#27: Podcast Editing Is Technical And...
...practical, logical, emotional and more! It's a full bodied experience.
Simple Podcast Editing is for freelance podcast editors globally that want :
simple DAW tips and tricks
encouragement to experiment with their editing and editing business
practical business ideas/info like how to find clients, price services, etc
a global podcast editing community that likes to share and grow together
There’s a Simple Podcast Editing podcast, YouTube channel , services & an Instagram account. And more coming in 2022!
My current tools: Mostly Hindenburg but with splashes of Audacity
Date: October 14, 2021:
Location: Split, Croatia
READER FEEDBACK:
Thanks so much to Podcast Editor & Sound Artist
Ross for this feedback on Twitter after the last issue. He’s also offered to contribute to the newsletter in the future so get ready for some guest posts!
CORRECTION:
In the professional development section of the last issue I excitedly talked about Alexandra’s podcast editing business course. And I added the wrong link. Here is the right one. It’s my affiliate link, fyi. https://courses.alexandrastennett.com/af/145033239/1106967
BUSINESS
-FINDING NEW CLIENTS: Cold email outreach
Have you ever reached out to the folks at a podcast you’re an active listener to? I have only done this once or twice but it was when I was more of a Host and not an Editor with a capital E yet. I’m thinking of trying it again, especially for one podcast that I adore too much to name. Because I’ll never audio shame anyone. Ever.
In anticipation of this outreach, I’m making a list of what the email should include. Here’s an initial list.
Why I’m listening to their podcast
How long I’ve been listening for
Why I’m emailing (to offer my editing services)
How I can make their podcast sound better (gently mention issues distracting to listeners)
website link, rates maybe and thank them for their time
This particular Host is a very busy Businessman so I’m going to lean on bullets and short paragraphs to get my point across.
What am I missing?
-PRICING SERVICES: All of me
I’m really liking Alexandra’s The Business of Podcast Editing course. Week 2 started with us mapping our personality and skills to our ideal clients. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to work with Podcasters who edited their own podcasts for awhile and then sought out an Editor.
What I didn’t think about much in the beginning was if the potential client matched my values and personality. How should potential clients act, feel and behave so that I’ll want to work with them? Alexandra stresses this in the course and it’s been refreshing. I’ve been so focused on my technical skills that I often forget to “offer” my other rather strong podcasting knowledge and experience. Well, that oversight is over!
I’m moving to a package fee structure and adding, as John Legend would say, “all of me” into the experience. And as you may imagine, this shift in my fee/service structure will increase my fees and build stronger, longer term client relationships. Which is exactly what I’m looking for in this stage of my podlife.
-NETWORKING: Seeking global groups
The current communities list that I’ve got is very US focused and I’d like to add more groups that are outside this country. I know a lot of communities are online right now and open to editors from around the globe but there are differences. If you know of any podcast editor groups or communities that we could add to this list, please let me know.
And if you don’t have the current Podcast Editing Communities list yet, hit just email me with “Communities list” in the subject line for your free copy.
RECORDING
-NEW TOOLS: Tascam Mixcast revisited
In the last issue, I shared the Better Podcasting folks review of the Mixcast. And a few days later I heard Adam Curry giving a really extensive review of it on Podcasting 2.0. This review is more technical than the last one and thus lengthier. But if you’re curious. Have a listen here, starting at to12:40
-MICS: Shure MV7X
Elsie Escobar reviewed this new mic on The Feed recently
and
Ray Ortega made a video about it also.
DAW CORNER
-SPATIAL AUDIO: mix³
This was such a fun article to write. I’ve got a few videos coming out on the YouTube channel soon that show how the cloud software works.
-DAW DISCOVERIES
If you listened to/watched Kur’s Logic Pro episode of Simple Podcast Editing, you probably heard me explode when he matter of factly mentioned that there is a notetaking feature in Logic Pro. This is NOT just a marker, there are actual notes that you can write. He showed us. There are actual words involved here. Instantly I wanted this. Does your DAW have this feature? I’m mostly using Hindenburg and it doesn’t.
-DAW TIMESAVER
Confession time, I can’t get Isotope to work on my computer. So instead of constantly trying to do (or not do) the same thing over and over, I decided to try something different. I’ve been playing with EQ more to get rid of tinny audio, echoey audio and the like. I had a client file last week that was recorded with a Blue Yeti at an in person conference. Game face on, I opened up the EQ part of Hindy and went to work.
I actually found that adjusting the EQ from within the voice profiler (pro feature) was more effective than doing it from the EQ effect itself. I don’t have the technical terms to describe to you what I did but in my own terminology I dragged the highs curve and dragged it around until I liked how it sounded. One thing that my tutor taught me a few months ago is to find out where the audio sounds the worst and then go to the opposite part of the screen. Don’t worry about the visualness of this because I’ve made some videos that I’ll share soon showing this method and more.
I got so confident with how this turned out that I offered a podcasting friend to play with an echoey episode she had. I wanted to try this EQ play on her echo issue. I made videos about trying this out in Hindy and Aduacity. I’m waiting to hear back from her on if she can hear a difference between the files. I can but I’m not the one who matters who it’s someone else’s podcast.
Takeaway: EQing can actually be fun BUT it’s super hard to describe.
SOUND CONSIDERATIONS: Compression & Normalization
It’s funny because I used to focus so much on normalization so much when I used Audacity but with Hindenburg, I never think about it. But I make a point to add compression to every audio file. Is this an error, I’ve started to ponder. Hindy auto levels but does that mean it auto normalizes.
To answer this question, I referred to the Studying Sound book that I adore.
The author writes:
“…with compression, we are adjusting the portion of the audio that is below a certain threshold. With normalization, we are setting the overall volume to a standard level. “
For someone with strong “what sounds good” ears but no formal training in all this, the above is clear but doesn’t answer my Hindy question yet.
When Editors talk about “leveling, “which are they referring to: normalization, compression, both or neither?
I just added this question to the Hindy group boards on Facebook. Will report back in the next issue. If you know, feel free to hit REPLY and comment. Thanks.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: NaPodPoMo, National Podcast Posting Month
I’ve got a lot of tidying up of the SPE world. The project is changing and growing but I can’t keep up. But I can. I’m using National Podcast Posting Month, NaPodPoMo’s one month podcasting challenge to get creatively and business organized.
Every day that month I’ll be posting a mini podcast episode/YouTube video about an aspect of the SPE ecosystem that I need to figure out or that works well. I’ll be contemplating as well as sharing tips and tricks. This is my 3rd year doing NaPodPoMo and it’s hard to do 30 days in a row. So I’ve been recording some episodes now to get ready. And every episode is a business clean up. What pressure. What clarity. What work. I love this kind of challenge, especially in winter when my energy level dips quite a bit.
OUTSOURCING:
Before moving last month, I finally purchased a cloud back up service and ditched my external hard drives. It was a hard thing to do but the peace of mind is intense. It’s amazing actually. Everytime I think, oh, when did I back up last, I stop. And giggle. It’s only $60 a year and well worth it. I’m outsourcing my worry and computer file copies. Hurrah!
Backblaze (my affiliate link): https://secure.backblaze.com/r/02g6cq
-My social medianess:
Twitter:
podcasting/life: @stephfuccio
Podcast Review Day: @podrevday
Instagram:
Simple Podcast Editing: @simplepodcastediting
coffee (my best IG grid by far):@geopatscoffee
Geopats Balkans (where I'm living): @geopatsbalkans
Graffiti: @geopatsgraffiti
LinkedIn: @dstephfuccio
Soundly yours,