Pod Sound School
Pod Sound School
Audio Production and Advanced Editing - STILL IMPORTANT???
Hey Podski!
It's been a while since we've podcasted on this feed. But we do like to pop in periodically to experiment and give you updates since there are still many people tuning in.
We also like to leave our back catalog here because this podcast is really what started it all for us. So thanks for tuning in, and I hope you enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/@contentjefe
Audio production and advanced editing techniques and why they're important. Let's talk about it. Hey podcast enthusiast content creator, welcome to the Pod Sound School podcast. This is Studio Steve, although I'm kind of transitioning now into Steven, but I really needed an alter ego to be comfortable showing my face on YouTube at first, but now the name Studio Steve feels a little bit ridiculous.
Speaker 1:If you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, you know that we have really retired this podcast and moved to another podcast, the Content Jefe podcast. You can find a link to that podcast right where you're listening to this one. However, we also like to experiment and pop in here every so often to make updates to this podcast, and you will also find here, right where you're listening, all of our past episodes. And this podcast was really our baby. It will always be very special for us, so we keep it hosted here so that you can listen to our back catalog.
Speaker 1:And now things at Content Jefe, our new podcast, have changed, where Veronica has really taken the lead and is really moving forward as the main host of that podcast. So I thought this would be a great place for me to pop in periodically to talk about my passions in an audio only format and to really get into the weeds of really what started Pod Sound School to begin with, and that was this desire to improve the audio of our podcasts. I noticed when I was getting into podcasting years ago that a lot of indie podcasts sounded like trash. Well, nowadays, fast forward six, seven years, things have gotten a lot easier in terms of audio production, and it brings up a lot of questions now when it comes to audio production and advanced editing techniques or processing techniques like compression and EQ and de-essing and noise reduction. With the new advancements in AI and all these new tools that we have, are those things really valid or worth your pursuit in time to learn and to master so that you can improve the audio of your podcast? Or really is it just kind of putting some foam up in your room, using a nice podcast microphone and pressing one of these magic buttons? And really I have to say, the magic buttons are getting pretty magic and, in particular, what I'm talking about with magic buttons is one magic button inside the application Descript which is really making some amazing advancements, especially for independent podcasters, and that's the studio sound button. There's also something similar built into Adobe and in Premiere or even in Adobe Audition, it's called the Essential Sound Panel, and within that panel there is a podcast voice preset that uses a combination of the same standard effects that have been used for years for broadcast and podcast voices and that really is a collection of the same effects that you see across the board.
Speaker 1:Compression, and by that we mean dynamic range compression, eq, de-essing, noise reduction, and that's about it. Oh, also limiting, which is another type of compressor, and that's kind of our final master effect that we do Now. Normalizing has been something that a lot of people have been using for a long time and that's become standard across the board too. Descript will automatically normalize your audio when you pull it in there. A lot of editing applications are doing that now, and since loudness standards have been implemented on huge platforms like YouTube and Spotify, everything seems to be kind of automatic in terms of that compression and noise reduction and general EQ. And if you're doing content creation YouTube videos, podcast episodes and you're creating your own content independently, well, there's tools now that you can just press magic buttons and you'll sound like a professional.
Speaker 1:So that begs the question for an audio guy like me, who, if you didn't know, I come from a long background of audio production and that's really what I spent the early part of my life obsessed with. Does that mean that all of what I've learned is kind of no longer relevant, or am I like a travel agent? Or is there still a place to understand the complexities of these audio production tools? And is there still a place for analog audio? Or is that really just for audiophiles and those who like to collect things and remember the way that tape sounded? I'm not really precious about the way that tape sounded, because I also remember how tapes had to be rewound. So my real answer to this question is really it is still incredibly valid and important, especially when it comes to higher production projects television, big projects with big budgets, film, obviously, and music production, especially sound design, all of those areas of study and professional areas of working.
Speaker 1:Yes, you're going to need to have a profound understanding of audio production recording fundamentals and these processing tools that I just mentioned. You have to have that level of control, very detailed level of control and parameters of every item of your audio mix. When you're working at that level but many of us are not working at that level we just need to record our voice professionally while we're staring into a camera and then give it a preliminary or decent edit so that we can at least get some content out there and start building influence for ourselves online. And that's really what we want to urge people to do is not get so hung up on all of the audio production fundamentals. And yes, that's coming from an audio guy who started a company six years ago with my wife to help people improve their audio. Well, now AI is really going to help you improve your audio. More than an understanding of dynamic range, compression or EQ will ever help you to improve it, and there's now can be more of a focus on creativity and really putting yourself out there, stepping into the spotlight and spending your time getting better at the craft. That is going to give you the influence that you deserve, the attention that you deserve on whatever your pursuits may be.
Speaker 1:So thanks for tuning in. I will keep these episodes bite-sized. I will talk about concepts audio production specifically, but maybe even video production, the crazy amalgamous world that is content creation and podcasting, and this new digital economy, the attention economy, content marketing, all of this fun, crazy, creative stuff that we get to get our hands dirty with. So I hope you come back every week, so I hope you come back on a regular basis to our content and that you stay creative. You stay inspired and full of vitality and ready to take what's yours. Talk to you later.