in brief after the first 50 episode of the Macworld Podcast , I was tasked with producing ( though host just every other week ) these weekly utter - audio elbow grease . While I have made adaptation to some of the putz I expend , my workflow has changed very little .
Gear and location
We typically commemorate from one of two locations . One is the in - office studio apartment that we ’ve dubbed thePodcave . That studio is equipped with fourShure SM58microphones with pop - filter suspend fromHeil HB-1boom stands , Sony MDR - V6 headphonesfor each player , aPreSonus FireStudio Projectmultichannel audio port , and an iMac run GarageBand to record everything . The other location is my home studio apartment where I use a vintage AKG 414 microphone along with an Apogee One USB interface plugged into my Mac Pro .
The locating have a beat of isolation and prophylaxis in plebeian . The office studio is well insulated from outside interference , and we have made many efforts to keep citizenry inside the room from add undesirable haphazardness . For instance , the board - mount boom stand are padded at the base so that any table - top tap and whaps do n’t travel up the point of view to be picked up by the mic . Likewise , cables are lather well out of the way . And the pappa filters are placed far enough from the mic ’s business organization terminate that it ’s nearly unsufferable to be so close-fitting to the mic as to overdrive it .
Because my home is in the country , I have fiddling external noise other than the casual rooster crowing and horse cavalry whinny . A Do Not stir up sign keeps family members out of the area . I expend as many fan - less devices as possible . And I have a floor - standing tripod mic stand with the same kind of pop - filter arrangement so I do n’t overpower the mic .
Remote recording
Because of my home base ’s fix , in - studio apartment invitee are extremely uncommon . or else , I memorialise our remote guests over the spare Internet representative messaging applicationSkype . The lotion I utilise to do this is Ecamm connection ’s $ 20Call Recorder . One advantage of Call Recorder is that when installed , it ’s found forthwith within Skype . Just open Skype ’s preference , click theRecordingoption , and create your recording configurations . A little Call Recorder window will now appear whenever you launch Skype . To begin memorialize both incline of the conversation , just get across the Call Recorder ’s redRecordbutton .
Once you ’ve finished transcription , Call Recorder creates a two-channel QuickTime pic filing cabinet : One epithelial duct hold your audio track and the other the content of the Skype trail . Call Recorder include a set of tools for easily splitting and converting the resulting file into disjoined audio caterpillar track , which you’re able to then embroil into GarageBand for editing .
Under ideal condition we do n’t use that Skype recording . Skype can be unreliable — cutting out , dropping birdcall , or grow untempting audio artifacts . And even when it behaves itself , in a multiparticipant podcast , you face the issue of having all those voices on a Skype caterpillar track , where their volume may be wildly unlike .
Instead , we ask the participants to record their own part and then upload it to a host where I can retrieve it and incorporate it into my GarageBand project . We do this to get a decipherable recording . If a participant does n’t have the power to record their side of the conversation , if it ’s too much to ask of a peculiarly officious guest , or if something goes untimely on their oddment , we cross our finger’s breadth and fall back on the Skype track .
Cleanup time
One challenge of using client - memorialize track is that you have no control over their gear , their microphone ’s gain , or the room they ’re recording in . The recording levels may look large and vocalize perfectly satisfactory on the Skype data track , but when you receive each participant ’s recording , the mass may be too live or too downcast , there could be backcloth noise , or someone ’s plaguey drug abuse of grind away on their desk , could be picked up by their mic .
At one time I attempted to fix the worst of these job using GarageBand ’s control and effects plug - atomic number 49 . But the build up - in tools can be a little all-inclusive in their abilities , and there ’s no command that essentially tells GarageBand , “ check that that every track ’s level is about the same , even when someone whisper or yell . ”
When face with a challenging intermixture like this , I get out GarageBand behind and move around to Adobe ’s $ 349Adobe Audition CS6 . Audition is made with audio editing and cleanup in intellect rather than euphony , and as such , it contains a draw of solid tools for making the most of our podcasts .
With one command , I can poise loudness among tracks . remove constant noise is as simple as try the offending speech sound and applying and tweaking a filter . If I have to deal with a Skype track with piteous EQ , I have several controls at my fingertips for do the track vocalize more natural . If someone miss a pop filter and there are loads of stop , Audition has a couple of unlike way to tackle them . And , unlike GarageBand , Audition includes a ripple - delete characteristic . Just select a portion of the recording you ’d like to delete , impose the ripple delete command , and the trouble audio is run and the message that follows is automatically come in where you marked the cut . GarageBand requires several step to do the same thing .
Export business
Once I ’ve clean up the audio , I export the mixture as a single mono racetrack . This I import into a new GarageBand Podcast projection .
Why not just export from Audition and be done with it ? The reason is simple : Enhanced podcasts . There are in the main two kinds of audio podcasts — audio - only podcasts and enhanced podcasts . What make the latter “ enhanced ” is the inclusion body of graphics and chapters . ( I leave the contingent on produce an enhanced podcast inHow To make Podcast Chapters . ) When you let in chapter in your podcast , listeners can easily skip to just the portions of the podcast they wish to take heed to . If , for instance , you include three topics in your podcast , listeners can easily vamoose to the one that worry them . For particularly long podcasts , I feel it ’s the gracious matter to do .
Regrettably , most audio editing applications are clueless when it comes to enhanced podcasts . GarageBand , however , is n’t . It takes a act more time to make such a podcast , but I feel it ’s clock time well spent .
With all that done , I ’m generally quick to commence planning the next hebdomad ’s podcast .
