The Podcast Engineering Show – Details, episodes & analysis

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

Overview my current audio equipment setup: 

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

Overview my production workflow: 

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

First I produce the video:

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

Then I produce the audio-only podcast:

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

FRACTAL BITCOIN LINKS: 

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

A GREAT BITCOIN RESOURCE: 

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

OTHER NOTES:

The start date for the next PES semester is JUNE 4, 2024! (fyi, the course is delivered once per quarter)

Check out the PES YouTube channel.

My smaller course for editors/producers who want higher-paying clients: Getting New Clients at Higher Rates. 

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

~Chris

I overview 8 podcast production tips and techniques from recent blog posts (see list below).

1. Upward Compression --*** FabFilter video on Upward Compression
2. Is It Necessary to Tweak the Sound of Royalty-free/Stock Music Tracks?
3. Want To Approach Potential Clients but You Have a Fear of Rejection --*** Rejection Proof book
4. Unplugged Kingsize Megaphones in the Pähni Nature Centre by students of the Estonian Academy of Arts
5. Can Some Particular Microphones Exacerbate Sibilance?
6. Podcast Editing: A Chore or Labor of Love?
7. Are Your Podcast Episodes Loud Enough?
8. Independent Podcast Editors and Producers: Are You Profiting Enough?

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• The start date for the next PES semester is February 20, 2024! (fyi, the course is delivered once per quarter)
• Check out the PES YouTube channel
• If you’d like to share this show with any of your podcaster friends, feel free to send them a message saying, “Btw, here’s a show about podcast audio production you may find useful” with this link: https://podcastengineeringschool.com/subscribe/
• My smaller course for editors/producers who want higher-paying clients: Getting New Clients at Higher Rates

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

Today I’m going to discuss some mistakes I’ve made producing podcasts.

Microphone: In this episode I’m using my Electro-Voice RE320 microphone plugged into my Neve Portico II channel strip (using compression, EQ and a bit of saturation). The same microphone you see in my daily short videos here.

I mention a recent hiking experience I had where a guy who saw my shirt (which says Ask Me About My Podcast) and asked, "What's your podcast?" And then immediately added, "JUST KIDDING!” We all laughed and he didn’t ask again so I didn’t mention my podcast at all. HA

• I published one of my client’s episodes with 30 seconds of silence at the beginning. The client alerted me and I fixed it immediately.
• During an online recording session, after a participant dropped off and then returned, I forgot to press record again in Squadcast, but of course I was recording a local backup which I ended up using (though it was a bit of a pain because all participants were mixed together in the backup recording). NOTE: Squadcast fixed this issue a long time ago.
• On an in-person recording session I forgot to hit record and realized it after about 5 minutes so we had to start the episode over again and sort of feign authentic enthusiasm when redoing the intro.
• I've mixed audio on my monitor speakers while mistakenly using the calibration profile for my headphones.
• Untold inaccuracies using processors too aggressively, or not aggressively enough — Compression, de-noise, de-plosive, EQ, etc.

• If you ever have questions please reach out!
• You can sign up to receive Daily Goody’s in your email a few times per week or a weekly roundup. Sign up here.
• The start date for the next PES semester is January 10, 2023! (fyi, the course is delivered once per quarter)
• If you’d like to share this show with any of your podcaster friends, feel free to send them a message saying, “Btw, here’s a show about podcast audio production you may find helpful” with this link: https://podcastengineeringschool.com/subscribe/)

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

My guest is Andrew Chadwick, long time radio engineer, and audio mixer and editor for Pod Save America!

We discussed so much - here's a few things we covered:

• Extreme time pressure when producing audio
• Receive files, make edits, mix and assemble the show
• Submitting audio for QC
• Tight turnaround: Start recording at 1 PM Central, finish recording around 2:30 PM Central, post at 4 PM Central
• Manually ducking everyone when they’re not speaking
• Adobe Audition
• Different sessions for each segment of the show
• Limiting
• Audition’s Tube compressor plugin
• Mix to 32 bit 44.1kHz WAV file, then create the MP3
• AM Radio experience

Thanks for being a great guest, Andrew!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email

Enjoy my brief overview of recent Daily Goody's (from Aug. 2 - Aug. 13). Here's the link to view all those blog posts. And don't forget that you can sign up to receive the Daily Goody in your email every day or once per week. Sign up here.

Thanks to Focusrite for sponsoring this episode! If you haven't checked out the new Focusrite Scarlett 3rd Gen. series of interfaces yet, you can see them here.

NOTE: I did not do any post processing on any of the audio in this episode, in order for you to hear the difference between the two microphones as well as the Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen.

Sounds a lot different from a normal episode, right? That's because of the lack of compression and EQ, etc.

Announcements:

• The start date for the next PES will be January 14, 2020
• Upcoming episodes: Andrew Chadwick and Sarah Wendel!

Big Thanks to everyone who comments on the website Daily Goody posts!

I appreciate you listening, and if you have any questions please let me know :)

If you know anyone who would like to learn more about the technical production of podcasts, please share this show with them.

Punarmilāma!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email

My guest is Tom Kelly - audio engineer, podcast producer and editor at Clean Cut Audio. Check out his own shows - Reminiscent, Podcast Me Anything, and Podcarnage.

We discussed almost a million things, including:

• Shure SM7b
• Apogee Ensemble
• Pro Tools 12
• Double enders
• AKG Perception 420
• Macbook Pro (maxed out)
• Waves WLM meter on Master Buss to determine LUFS level.
• Noise Shaping 1, 2, or 3 dither - when downsampling from 24 bit to 16 bit.
  MP3 - 128kbps stereo,
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Kensington SlimBlade trackball
• Strip silence, threshold of -29 db
• RX6 voice de-noise
• RX6 de-reverb
• Waves de-esser
• FabFilter Pro-Q 3
• Waves Vocal Rider
• Waves API 2500
• All vocals sent to stereo aux
• LinMB
• Maxim (only catching clips/peaks, not actually doing any dynamic work)
• Dither noise-shaping 3
• WAV files: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz
• MP3s: 128kbps stereo
• Yamaha HS7s
• ATH-M50 headphones
• Squadcast
• Klipsch earbuds

Thanks for being a great guest, Tom!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email

Enjoy my brief overview of recent Daily Goody's (from July 19 - July 31). Here's the link to view all those blog posts. And don't forget that you can sign up to receive the Daily Goody in your email every day or once per week. Sign up here.

Announcements:

• The start date for the next PES will be January 14, 2020
• Join the Podcaster's Lounge livestreams every Wednesday 9-11 PM Eastern / 6-8 PM Pacific via YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook!
• Whoever is your best friend who podcasts, please share this show with them today. Tell them, "Hey - you should check out The Podcast Engineering Show."
• The newly formed International Podcast Association wants to hear your voice! Please take a short survey here: https://internationalpodcastassociation.org/survey
• Upcoming episodes: Tom Kelly, Andrew Chadwick, and Sarah Wendel!

Big Thanks to everyone who comments on the website Daily Goody posts!

I appreciate you listening, and if you have any questions please let me know :)

If you know anyone who would like to learn more about the technical production of podcasts, please share this show with them.

Punarmilāma!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email

My guest is Scott Somerville, audio engineer and podcast producer!

Here's some of what we discussed in terms of Scott's equipment, software, workflow, etc.:

• Wondery studio: Mac mini, UA Apollo 8 interface, Cloudlifter, RE20’s, Pro Tools. Plays theme song, adds a segment, edits it, mixes it, Art19 for hosting, etc.
• Headphones: Sony MDR7506
• Speakers: Genelec 1029 (powered) with 4” woofers
• Home - SM57, UA Apollo (2 inputs)
• Mobile - Macbook pro, Presonus interface, various mics
• Plugins: Waves SSL E and G channel strips, Waves F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ (adaptable in itself, vocal cleaner preset), Waves WLM+ to monitor levels
• iZotope RX: de-click, etc.
• Lots of automation
• He chimes in on the “Ask Eliza Anything” podcast

Thanks for being a great guest, Scott!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email

Enjoy my brief overview of recent Daily Goody's (from July 5 - July 17). Here's the link to view all those blog posts. And don't forget that you can sign up to receive the Daily Goody in your email every day or once per week. Sign up here.

Announcements:

• The newly formed International Podcast Association wants to hear your voice! Please take a short survey here: https://internationalpodcastassociation.org/survey
• The next semester of PES starts September 10, 2019 -- and the next semester after that will start in January 2020!
• Join our Podcaster's Lounge livestreams every Wednesday 9-11 PM Eastern / 6-8 PM Pacific via YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook!
• Upcoming episodes: Scott Somerville, Tom Kelly, and Andrew Chadwick!

Big Thanks to everyone who comments on the website Daily Goody posts!

I appreciate you listening, and if you have any questions please let me know :)

If you know anyone who would like to learn more about the technical production of podcasts, please share this show with them.

Punarmilāma!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email

My guest is Barry Gary from The Louisville Cycling Podcast! He hosts and produces the show, and he is a graduate of Podcast Engineering School.

We discussed a lot, including:

• Zoom L-12 digital mixer
• Using Zencastr, Zoom and exploring Squadcast
• Heil PR-40
• Shure SM7b
• Cloudlifter
• He also has an RE-320, Rode Procaster, Shure SM-58's, and some Sennheiser broadcast headsets that I can use in noisy locations
• dbx 286s
• Reaper
• iZotope RX 7
• Mac Pro desktop machine
• Waves plugins
• For my remote recording he uses either a Zoom FN8 or H5
• Using plugins in Reaper (EQ, gate, compressors, etc)
• Mix down to WAV
• Detailed edit in Twistedwave
• Assemble all episode audio Audition including music, intro, ads, conclusions, etc.
• Final mixdown to a stereo WAV at 48K, as well as stereo MP3

Thanks for being a great guest, Barry!

DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.

Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer?

Listen and Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Android, RSS, Email