"Howmst've to Podcast" by Nate

I’ve recently given some thought to making an ebook or some kind of a primer for making your own podcast, but while that’s still far off in terms of development, I figured I might share some basic workflow stuff for any of you that are considering starting your own show.

I am in no position to lecture anyone on industry trends and various LinkedIn influencer ideas about digital media, but at present I’m involved in the production of 6 different shows in the US and UK, so I’ve gained at least some sort of insight into what I’ve seen work.

Frequency

Having a show means you have to be willing to devote time out of your schedule, whether it’s a weekly, biweekly, or monthly thing. Francis and I have just made it a point to do our show once a week at a bare minimum, which I think you should expect to do if you want to have a show gain an audience. Pick a release date and stick with it, if possible.

Exceptions to this: if you’re going to do shows with guests every single week, preferably guests who are somewhat experienced on the topic of discussion, I think having a twice-monthly show would work fine. Reportage and in-depth focus is worth way more than “live in the studio with the boys,” but logistically the latter is way easier than the former.

Length

A part of me dies each time an episode is over 60 minutes. I aim for 50-55 minutes on every show I produce, but a well-organized 30-minute episode would likely earn you more goodwill among your listeners than 75 minutes of banter. I am, as the French say, le grand hypocrite for saying this, but obviously banter is easier. You just shouldn’t feel obligated to go long if the topic doesn’t warrant it.

Bonus content

Obviously monetizing a show means you have to have some bonus content. You all are amazingly tolerant of us given how inconsistent we have been at times, but as we’ve transitioned into doing this more professionally you might notice that we’ve made it a point to offer some bonus content every week. Whatever the schedule for bonus content release is, stick to it.

Sound quality

No one wants to listen to a show that sounds like shit! We don’t all have access to a studio, but even a “recorded off the laptop” sound can work if you give it a basic treatment. If I were to design a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for sound quality, it would look like this:

• Level 6:                    it’s The Nod’s “Knuck If You Buck” episode
• Level 5:                                  EQ/mastering applied
• Level 4:                                Noise reduction applied
• Level 3:                          It was recorded with external mics
• Level 2:                Levels are consistent throughout
• Level 1:     I won’t sustain hearing damage from listening to it

All of this of course comes with a cost, and not everyone can afford it — I get that. There are, however, some small things that can make a huge difference.

Microphones

Some of you (the old heads among us) might remember when I was one of the hosts of Task and Purpose Radio. While recording that show, I used the following mic setup.

You can buy it for about $75 USD new (I’ve seen the mic itself for $40 on eBay). For my money it sounds 90 percent as good as the setup I currently use, for far less upfront cost. You need to make sure to be close to the mic (and use the pop filter), but you can do a ton with this. The entire series of Task and Purpose Radio was done on these mics, as were all of my Hell of a Way episodes up through summer 2017.

This was my setup then, with equipment costs:

•      Microphone: ATR USB-2100 ($67)
•      Filter: Dragonpad pop filter ($10)
•      Interface: USB connection from mic itself
•      Recording software: Quicktime (you can use Audacity if you have a PC)
•      Total: $77

We’ve been getting Patreon money since January 2017 and, when I still had a day job, I re-invested my earnings into gear. I currently record with the following setup:

•      Microphone: Shure SM7B ($399)
•      Filter: pop filter included with mic
•      Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd Generation ($119)
•      In-line preamp: Cloud Microphones CL1 line lifter ($149)
•      Recording software: Adobe Audition ($15 per month)
•      Total: $667 + $15 per month in software fees

Damn, that’s a lot of money! Was it necessary? Probably not. I’m just insane. Although I’ve lost hearing due to my Army career, I still hear huge differences in sound quality and became fixated on improving my practice. That said, I recommend using a digital audio workstation software (DAW) like Adobe Audition, GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, etc. The end goal is to be able to do the following:

• Tweak your recording to sound bigger, cleaner, and more “in-studio”
• Reduce noise, hum, or any kind of background sound
• Easily edit out, cut, splice, and reassemble multiple tracks
• Mix down to a single file that you can export

One of the benefits that I had early on is that, because my wife and I lived in a 300-square-foot apartment, there was basically no echo in our place when I recorded. If you listen to the initial episodes with Francis and myself, he’s recording inside his antebellum southern manse and I’m recording in my shoebox living room / kitchen / cube. So, he sounds echo-y and distant and I sound very much in your face. However, those initial episodes were produced for free in Audacity, and we got them out there, so it wasn’t a huge deal.

I recommend Audition for the following reasons: it’s easy to use, has great on-board noise reduction / mastering tools, and its learning curve is not super steep. To be fair, it’s also the software I’m the most used to. I have also purchased two plug-in effects for post-production. They are:

• iZotope RX noise reduction ($100)
• iZotope Ozone mastering suite ($100)

These sound great but are not necessary. Adobe Audition’s “Adaptive Noise Reduction” works great as well, and comes free with the software.

My workflow

Every recording is different and you'll have to get used to which settings work for you. That said, when I approach a recording, I typically do the following on each track and adjust as needed:

• Dynamics processing: noise gate -60dB to -50 dB
• Adaptive noise reduction
• Speech volume leveler set to "Careful"
• Single-band compressor set to "voice over"
• Parametric equalizer with small spikes at 40Hz, 50Hz, 80Hz, 200Hz, 3200Hz, 13000Hz
• Hard limited set to -6dB

I then mix down to one single track, apply a mastering setting to -16 LUFS, and export as a mono MP3 file.

Why mono? It saves file space and, unless your podcast engineer is Brian Wilson, there's likely not much of a need for a stereo track. Also, having mono means it sounds the same in both ears of headphones. An unbalanced stereo master will make your listeners hate you. I use the following settings when I export:

• MP3 file
• 112 kbps
• Mono

Hosting

Honestly, start with a free Soundcloud or Podbean and work your way up to the point where you need a fee-based service. If you're going to spend money and you don't have any income yet from the show, spend it on either mics or software before you spend it on hosting — there will be time for that later.

Once you have a show title, logo, content, etc, submit your RSS feed to aggregators. We currently use Liberated Syndication, but I've maintained our SoundCloud account in case we ever switch back to just that.

Anyway, this is just a start. If you have any questions, suggestions, or information that will make me look like a huge idiot, please post it here. And for the serious heads, here is a screenshot of my usual workflow in Audition: