. Almost worthless for low end frequencies, but decent for absorbing frequencies in the mid and high mid ranges. Pretty ugly, so I’d suggest buying acoustic foam instead. 2. Portable Sound Shields. The idea here is to have a shield wrap around the back of your microphone to stop your voice from reflecting off the wall in front of you and bouncing around. These work well (from what I hear) and start at around $50. 3. Furniture. Bookshelves, desks and couches/chairs can all help with sound absorbtion/diffusion, depending on the material they’re made out of. 4. Blankets. Most blankets are only going to absorb the high end frequencies, and only if they’re thick. A good thick duvet will be your best bet. 5. Carpet. Having carpet in your room will help a little. Thicker is better, but don’t expect too much. 6. Bass Traps. Bass traps are usually wood frames with a lot of sound-absorbing mineral wool or fiberglass, usually at least 3 inches thick for absorbing extra low end frequencies. Very commonly places in the corners of a room. 7. Sound Diffusors. Sound diffusers are designed to scatter or disperse sound by using irregular hard surfaces to break up and scatter the sound waves. So imagine a table top covered with pieces of two by fours cut to various heights, that’s what most sound diffusion panels look like. You can buy these online or build them yourself. 8. Acoustic Foam. Most acoustic foam doesn’t do anything to stop low frequencies, but it will absorb the higher frequencies. If you hear a lot of flutter echo in your room, you can invest money in some acoustic foam panels to help treat it. DIY Sound Absorption and Diffusion Products for Podcasters You can build a lot of these absorption and diffusion products yourself. Check out: Build your own acoustic foam shield Build your own sound absorption panels (I used this site to build 6 of my own) Build your own bass traps Fixing Room Echo and Noise in Post Production You can use EQ to remove or reduce certain frequencies, 400hz for example. Listen to your recording and try to identify the frequcies where the room echo is most noticable, and then cut a couple db. Be careful not to remove too much; that will make your voice sound unnatural. There are various de-reverb and noise removal plugins available for audio editing apps like Logic Pro X and GarageBand, and Audacity has a noise removal feature built-in. My favorite method so far for cleaning up room echo has been an EQ plugin to remove some of the low-mid range (between 300 and 1200 hz). My favorite for removing background noise is a tie between Logic Pro X's legacy Speach Enhancer plugin (it has a nice denoise feature), or Izotope's RX plugins, which are often on sale for $29 (there's a plugin included in that pack called Dialog Denoiser that also works great for removing background and line noise). One other great option is the Auphonic website, which will clean and enhance up to 2 hours of audio per month (you'll pay for more time after that). The only downside is that it'll take a little longer because you'll have to upload the audio to a website for processing instead doing it on your computer. It’s possible to improve sound quality a little bit with post production, but it’s better to fix the problems before recording. Finally, if you’re having problems with buzzing or other electronic noise in your recordings that you can't identify the source for, you may have a problem with your power supply. Buy a Furman power conditioner ($60), plug your computer and audio gear into that, and see if that solves the issue. If it doesn’t, you may have faulty recording equipment or cables. Q&A: Kelsey asked: Can you discuss room noise related to living near an airport and frequent thunderstorms? Sound proofing is going to be your best bet here, but it’s going to be challenging because you’ll have to do some major construction to sound proof a room. Some people build a “floating room”, which is a room frame inside a room to make it more sound proof. You can read more about that here. Other than that, I would suggest learning more using post-production to fix or remove background noises. There are lots of software solutions for cleaning up audio files (see the several I listed above). Terence Tang asked: Without A/C or fans on, it gets hot in the room. For podcasting, it’s fine because you can’t see the person sweating, but what about with video? I don’t want to be drenched in sweat on camera. Any suggestions? First; are you sure your viewers don’t want to see your drenched in sweat? Seriously though, you can buy a quiet fan to help push some air, or just run the AC at full blast until right before you hit record. If you’re recording with a shotgun mic, place the fan directly behind the mic to reduce the amount of fan noise the mic will hear. For podcasters wondering the same thing: The supercardioid microphone I'm currently (Shure Beta 87A) using doesn't pick up fan noise, but you should always make a test recording to hear how your recording sounds. If you can leave a quiet fan running without having it be terribly noticable, go for it. Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/

If you've thought about starting a podcast but haven't yet, this episode is for you. I want to address some of the reasons and fears you might have that are keeping you from starting a podcast or any kind of creative output that can help you grow an audience and establish you as an authority in your field. My goal is to break you out of the mindset that you might be in (the one that is keeping you from starting), and motivate you to start taking the steps towards launching your podcast. Key Takeaways: Start a podcast about whatever you are most passionate about. If you care about it, talk about it. You won’t run out of topics. The longer you podcast, the more things you’ll find to talk about. What community do you want to become a part of? What community are you already a part of, and do you want to become known as an expert? You don’t have to understand everything about making audio sound good before you start. You don’t have to get editing right the first time. Improve as you go. No one is going to kick you off the internet if you mess something up. After you get over the initial learning curve, you will get faster. Like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. We all have an equal amount of time in the day. It’s up to us to decide how to use it. In my brainstorming and research for this episode, I went through my email archive, searched Google, and asked folks what was keeping them from starting a podcast. Here’s the list of things I kept seeing pop up. 7 Reasons People Don’t Start a Podcast: I’m not sure what to podcast about, or what topics I should cover. I don’t know anything about recording or editing audio. I don’t have enough money to buy good gear. It seems like so many people are already podcasting. Why would anyone care what I have to say, and how do I stand out? I don’t have the time. I’m not good at speaking. I don’t know anything about making a website or podcast hosting. Roadblock #1. I’m Not Sure What to Podcast About, or What Topics I Should Cover. I get this. I was asking myself this question for about a year before I finally started my podcast. I was worried that after a few months I would run out of things to talk about. I was also worried that the topics I covered wouldn’t be interesting to my audience (more on that later). I have a few questions for you to help to you figure out what you should be podcasting about. First, what are you passionate about? What do you spend most of your time thinking about? What are you constantly excited about learning about? What do you love spending your time on? Start a podcast about whatever you are most passionate about. If you care about it, talk about it. There are so many examples of people make great podcasts that I could bring in, but I just want to mention a couple so you can see examples of people who have found success by podcasting about their passion. Chris Coyier has two podcasts; the Shoptalk Show and CodePen Radio. Both are focused around his passion, which is web design and development. He loves learning about web design, so he started the Shoptalk Show with another guy who loves web design, Dave Rupert. They talk about web design and interview people who love talking about web design. They invite their audience to ask questions about web design so they have more to talk about. This is one of the reasons their show is so successful: the hosts are passionate about web design and they’ve consistently shown up every week for the past three years to talk about what they love. Ryan Young (from the punk band Off With Their Heads) start a podcast called Anxious and Angry back in March of 2014 because he wanted to share his struggles with depression, anger, and the difficulties of being a independent touring musician. He’s obviously passionate about music, but like so many people (especially in punk rock, it seems), he struggles with self-destructive tendencies. So he talks about those things, and asks listeners to write in questions or share their struggles. He also interviews other musicians and highlights music from bands that he likes. Graham Cochrane from TheRecordingRevolution.com and Joe Gilder from HomeStudioCorner.com are both passionate about writing, recording, mixing and mastering music. They have created huge communities of people who share their passion because they share everything they learn and ask their audience what they’re struggling with. You won’t run out of topics. The longer you podcast, the more things you’ll find to talk about. What I’ve realized in my short time of producing a podcast is that the more I do it, the more topics I find to share. I feel like after ten shows, I’m just starting to see the tip of the iceberg of the topics that I could do podcasts about. I believe there are two reasons for this. Since I’ve committed to producing a show every week, I’ve started capturing topics as I come across them. I’m following and listening to people who share my passion for podcasting to see what they’re talking about. I get inspiration from them, I learn from them, and then I share what I’ve learned in my own words; through the lens of my experience. I’m becoming part of the broader conversation about podcasting. As I produce more and more content, people are beginning to see me as an expert in this field and they’ve started asking me questions. This keeps me grounded and connected to what my audience is struggling with and what they’re interested in. I encourage this by asking for questions and feedback. I want to know what other people are thinking and what their opinions are about the things I share on my show. What community do you want to become a part of? What community are you already a part of, and do you want to become known as an expert? If you start a podcast about whatever it is you’re passionate about, you’ll build relationships. You’ll make new friends. You’ll get new work opportunities. The same will be true for the people that become a part of your community through your podcast. Who is Your Audience of One? I heard a question the other day that I really liked. Who is your audience of one? The idea is that you should create your podcast for one other person. Have a clear idea in your mind about who that person is, and what they are interested in. Chances are, if you are passionate about something there are plenty of other people out there who are equally passionate about it. My audience of one is someone interested in learning about podcasting. So I ask myself, if I was hanging out with someone who was interested in podcasting, what kinds of questions would they ask me? What would we talk about? What would they be interested in hearing me talk about? If you have a business, or if you’re some kind of professional or aspiring professional, what can you talk about that would help potential clients? What stories can you share? What could you teach someone who is brand new to the field? What could you teach or share with someone who is at or around your level of expertise? These are the things I keep in mind when preparing for my shows, and I think if you think about those questions, they’ll help you find and shape the message of your podcast. Should I Create Content for Potential Clients or Other Professionals Who Share My Passion? Brent Galloway asked: With the content I produce, should I be concerned with it attracting two different audiences (other designers and potential clients)? Most of my content will be design oriented, but my site’s primary goal is to bring in client work. This is tricky: Should you podcast or create content for the other people who share your passion or for potential clients? I think creating for the other people that share your passion will attract clients that want to work with people who are known for being an expert. If the client skims your list of podcast or video titles and they see the wealth of knowledge you’ve shared, they will trust that you have experience, and they’ll feel confident that you are capable of solving their problems for them. This will help you attract the right kind of client as well: Clients who want to hire you for your expertise and not because you’re the cheapest option. Roadblock #2. I Don’t Know Anything About Recording or Editing Audio. I talk a lot about the importance of audio quality because I believe high-quality audio is one of the most overlooked factors in why some shows are more successful than others. I want you to have a successful show, and sounding great can help your show be successful and grow. What I don’t want is for you to wait to publish anything until you have the perfect setup and the perfect sound. You’re not ever going to get there. I know, because I’m already looking at upgrading microphones and I’m constantly looking for ways to improve my sound. You don’t have to understand everything about making audio sound good before you start. You don’t have to get editing right the first time. I’m going to share a short story here about my drumming career, how I got started, and how it relates to podcasting. When I started playing drums at 12 years old, it was because I was intrigued by them. I wanted to learn how to play this instrument that had so many different pieces and sounds. I wanted to participate in a band; be the guy who held down the rhythm. There were so many things I didn’t know. I didn’t know any of the brands of the companies that made drums and cymbals. I didn’t know anything about how the size of the drums affected the way they sound. I didn’t understand or have much control over the dynamics of my playing. I certainly didn’t have any idea of how to make a living as a musician, but that didn’t keep me from getting started. The very first step was pick up the drumsticks. After that, I learned a few common rhythm patterns (called rudiments), then I sat down behind a drum set and I learned how to play a couple of basic rock beats. Eventually, I learned how to play entire songs. Fast forward 13 years and almost 10,000 hours or practice later, and I was playing in front of hundreds of people, getting paid money to play drums. I’m telling you this because you have to take that first step if you want to get better. Then you have to take the next step, and the next step, and you have to keep taking steps. What is the First Step in Starting a Podcast? The first step to starting a podcast is deciding what you want your show to be about. The more specific, the better, as you'll need to be able to quickly describe what your show is about in order to convince people to listen to it. After you’ve decided on your show topic or focus, try recording a practice episode. Find a quiet room, pick up your iPhone (or whatever smart phone you have), open the voice recorder app, and hold it a foot from your face (microphone pointed at you). Talk for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, an hour. If you aren’t used to talking out loud to your phone, it might feel a little weird at first, but it’ll get easier over time. Recording practice episode is a great way to get comfortable with recording. Roadblock #3. I Don’t Have Enough Money to Buy Good Gear. At some point, you might want to upgrade microphones, but you don’t need a $500 setup to be a podcaster. You can get started for almost nothing. When I started playing drums, I had a pair of sticks and a little practice pad. After a year, my parents bought me a used $300 drum kit (it was crap). After ten years, I had upgraded to over $2000 worth of professional gear, but that professional gear wouldn’t have made me a better drummer in the beginning. I had to learn how to play drums before the gear even mattered. Professional gear will not make you a professional podcaster. Improve as you go. No one is going to kick you off the internet if you mess something up. You don't have to get everything perfect the first time, or even the first twenty times. It’s a journey, not a pass/fail test. The important thing is to start and then keep going. If you care about getting better, you’ll find ways to improve and get better as you go. Roadblock #4. It Seems Like so Many People are Already Podcasting. Why Would Anyone Care What I Have to Say, and How Do I Stand Out? “No one is going to care” is just an excuse we tell ourselves because we are afraid of rejection or not receiving attention. There are tons of people out there that need the knowledge you can share. Maybe you won’t start off with thousands of listeners, but everyone has to start somewhere. If you clearly define the “why” of your podcast, other people who share your interests will find you. This is the beauty of the internet. When you start, you might be podcasting to no one. That’s ok. Keep going. Go out and find the questions that people in your audience are asking. Don’t have an audience yet? Think about what kind of people you want in your audience, and then find out what they’re asking or looking for. Roadblock #5. I Don’t Have the Time. This is true for all of us especially if you are motivated, if you have a lot of projects and passions, if you have a family or a full time job. It’s hard to find time. It’s hard to make time, but that’s what you have to do. Eric Friedensohn said: The main thing that is keeping me from starting a podcast is that I can see how much work goes into making a good one, and it’s pretty daunting. Lately I have been sticking to mediums and platforms that are working for me, rather than jumping into a whole new world and adding that onto my weekly plate. Podcasting does take time, but there are different levels of commitment and how much time each episode will take you. One of the guys I mentioned earlier, Joe Gilder (who does the Home Studio Corner podcast), gives himself an hour to produce each episode. 45 minutes to prepare and record, and then 15 minutes to edit, write basic show notes and publish. I know he can do each episode in an hour because he has experience and has his workflow down, but it is possible to record and publish an episode in less than a couple hours. After you get over the initial learning curve, you will get faster. Like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Charli Prangley said: What’s holding me back from starting a design blog (which I really want to do to start trying to get client work) is all my other projects I’m committed to and LOVE doing. I thought this was interesting, so I just wanted to bring up a few questions: What if you could get better clients if you blogged consistently for a year? What if you could work with people you look up to and respect? Do you currently have any projects that you aren’t super stoked about? Do you foresee yourself wanting to transition into something else later down the line? I’m not here to convince you to start a podcast or a blog. If what you are doing is working well for you, that’s fine. Keep doing it. If you have plenty of money but are short on time, you can hire people to help you with editing, show notes, and admin work. A lot of people hire podcast editors and assistants to help with their podcasts. They spend maybe an hour each week preparing for their show, then they record, and after that, they don’t have to do anything else. The show gets fixed up and published. There’s no rule that says you have to record an hour long podcast and write 5,000 words of show notes. When you’re just starting out, it’s ok to limit your show to 15 minutes or less. As you get better and more experienced, you might find yourself wanting to do longer shows. Podcasting is a Good Investment of Your Time I heard a great story recently on the Mac Power Users podcast. The author of a popular blog about Apple called Daring Fireball – John Gruber – described how he got a full time job from someone who was a reader of his site. So if I told you that if you invested an hour or two of your time every week to create a podcast it would eventually lead to better job opportunities or new clients, would you invest that time? Something else to consider: Are there things that you could give up to create time for podcasting? How much time are you spending browsing social media or Reddit? How much TV do you watch every week? We all have an equal amount of time in the day. It’s up to us to decide how to use it. Roadblock #6. I’m Not Good at Speaking. Friend of the show Brent Galloway posted his first Youtube video today. We were talking about it in the chat earlier, and Sean said something to Brent that I thought was really profound, so I want to share it with you here. Sean said (to Brent): It’s crazy, you probably feel like you’re just sort of sticking your neck out there and you see all the things you need to improve and do better, but for every one Brent, there are 99 others who just sit back and passively listen. You are the 1% of people who are actually doing and you’re so far ahead. I know what it feels like to be dissatisfied with your voice. Recording a podcast is hard. You want to do a good job so you’re stressing about it. After you record, you listen back and you think, this is terrible. I can’t believe I messed up that word. I can’t believe I talked in monotone for 15 minutes. Sean is right. If we put ourselves out there, if we try, if we create stuff, there are going to be 100 other people that are going to consume what we make, but they aren’t going to be creating themselves because it is hard. It is a risk and it is scary putting yourself out there. If you feel like you aren’t a good speaker, I encourage you to go listen to episode 9 of this podcast, What If I Don’t Like My Voice? You find tons of useful information there. Also check out the work by Roger Love. He’s created a lot of great content about speaking publicly. Roadblock #7. I Don’t Know Anything About Making a Website or Hosting. The good news is that you don’t have to have a full website to start a podcast. Simplecast is $15/month and will give you everything you need. No coding, graphic design or complicated setup required. Q&A: Garrett asks: I’m afraid (the thing I make) will take off (because it will) and then people will start looking into my history and they’ll find my high school livejournal that I can’t remember the password for. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I think we all have those old embarrassing blogs. The good news is that most people are not going to care enough to go digging around in your past. If they do, it’s probably because they really like you and they want a deeper connection. They probably have old embarrassing blogs of their own. I wouldn’t worry about the tiny number of people that might go snooping around just to dig up dirt; those people are jerks and no one likes them anyways. Ben Toalson asks: I don’t have time to do a podcast AND a weekly blog AND a weekly newsletter AND a weekly vlog. What should I focus on? Ben, you are already doing three of those four things, which is more than what most people do. For those of you who don’t know who Ben Toalson is, he’s the co-host of the seanwes podcast, and he does a show with his wife called In the Boat With Ben (a podcast on balancing family life with a creative pursuit). He does a weekly podcast, but he also writes extensive show notes (what I would call a blog post), and sends those show notes out to an email list. That’s how we do things on the seanwes network. You can do something similar with your show. It is a lot of work, but it’s easier than producing three separate pieces of content every week (podcast, blog post, email newsletter). Start with writing, then repurpose that content for different mediums as much as possible. Sarah asked: My husband and I did about 30 episodes of our podcast but now it’s at a standstill (because of me). Not sure if I want to continue with it. Not really gaining traction (that I know of) and also I’m not sure what I’m trying to get out of it. I think he was more into it than I was. How long should it take to start receiving feedback, comments and a little more traffic from a podcast if done regularly? If you create a show that isn’t gaining traction or resonating with anyone, I would take a hard look at the content. Are you addressing topics that your audience are interested in? Are you asking for feedback and questions? Are you having conversations with people about the topics? Regularly producing a podcast isn’t good enough if you aren’t creating content that resonates with people. If your podcast is extremely niche, there may not be that many people who share your passion and are also interested in listening to your podcast. You should also take a close look at audio quality and SEO. If you have a podcast and you’re doing a good job with your titles (they should be something your audience would want to click on), but you aren’t writing much in terms of show notes, you’re missing out on organic search engine traffic. I’d recommend checking out episode 5, How to Supercharge Your Podcast and Increase Its Value With Writing. There’s a lot of good advice in there about why show notes are important, and how you can create them. Let’s talk audio quality for a minute. Some listeners have a higher tolerance for poor audio quality than others. If you are recording with an iPhone or a built-in laptop microphone, you may lose listeners because your audio quality isn’t great. Most of those listeners probably won’t let you know, either. They are just going to turn off your podcast and forget about you. There are too many other podcasts out there with great content and great sound quality. You don’t have to have a super-expensive mic, a professional recording studio, or an audio engineer to mix your show, but you need to have a decent mic and know how to record at proper gain levels and do the basics of post-production (editing, mixing, noise removal, etc). Satvik asks: My clients are pretty specific: CEOs of growing startups with complex accounting needs. How do I figure out the best way to reach them? Should I focus on podcasts, blog posts, videos or referrals? First, word of mouth referrals are the best way to get new clients. Having your client’s friends recommend you is really powerful. As far as content goes, start by identifying what your clients are interesting in learning about. What problems are they having? What are they struggling with? What do they want to learn about? Can you create content that gives them some new insight or shows them how you solved a problem? Start with writing. Write a blog post about how you solved a problem for one of your clients. Write as many of those blog posts as you can, because that will attract clients that are searching online for those answers. Turn those posts into podcasts and then video. Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/

This week Jon interviews Joe Gilder. Download Show #241 LINKS Like our Facebook Page Jon on Twitter Ryan on Twitter Home Studio Corner Support us with any purchase on Amazon.com Some of Joe’s training products Dueling Mixes Understanding EQ Understanding … Continue reading →

Discover 5 cheap tips for creating an expensive sound in my interview with Joe Gilder. Joe has been helping home studios excel for more than 4 years now. He is the author/creator of homestudiocorner.com and brings a lot to the table of affordable home recording. http://freerecordingtools.com Ep 29 | Cheap Ways to Create Expensive Sound With Joe Gilder appeared first on Home Music Studio 1.

We're back in the Studio with Joe Gilder, audio engineer and podcaster, for part two in our discussion about audio post production for podcasters. On this episode (part 2 of 2) Joe and I open up the audio editor and take a look at the effects we use when post processing our audio for podcasting. Specifically we […]

There's lots of training online for audio post production. However, most of the information is focused on mastering audio for music. As podcaster's our main post production concerns involve techniques related to mastering for voice only. Joe Gilder is an audio engineer who masters music for a living however  he's also a podcaster. So I […]