WEBVTT - Behind the Scenes at HowStuffWorks - Audio 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.119 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from com 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.720 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.720 and today we're gonna do another behind the scenes here 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.080 at how stuff works. And of course, since this is 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.400 tech stuff, we're going to be looking at a technical 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.560 aspect of it. And to that end, I brought in 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:31.720 our super producer, Extraordinar Noel. I Knowel, Jonathan, Thanks for 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.400 having me. Yeah. Normally you are on the other side 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.200 of a window in our our podcast to you, where 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:42.159 a very fancy microphone hovers above your head, sort of 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.840 like looking into a terrarium or something. Yeah, and you're 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:48.479 wearing at least one set of headphones, if not to uh. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.360 And while I lost my earbud, so lately I've been 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.680 having two full sets of headphones on at once and 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.760 it looks kind of insane to people walking by. Is 0:00:55.800 --> 0:01:01.120 a little crazy. And and while an episode recording within 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.560 these walls, you are typically also editing another episode at 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.600 the same time. It's true. So before we get too 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.479 far into this, let our listeners know which shows do 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.760 you edit and produce? Sure, so I do text stuff 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.199 your other show Forward Thinking. I do stuff you missed 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.919 in history class. I do stuff to blow your mind. 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.440 I do stuff they don't want you to know, and 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.000 I do car stuff. Am I missing anything? I think 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.399 that's everything? So so really, stuff you should know is 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.360 the only one. Excuse me, stuff Mom never told you 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.600 as well. So stuff you should know is like the 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.080 only one you don't do, the only one I don't do. 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.360 So so Jerry the Wonder Producer handle stuff you should know. 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.200 Nole handles everything I do. Guest on Stuff you should 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.320 know when Jerry's out though, And that's true, I've gotten 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.680 some very kind shoutouts from the Stuff you should Know Army. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.240 They they are They are nothing if not passionate. You know, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.040 they really appreciate the work that goes into these shows, 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:04.160 as does the tech stuff. Audience were really appreciative of that. So, uh, 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.840 why don't you walk us through what it's like to 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.160 produce an episode on your your side of because I've 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.320 talked extensively a couple of times about what it takes 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.280 on my side to create an episode. So, whether it's 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.640 a tech stuff or stuff Mom never told you or whatever, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.320 what are the steps that are involved? I mean, we 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.480 recently got some pretty great new digs are in our 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.400 new office at Pont City Market, which you know involves 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.840 for me a much more soundproof environment. We have like 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.080 an actual studio space that's treated for sound um, both 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.680 with acoustic tiles and also like in the construction they 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.760 actually put in some sound dampening material. UM. So there 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:46.600 is a window installed, and I'm on the other side 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.480 of the window with a talkback mike, so I can 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.000 communicate with the folks that are doing the show. Um 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.079 case we need to stop or talk about anything. But 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.639 the most basic show involves more or less just recording 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:02.840 everyone and then I record through UM several SM seven 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.200 B sure microphones, which are actually the very popular for 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.880 using in like studio work for recording bands. Michael Jackson 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.040 used them exclusively on Thriller. It's like a really clean, 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.480 great mike for recording close up and for getting kind 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.480 of like a really intimate sound. Um. It's what they 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.519 call it dynamic microphone, whereas a condenser microphone picks things 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.799 up much farther away. With the dynamic mic you tend 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.200 to cut down on a lot of room noise and 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.040 it's just a lot more of a direct kind of 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.960 intimate sound. So radio in general tend to use dynamic 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:36.480 mix in the SM seven is one of the most 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.119 popular ones. So, yeah, the dynamic mics, and I've talked 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.280 about this before and tech stuff as well. It's the 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.080 type where if you get off track of a mic 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.240 from too far off in either direction, uh, it no 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.160 longer picks up your your voice as well. And so 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:52.400 so if you ever hear like a dramatic drop in 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.440 someone's volume in a podcast, well, first of all, that 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.880 rarely happens because we usually will catch it beforehand. But secondly, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.240 if it does happen, it's generally because a person who's 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.000 talking has somehow like leaned too far over or as 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.480 otherwise they're no longer addressing the mic directly. Condenser mike's 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.840 pick up things from all over. Like you were saying, 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.400 I had um for a long time. I was using 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.359 a condenser mike at home for whenever I had to 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.840 record stuff at home. And I remember at the time 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.680 my dogs, if they were running across the floor, you 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.040 could hear their their nails, their their claws clear. There 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.599 are things like the air conditioning, just like room tone 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.680 is amplified significantly, so with these dynamics, you know, as 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.080 long as you're kind of up close to the mic, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.000 you're not going to get as much of that. And 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.160 then there's also processing that I do after the fact 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.240 that kind of cuts down some of that. But right, so, 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.039 so what are you recording into? What? What is what 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.440 other equipment are you using the sides of the microphones. Yeah, 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.360 we just got a kind of a new setup since 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.480 we moved into this new space, which is great. So 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.679 all the mics are fed through like a cable snake, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:57.800 which is basically just like kind of a thicker cable 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.880 that can incorporate several microphone lines into one and so 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.320 that goes through the wall and then it feeds into 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:08.680 an APPA g UM quartet, which is a four input 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.080 UM what they call an audio interface UM a sound 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.120 interface by the company APAGE, which has been around for 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.680 a long time and is really known for having excellent 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.719 analog to digital converters because that that's what's going on 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:22.840 when you're taking an analog signal from a mic and 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:24.680 then you're plugging it into one of these devices and 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.039 recording and digitally, it behooves you to have a really 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.360 good conversion so that you're not losing anything in the process. UM. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.360 Then that is going into we use Adobe Audition, which 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.680 is just a part of the Adobe Creative Suite UM 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.840 to record and UM. Every every channel of audio goes 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.120 on its own independent track. So if we have a 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.680 show like Foward Thinking, where there are three hosts, there 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.560 are times where the levels may need to be adjusted 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.360 independently of one another. So having them on their own 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.120 separate track makes that possible, whereas if it was all 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.760 recorded in one thing, then it would all be kind 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:59.640 of mixed and you would not be able to actually 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.080 make it. Ustman. It also means if one of us 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.799 is making like some weird noise that we don't realize, 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.320 you could actually mute that on that track. Yeah. Uh. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.560 And speaking of weird noises, one of the things that 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:13.920 we're gonna treat you guys to a little bit later 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.880 is something that Noel has creatively done with some of 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:21.360 the myriad of weird noises that have been produced into 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.160 these microphones, uh normally unconsciously. And uh, well we'll get 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.440 to that a little bit later. All right. So the 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.360 the microphones you've talked about, you've talked about the the processing, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.240 the conversion of that from analog to digital, uh, and 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:41.039 using Adobe. So once something is recorded, What is your 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.239 next step? UM, So I don't actually edit the shows 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.520 on the machine, the computer that I record them on. 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.680 So I actually, um have a Dropbox account that I use, 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.719 and so I take all of the files, the individual files, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.120 and then I export them to my drop box and 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.080 then I can access that on my my laptop that 0:06:58.120 --> 0:06:59.440 I use, so I can edit when I'm in the 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.520 officer them out and I bring them back into another 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.360 another instance of Adobe. But I use several um what 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.280 they call audio plug ins on each track to kind 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.600 of process and bring up the levels and normalize the 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.160 levels so that no one's louder significantly louder than anybody else, 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.480 and use what's called compression to kind of you set 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.720 basically a compressor. You you set a threshold and you say, I, 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.280 once the audio reaches this level, I want it to 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.280 be reduced a little bit. So that kind of is 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.480 a good way of like making sure everything is sort 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.960 of operating on the same volume so that something doesn't 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:36.520 just pop out all of a sudden and as much 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:38.680 louder than something else. So you kind of have an 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.640 instance of these compressors on every track, and you set 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.160 a threshold, which is like the maximum volume, and once 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.280 the audio reaches that level, it kind of like gently, 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:49.640 you know, tones it down a little bit, so that 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:51.800 like you kind of have an understanding of what the 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:56.360 maximum is for everybody, right, yeah, so, uh that is 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.440 really important with things like a speech like lots of 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.400 lots of uh spoken word type stuff where you have 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.880 multiple users. Obviously, with music, it's one of those things 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.280 that you try to to use in limited amounts because 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.960 you don't want to. You don't want to. One of 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.280 the things compression does is it reduces the distance between 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.600 the softest and loudest moments. And and the more you compress, 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:24.120 the more uh, the more say everything gets. Yeah, it's 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:25.920 sort of this thing music, which I mean I also 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.440 produced a lot of my own music um as well. Uh. 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.280 It's what they call the loudness wars. So like if 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.120 you opened up an audio track and like put it 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.120 into Adobe audition where you can actually see it as 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.240 a wave form, nine times out of ten you're gonna 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.400 see you know, a wave form typically has a peak 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.160 and a valley, so like a maximum volume and a 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.240 minimum volume. But with modern music these days, you kind 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:47.840 of tend to see it all is a big giant 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.040 block because they've compressed it so much that there is 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.840 no dynamics, so there's hardly any difference between the quietest 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.920 parts and the loudest parts. With speech, it's more of 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:58.800 like a like a band aid. You're kind of just 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:00.840 using it to sort of like make sure nothing is 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.720 unpleasant for someone who's listening to it on on different system. 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.600 So it's like now, all of a sudden, someone screaming 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.079 in their ear. With music, it's obviously a different, different problem, right, 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.520 So so with those wave forms when you're looking at that, 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.559 I'm assuming, because I've noticed this with a lot of 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.160 audio engineers, that you can look at a wave form 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.719 and kind of get an idea of what was an 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:26.680 intentional noise versus something that someone's just done accidentally without 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.440 even having listened to it. Yet. I imagine that happens 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.120 fairly frequently, like particularly for small things. I know that 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.920 I work on a podcast outside of work, and often 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:38.560 I will be looking at the wave form and one 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.560 of the first things I want to do is take 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.280 out any annoying little things that would be distracting in 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.960 the middle of someone talking um and like someone clicking 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.319 on keys or something. And I can almost always tell 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.200 immediately just by the size of the little blip in 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.160 the way form that like, Yeah, I think I just 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:57.360 need to get rid of that. I don't even need 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.800 to listen to it, because one, I already know it's 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.960 to be this this noise, and too it kind of 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.880 creeps me out. So I'm just gonna take that out. Yeah, 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:06.959 I mean, like a lot of times, like a click 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.360 or like a like a somebody slamming their fist down 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.200 on a table or something, it just looks different visually 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.760 than like a natural speech pattern would look. So like 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.000 us we call it kind of like a spike, so 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.000 like sort of like a momentary spike in the wave form, 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.400 which kind of just looks like a straight line, whereas 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.320 you know, a natural pattern of speech where someone's talking 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.480 and not really stopping, it looks a lot more rounded 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.400 and kind of like you know, you can definitely tell 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.160 the difference between the two for sure. Well, then let 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.760 me ask you this, Uh do you have anything set 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:42.040 so that uh, like, are there any threshold set for 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.079 for for noise where anything below a certain amount just 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:47.480 doesn't even get picked up? Yeah, that's that's called that's 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.440 called a noise gate um, and it can be tricky, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:52.280 and I don't use it on everything, but on forward 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.800 thinking where there's three mics, it just tends to um 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.400 introduce this potential to introduce a lot more noise because 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:01.920 you've got three open mics and people talking, there's there 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:03.920 tends to be bleed on the other mics with what 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.080 they call it when you hear the you know, the 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.200 indirect sound of someone talking on one of the nearby mics, 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.520 on a mic that's not being used. And once you 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.600 start getting a lot of that, you start getting issues 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.080 with phase where you start things kind of start to 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.720 sound a little swishy and weird kind of. So when 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.680 you use a noise gate, you set a threshold on 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.959 the low end um whereas the compression you set it 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.720 more on the high end. So when something falls below 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.360 a certain threshold, it just kills the channel, it kills 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:37.320 the audio. But there's different like um little adjustments you 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.880 can do so it's not jarring. There's like an attack 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.600 and a release. So like, for example, you wouldn't want 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.760 the noise gate to kick in when I just get 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.480 a little bit quieter. You would want to and even 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.240 if it did, you would want it to do so 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.720 kind of gently and not just be like super jarring 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.120 and like make everything just dead silent. So there's different 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.040 little parameters that you can mess with the kind of 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.360 make it a little more natural. So when you are 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.640 in the editing mode, uh, typically I assume this involves 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.480 you not just listening for when we mess up and 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.040 go back and do something again. So you have to 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.079 there's there's an art to clipping out anything where where 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.240 we've made a mistake and we've gone back. Not that 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.800 I do that on tech stuff, but I've heard and 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.679 some of the other podcasts that happens occasionally where uh, 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.000 you have to go and take that part out and 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.439 then you have to essentially have the bit that came 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.000 right before and the bit that came after mesh togethers. So, 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.520 so tell me about that process. Is it Is it easy? 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.640 Is it is it? Does the software do a lot 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:41.640 of the work? Is there any massaging you have to do? 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.400 It really doesn't do any of the work. Like what 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.280 I do is so I'm looking at like what's called 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:50.839 a multitrack view where you have you know, Jonathan's track here, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.640 Lawrence track underneath that, and then Joe's track there, and 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.839 they're all lined up and so you can see when 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.000 one person is talking and when another person starts, etcetera. UM, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.640 So what you have to do is you end up 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:03.800 making like if I'm going to cut out a mistake 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.080 or even just like a cough for like a sound 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.719 that happens. Maybe you are saying something and you kind 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.280 of pause, and then maybe you didn't pick up with 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.040 the very beginning of what you were saying. You just 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:14.960 kind of like pick up with what you would have 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.319 said next. So what I end up doing is I'll 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.040 make a mark where I want the beginning of the 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.480 edit to be. This isn't the software, it's just like 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:23.400 a digital kind of a locator. So you make a 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.520 little point and it shows it to you, so you 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.760 can go back to that and be exactly on that spot. 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:29.880 And then I'll make another mark for the end, and 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.400 then you just cut out what's in between those. But 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.800 what I end up having to do is like if 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.400 there's a sound like an S sound or a c 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.800 H sound that starts it, to make it more natural, 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.839 I'll try to keep the original starting sound and then 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:49.040 edit that into the pick up. Whereas you might have 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.839 made that S or c H sound again, I'll use 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.880 the original one and then kind of like cross fade 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.880 just slightly, which means you take the two bits and 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.040 you combine them together, but you make it where the 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.160 beginning of one fades into the next one, so there's 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.960 no like audio artifact or glitch sound or anything. So 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.840 so there's a possibility that if you've listened to enough 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.760 How Stuff Works episodes, you've heard a word where the 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:19.400 beginning pronunciation of that word happened minutes before before the 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.840 rest of that word is spoken. And it sounds weird, 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:23.600 but it really does kind of make it a little 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.480 more naturally because it's like, you know, folks that do 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.520 these shows and How Stuff Works, they do so many shows, 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:32.320 and it's like I try to do anything that I can. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.640 They do so much research, anything that I can to 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.680 make them not have to repeat themselves too much, you know, 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.400 so rather than like have people go back and say 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.760 a whole paragraph for a whole sentence again, I try 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.400 to just let it ride and do what I can 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.320 to kind of like join it together and make it work. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.920 And sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's there's it just didn't 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:50.680 doesn't line up, and I will maybe have to ask 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.480 someone to come in and give me another word or 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.560 something right. But typically people don't make too many mistakes. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.720 And you know, it's some shows are different than others, 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.720 like tech stuff. I mean, very few edits in tech stuff, 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:02.560 most of it that's been that's been sort of the 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.040 history of tech stuff. In fact, way back in the day, 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:09.280 when Chris and I were doing shows, very often the 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.160 show that went up was unedited in the sense that 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.480 nothing we we never stopped went back and fixed things. 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.360 If we misstated something or mispronounced something, we corrected it 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.320 within the context of the show and kept going. But 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.240 the longer that we've done these, the more of those 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.120 little bits that we've gone back and fixed. It's funny 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.200 because having being in the position I'm in where I 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.760 have guest hosts all the time, I get the chance 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:38.000 to see every the way people deal with that. Right. 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.120 Some people are just like, I'm sorry, hang on a second, 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.440 and then they'll go back into it. Some people will 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.800 actually market with a beep. Uh. One person in particular, 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:53.080 Mr Mr Mr Ben Bolan, he is like religious about 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.400 that too. He'll forget to do it and then he'll 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.920 stop himself and go back and do the beep. And 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.800 I think that is a legacy stuff. You know, Yeah, 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:03.680 Josh does it too. Josh doesn't too. Um yeah, because 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.480 I've I've had Josh in the studio before and he's 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.880 done a beep before. Uh Me, I don't make mistakes, 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.360 so I just keep going, Well, it's fun too, because 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.640 I mean it's it's it's actually really helpful because the 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.160 beep not only does it jar you out of your 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.720 editing stupor where you're like, Okay, here's the thing that 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.280 I need to listen to, it also visually shows up, 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.000 like we were talking about earlier, as something that's like 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.880 sort of an anomaly. You start to recognize the beat 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.560 because it's usually quiet just before and and then there's 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.200 a little bit of quiet after it. So you've got 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:38.440 this little isolated word and you know, oh there's there's something. Uh, 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.240 let me go check on the recording real quickly, sure 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.640 this is this is real time, real time checking. Nol's 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.280 probably gonna be cutting all this out, but I'm going 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.280 to just keep on whispering because he's actually checking to 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.240 make sure it's recording, and I'm guessing it is. Are 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.880 you good? Probably keep that that that's that just shows 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:00.360 you know, like, like, well, is the thing is that 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.280 we don't have anyone sitting on the other side of 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.159 the window right now because you're in here. So so 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.000 we're kind of stuck this way and we could have 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.920 probably asked somebody, but everybody is super slams Friday. Yeah 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:13.800 it's a Friday too. Yeah on Friday. You don't want 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:15.960 to ask anyone to do any extra work, right, It's 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:27.240 it's tough enough that we're here. So uh, let me 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.240 ask you this, out of all the ones that you do, 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.720 uh Like, uh, I don't want to call anyone out, 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:34.880 so I'm not going to ask you whose shows need 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.960 the most edits? But is it generally the same across 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:39.960 the boarder? Are some of them a little more heavy 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:45.560 than others? You know? It kind of averages out, I think, 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.159 But yeah, there's definitely a few shows that involve a 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.080 little bit more massaging, you know, because like I said, 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:52.920 I mean, there's a lot of research that goes into 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:54.960 this stuff, and you just can't really expect people to 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.600 get it perfectly the first time. And these aren't people 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.680 aren't like reading scripts either. They're right, they've got note 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.840 that they've made and bullet points and stuff. So it's 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.200 really easy to like realize that you could have said 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.199 something a little bit better because and and and like 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:12.280 the medium allows that, like you know, you're not you're 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.280 not live streaming, so you're not held to it, So 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:15.840 why not make it the best that it can be? 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.000 And I don't think there's anything dishonest about that. No, 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.040 I don't think so either. I think ultimately we're trying 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.800 to create and entertaining an informative podcasts and in that effort, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.240 I think it's perfectly cromulent that we take those measures 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.080 when you use that word, yeah, well, I you know. 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.320 And again, it's one of those things where I don't 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.360 have any problem with that. Whenever I work with anybody 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.760 who does it in that way, it's actually kind of 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.440 interesting to think, Oh, I have an opportunity to try 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.359 and get my point across more succinctly, which is my 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:49.360 biggest problem. I'm a wordy guy. Uh And clearly that's 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.920 another issue I can because by being wordy you over 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.680 complicate things. Case in point, right now, all right, so 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.120 we've gotten through the point. You've you've gone through, you've 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.640 done the edits, you've sage some stuff, you've removed any 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:06.600 extraneous noises you've you've taken out any mistakes at that point, 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.439 typically do you do anything else before you send it 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:14.480 on for for the various hosts to QA and episode. Well, 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.520 I mean in the same way that I have these 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.879 plug ins on the individual tracks, I also have a 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.679 with a mastering I guess you could call it a 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:27.000 plug in on the main bus, which is the master tracks. 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.600 So it's like you've got these individual tracks and they're 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.040 all feeding into another like final master volume. So it's 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.760 the equivalent of like the one knob on your stereo. 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:38.960 You're turning that all the way down. It's turning down 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.680 everything that's coming in, whether it's coming through your CD 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.640 or your you know, phono jack or whatever. So that's 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.480 like a master volume master fader in like audio terms. 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.680 And so what I have on that is an equalizer, 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.600 which is you know, it divides um the sound up 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.600 into different frequencies, and I kind of do what's called 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:01.040 a high pass, which is where you take um a 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.679