DevDiscuss podcast production tools and process?

Hi Rowe,

Sounding good "lately," and not for all time??! ;)

• What tools are you using? … mostly interested in the software.

I edit and mix the episodes in Pro Tools. I use a range of plugins from Izotope, Waves, Fabfilter, and some other places.

• How do you record remote guests?

We record remote guests through Zoom, and I have the guests record a local recording on their end typically using Quicktime or Audacity on whatever the best microphone they have is (this is the biggest variable, and ranges from professional quality mics, a MacBook Pro internal mic, USB mics like Blue Yetis and such, or their smartphone as a secondary recording device that they hold up to their face while doing the interview).

I record two backups, one through Zoom itself, and the other through Audio Hijack. The difference between a good producer and a great one is paranoia.

• What is the production process for recording, editing, mixing down and publishing?

It starts with all of us sitting in an editorial meeting pitching episode ideas and potential guests. Then I generally have a short chat with those guests to get a feel for them and what they might be excited to talk about themselves on the podcast, which helps be build a script/interview prep for the hosts. The day of the recording, we all connect through Zoom and I make sure that the guest's setup sounds as good as it can. One of the biggest bummer factors is if they are in a super echoey space, which mitigating in post usually makes their audio sound the most processed.

After the interview is done, I have the guests and hosts send me their audio through a pCloud link. I import those files into Pro Tools, sync up the audio, which is generally and hour to an hour and a half of recorded tape. Then I typically edit down that audio for time and flow to get it down to about 40 minutes. What gets cut are things that I think are extraneous, ums, stumbles, and repetition.

I polish and mix the episode along the way, but do a final pass at the end just to make sure nothing sounds off.

• File formats? … assuming 48khz 32bit mono wav track for each guest, then a stereo music track. What are you mixing down to? do you render out the mp3? what bitrate, etc?

I make and export my sessions at 44.1khz, 24bit, and bounce the file as a WAV and an mp3 at 192Kbps.

• Microphone hardware? compression settings?

We have most of our hosts using a Shure Beta 87 microphone with a USB adapter.

Plugin settings for compression and such be my little secrets :)

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I hope that satisfied your curiosity, and thanks for listening!

Best,
Levi