The Podcast Engineering Show

My guest is Stephen, a mix engineer working on mostly hip hop, rock, and alternative music. We talked about many aspects of audio engineering, including: Processing the human voice, Rode NT-1, Neumann TLM-103, ProTools 12.5, EQ'ing first, Pultec EQ, De-esser before and/or after EQ, Multiple compressors in series: The first one having slow attack and fast release, The second one having fast attack and slow release, FGX mastering software by Slate (he used to use Ozone 7), Constant Gain Monitoring.

My guest is Ric Viers - Sound Designer, Sound Effects Producer, Author of The Sound FX Bible, Full Sail University Hall of Fame Inductee, and Creator of The Detroit Chop Shop web series! We discussed recording sound effects and audio on-location: Using Multiple mic's simultaneously, Rode NTG3, Ambience mic's, Rode NT4, Large diaphragm mic's, NT2000, NT1, Blimps, Dead cats and wookie condoms, Fostex FR-2 recorder, Post-production using Soundforge Pro, Editing, Normalizing, Vegas, Acid, Subtractive EQ.

My guest is Roy Stegman - Audio Engineer, Podcast and Audiobook producer, and Host of The Complete Audio Producer podcast. We had a blast discussing lots: SM57 with a wind screen, Original PreSonus Blue Tube, FastTrack Ultra, TC Electronics Loudness Meter, SSl E Channel Plugin, Legacy LA2A plugin, Nigel Amp simulator plugin, UAD1 and UAD2 - signal processing units from Universal Audio, Marking edit spots in Adobe Audition, What is 32 bit float and where is it used?

Today I'm using my new microphone for the first time! Actually it's over 30 years old - a vintage RE20 from the 80's I believe, and courtesy of Marc Johanssen. I spent time dialing in the settings on my channel strip to make the mic sound tip-top. NEWS: I'm proud to announce that I am now a resident expert (of audio engineering) in the Podcasters' Society! NEW GEAR: I purchased a Zoom H6. I also reflected briefly on Podfest again. Love that conference.

My guest is Kirk Bowman, host and producer of The Art of Value Podcast. We had fun discussing his equipment, workflow and processing including: MOTU 1248 interface with 4 XLR inputs and Routing matrix, AVB (audio over ethernet used to connect multiple interfaces together), Thunderbolt to Mac, Built-in effects, Match Loudness in Adobe Audition, Multitrack recording, Processing each track to -18 LUFS using Auphonic, Multiband compression during mixdown, Editing, and upgrading equipment as he grew.

My returning guest is Mary Mazurek! She is an audio engineer with 25 years experience, radio producer at WFMT Chicago. We discussed: Recording ping pong balls being poured into an open piano!, Identical stereo pairs of AKG 414's and Schoeps mic's capturing the room in stereo, Spot mic's on each musician including KM 184, DPA, Shure's, Blending close mic's and room mic's, Lexicon 300, F5 Fusion, 8 channels of Grace mic pre's, ProTools mastering and MP3 creation, and on location ISDN line.

My guest is Mike Murphy, host and producer of Mike Murphy Unplugged. He also created the Podcaster Toolkit. We discussed: The Essential Sound Panel in Adobe Audition (match loudness feature, etc., Recording resolution (32 bit, 44.1 kHz), EQ'ing by rolling off lows and adding "air" on top, Shure SM7B mic, Rode NT-1 mic, Rode PSA-1 boom arm, CL-1 Cloudlifter, Allan and Heath ZED-10 mixer, Sony MDR 7506 headphones Recording into a Macbook Pro, and normalization.

My guest is Rob Greenlee, Head of Podcast Content at Spreaker, host of the Spreaker Live Show, and co-host of the New Media Show. Topics discussed included: Doing sessions on his Surface Tablet w/USB hub, SM7b and ATR2100, Mackie Mixer, Digimax 220 USB Interface, Levelator, Soundforge, Editing, and recording directly into the Spreaker platform.

My guest is Patrick Keller, host and producer of The Big Seance Podcast. Note: We talked a bit about EVP's (electronic voice phenomena), which are basically audio recordings of ghosts and spirits! We talked about: Behringer Q802 USB Mixer, dbx 286s channel strip, Heil PR40 mic, MXL 990 mic, Audacity, Auphonic, Zoom H5 recorder, Editing a lot!, Making teasers, and Generating the MP3 using iTunes.

My guest is Jason DeFillippo - producer of The Jordan Harbinger Show, cohost of Grumpy Old Geeks podcast, and Podcast Editor. Here's some of what we covered: PreSonus 192 interface, 2-3 Mac mini’s for connecting guests and hosts, Ecamm call recorder, Apollo 8, Zoom H6, RE20, RE27 ND, AT-2005, Logic Pro, Zencastr, Rolls MS111 Mic Switch (cough button), Cloudlifter, Contour Design ShuttlePRO v2, and MX Master mouse.

My guest is Adron Buske, host and co-producer of the Nerd for a Living podcast, and co-founder and creative director at Armadian Creative. We covered a lot: Alesis Multi-Mix 8 - USB, Pyle 4 channel headphone amp, MXL 990 mic, AudioTechnica AT875R condenser, Sterling S50 condenser, MXL 2006 condenser, Sennheiser boom mic for location recording with Rycote Softie windscreen, Zoom H4n recorder, Monoprice Acoustic Isolation Shield, Boom Arms, and Pop Filters.

First, Chris did a speed round on his own equipment and workflow! Then he spoke in detail about his new stuff, including: Why he tweaked his Neve Portico II channel strip settings, Neumann KH 120 A, RX 5 Advanced, Ozone 7 Advanced, Neutron Advanced (Track Assistant, Dynamic EQ, etc), Sheps 73 (emulating the Neve 1073, 12k high shelving, Mid-Side mode), Abbey Road Plates, Abbey Road J37 Tape, VComp and VEQ4, Zynaptiq ZAP Bundle: Unfilter, Unveil, Unchirp, Pitchmap, and SPL De-esser Dual-band.

My guest is Zack Hanni, audio engineer and owner of Soma Recording Studios. We discussed several topics in great depth: Impedance (Hi-Z and Lo-Z), EQ, Compression (Multiband, release times, auto-release), Introducing distortion to add some high frequency presence, Zack’s typical vocal processing chain: EQ w/ hi pass filter at 80-150 Hz, Light Compression, Via a Send to a return track: EQ, Heavy and harsh Compression, Overdrive, Limiter, Presonus FaderPort, and Izotope Nectar.

My guest (for his 2nd appearance) is Max Flight, host of Airplane Geeks Podcast, co-host and producer of The UAV Digest and the #PaxEx Podcast. We covered: Aston Microphones “Spirit," , Warm Audio WA12 mic pre (Max saw it at a Guitar Center, "Look honey, it's orange!" and Googled the reviews, so he bought it at a really good price), Waves DeBreath plugin, Spitfish de-esser (one of his guests on Airplane Geeks had a huge sibilance problem)

My guest is Garth Humphreys, host and producer of Audio Pizza, iBlindTech and Aussie Mac Zone. Garth lives in Australia and we had a fun session. We discussed: Rode NT-1, Amadeus Pro, Audio Hijack Pro, FX Chains on individual tracks as well as the main mix bus, Auphonic to append and prepend music, intro, etc., Editing tips, and We also covered 3 handy functions in Reaper (they are also possible in most other DAW's).