WEBVTT - How Podcasting Works 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:16.120 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. You've heard 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.720 the rumors before, perhaps and whispers written between the lines 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.759 of the textbooks. Conspiracies, paranormal events, all those things that 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.760 disappear from the official explanations. Tune in and learn more 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:30.560 of the stuff they don't want you to know in 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:43.239 this video podcast from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everybody, 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.440 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.560 and I'm the tech editor here at how stuff works 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.840 dot com. Sitting across from me as usual, that would 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:58.280 be senior writer Johnathan Stripline. Let's turn this mother out, y'all. Yeah, okay, 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.720 hey there all alright, So today we're going to talk 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.560 about some podcasting tips. We actually get a lot of 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.920 requests to do an episode about podcasting, and we keep 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.399 coming up with the reasons why we shouldn't do it today. Right, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:15.680 we today, we decided to do it today. We're like, 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.160 you know what, We're gonna get this all the way. 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.039 You know why, because if we weren't doing our podcasting works, 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.080 you know what we would be doing cantennis or tech 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.000 conspiracy theories to other ones that we keep putting off. Actually, 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.360 just between you and us, we're not supposed to talk 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.080 about the tech conspiracy that's right. They don't want you 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.160 to know, So let's talk about podcasting instead. Um. Now, 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:40.039 we've had a lot of people ask us things, everything 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.039 ranging from what kind of equipment do we use? What 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.480 kind of software do we use? Uh, and just general 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.920 tips on podcasting. So people who want to get into podcasting, 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.760 what should they do? What should they avoid doing? And uh, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:54.800 A lot of the stuff that we have learned over 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:59.080 the course of our what year and a half of podcasting, Uh, 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.840 mainly we've learned through trial and error. Wow, a year 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.920 and a half. Yeah, sorry, yeah, it's pretty much been 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.320 a year and a half. And um yeah, and and 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.960 he's he's right. Actually, Um, we were one of the 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.560 very first podcasts at how Stuff Works com and um 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.760 we followed stuff you should Know and stuff you missed 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.480 in history class. So we were the third one. Actually, 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.280 Marshall Brains Marshall Brain has been doing one for a while, right. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.080 He was doing a podcast in a blog sort of 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.680 independently from the group for a long time. And then 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.040 and then we jumped on board. And um, actually when 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.560 when I was the first Josh's first co host on stuff, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:38.200 you should know, right, So you've been doing this longer 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.200 than just about anyone else besides Josh. Um. But it's 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.200 funny because we tried a bunch of different stuff. We've 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.400 actually had uh, we got We've gotten some comments over 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.200 the course of the last year and a half, like, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:53.160 you know who writes this stuff, right, and the answer 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.200 is nobody. We actually, Josh and I tried a little 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.080 bit writing some of this stuff out and that just 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:00.840 totally we tried to hasket with that and that totally 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.880 didn't work. The earliest tech stuffs we we outlined the 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.480 heck out of those early early shows. Um, all right, 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:10.440 so let's let's talk Let's talk about the genesis of 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.680 tech stuff in general, and then we'll talk about some 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:14.240 of the equipment we use, and then we'll give some 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.440 podcasting tips. How about that? That sounds great? So, you know, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:18.360 this is the sort of stuff that we used to 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.359 talk about before the show, and we would outline it 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:23.919 and we would go point by point. We don't do 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.000 that anymore, which is why we kind of go through 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.400 things in a haphazard way, although I do feel compelled 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.840 to point out that not all the podcasters here at 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.200 how stuff Works dot Com go by that theory. Now, 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.480 in general, we do try to be conversational. I mean 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.080 that's there's nobody's I don't know if anybody that scripts 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.480 out what they're going to say when they come onto 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.800 the podcast. But um, I think everybody pretty much, you know, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.520 just has a good rapport with his or her co 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.040 host and it's sort of okay, we're gonna talk about 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.080 these ten things, make sure we cover this or that. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.960 Jonathan and I are just sort of looser about it. 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.680 We don't we don't meet beforehand like some of the 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.680 other podcasters too. So yeah, everyone has their own style. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.920 We'll get to we'll get to style in a little bit. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.320 So let's do the history of tech stuff. So um 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.280 our editor in chief came to us conal Burne. He 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.160 came to us and said, guys, we want you to 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.320 do a podcast about technology. Think you would blow it 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.840 out of the park. You'll be super rock stars, uh, 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:23.960 that kind of thing. And I looked around and said, 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.560 I'm sorry, what are you talking right? And I was like, 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:28.960 let me go. I want to do it, let's do 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.760 it now. And uh so we were told at that 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:34.920 time that we were trying you know, this, this was 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:36.800 brand new for us. It was not something that how 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.320 Stuff works dot com had been doing before besides Marshall's 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.760 podcasts and the the this is before even Stuff you 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.520 Should Know had started to publish. This is uh just 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.560 before it started to publish. So at that time, since 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.000 we were all kind of new to this, we decided 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.880 to put some limitations and some parameters up to kind 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.200 of give us a framework so that we wouldn't just 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.400 flail around the way we do now. Um speak for yourself, 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.400 I flail pretty handily, thank you man. Okay, So the 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.240 very the very first rules were that the episodes had 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.000 to be around five minutes in length, and they were 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:19.119 supposed to relate back to a specific article on the site. Wow, 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.960 that just makes me want to laugh. Yeah, we don't 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.480 do that anymore. We don't. We don't do either of 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.359 those things anymore now. Now other podcasts they do, they'll 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.520 they'll still cover specific articles, which is fine. We just 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.960 that we don't have to do We're no longer required 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:36.880 to do that, but we can do that if we 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.280 want to. And we've done a couple of episodes where 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:44.200 we've talked about specific articles, but fortunately we're no longer uh, 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:49.000 restricted to just that. So back then, we discovered very 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.400 quickly that it was hard to get into a topic 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.760 and cover it in five minutes. Most of our episodes 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.800 were pushing seven or eight minutes easily because by the 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.119 time we were telling me the introducts, we had about 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.240 two and a half minutes left to explain whatever it 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.200 was we were talking about. But we also got feedback 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.080 from our listeners that and the most of the feedback said, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:10.880 you know, I like the podcast, but it needs to 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.240 be longer because you're not really getting into the topic. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:18.160 So with that, we extended the time to about ten minutes, right, 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.839 we went from five to ten, And so if you 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:22.919 look at those early Tech Stuff episodes, you'll see the 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:24.680 first few or five minutes long, and then the next 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:26.560 group is about ten minutes, and after that kind of 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.800 explodes because we were told one day we came in 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.120 and that was when Jerry was producing our show, uh, 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:35.640 and she told us one day like, oh, don't worry 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.200 about the time, just don't go over you know, twenty 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.120 five minutes. That's probably that's probably about the upper length 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.240 of what we want to hit. But other than that, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:44.800 you know, go as long as you need to go 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.679 to explain the topic. And that's when our episodes really 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.320 started to change. At the same time that we had 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.040 the five and ten minute rule, we were outlining our 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.440 episodes pretty heavily. Yeah, because we had to make sure 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.120 we hit that time limit. We couldn't go over it, 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:02.520 so we wanted to make sure we knew what we 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.039 needed to hit. We couldn't just talk our way through it. Yeah. 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.640 And we also when we had that was very helpful 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.240 when we had specific ideas that we wanted to hit 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.280 in the podcast, to which um uh, we don't always 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.000 get to in some cases. I've gone back and looked 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.400 at my notes on a couple of podcasts and gone, oh, man, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.080 I didn't talk about that. Yeah, it's happened to me too, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.160 So you know that it can be useful to have 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.520 an outline, especially if you want to do that. But 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.280 then again, uh, most of the time when we do that, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.720 it's because we get so excited about whatever it is 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:36.320 that we're talking about, and then we have so much 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.680 we want to say about it that we just keep 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:44.120 going yeah. So once those uh once once beforemat changed. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:48.520 We we started to change our own methods and we 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:53.840 we began to realize that well, not yeah, sometimes so 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.640 we went to the German opera range um, but no. 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.680 The we began to realize that the more we would 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.760 a pair together for a show that we were about 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.160 to do, the less conversational it was, and the more 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.760 like a lectur e it sounded. You know, it didn't 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.160 sound like we have two guys trying to explain and 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.280 talk about a a topic and give it context. It 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.920 sounded like the prerecorded notes for some sort of you know, 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:25.560 technology lecture. And so we started to do our own 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.760 studying at that point, and then we would just meet 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.280 for the podcast and we need to have our own notes. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.720 We would sometimes share links if we saw saw something 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.440 that was really useful, so that the other person would 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.920 also have access to it and not just you know, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.400 come out of nowhere and um. But then we would 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.880 just we sit down at the microphones and hit record, 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.000 and then we would torture whoever it was that was 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:49.480 producing our show at the time with horrible puns as 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.120 we talked about whatever the topic was. Yes, that's a 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.280 that's a helpful tip that I would give you if 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.920 you're considering doing your own podcast, make sure to use 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:01.880 plenty of puns. Yeah, because lord knows everyone loves puns. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:07.240 Josh and Chuck are incredibly fond of puns. Yes, they 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:11.440 like puns the way I like pie. You must hate 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.320 pie a lot more than I thought you did. So 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.439 let's talk a little bit about the equipment and software 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.920 that we use. All right, So what do you want 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.000 to start with? Microphones? Yeah, we'll talk about the mic 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.720 So we were asking our producers about the microphones. Because 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.800 you may find this hard to believe, but even though 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.080 we are the tech writer and editor of how Stuff 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:36.320 Wars dot com, we do not have a database filled 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.000 with every single piece of equipment that is in our office. Yeah. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.400 That's that's true, and uh, you know, sort of bridging 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.920 the gap between this history of tech stuff and the equipment. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.920 UM there are. One of the nice things about us 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.760 getting into podcasting in the first place was we already 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.800 had a studio available to us because there were other 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.960 projects that we used a lot of this equipment for. 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.320 We already had um, you know, high end video equipment, 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.960 UM and audio equipment, and people who knew how to 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:09.120 use it. Um, So you know, you don't necessarily this 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.600 is not necessarily set up. You know, we already had 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.920 some of this stuff. Yeah, we repurposed a lot of 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:18.280 stuff that we had for other projects, specifically for podcasting. Um. 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.120 We are not saying that you need to go out 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.920 and purchase similar equipment because for one thing, it's probably 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.160 out of a lot of people's price range. Um range. Yeah, 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:29.360 it's definitely on the mind if I were to do 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.840 this on my own. But this is people have asked 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:33.960 us what we used, so I thought we would go 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.640 ahead and explain. So for our microphones, we use a 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:41.160 kg S and they are C two thousand B microphones. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.959 We were told by Mr Matt Frederick that they are 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.680 not omnidirectional, despite the fact that they totally look like 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.320 omnidirectional microphones. But they're not. They're directional. They just have 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.200 a wide angle or a wide cone that you can 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.319 speak into, which is a good thing because occasionally, well 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.440 you know, lounge in a weird way and just talk 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.760 toward the microphone and it still seems to pick us 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.480 up pretty well. Yeah, we also have a nice pop 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.880 filter in front of itself. Yes, we do. Use pop 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:13.000 filters because we don't want to pop our peas. Yeah. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.960 We also have as our pre amp UM. You don't 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:17.760 necessarily have to have a pre amp if you've got 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.400 a microphone. The plugs directly into say a USB port, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.320 but we aren't using that. We're using a pre amp, 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.800 the the Applied Research and Technology pre amp UM, and 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.280 we have one of those per input. We have got 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.600 three of the pre amps because we do have three inputs, 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.840 although we have not actually used the third one yet. 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.800 UM Stuff you should know has used it for their 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.040 healthcare series. They had Molly in and she got to 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:47.160 she set in and joined Josh and Chuckers as we 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.439 like to call him for sometimes listeners like to call 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:56.280 me Chuckers when they forget that my name is Jonathan. Um, well, 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.240 you know Jonathan sounds like Chuck. Yeah, we haven't figured out, 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.600 by the way, which one of us should be more offended, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.280 Chuck should be more offended, or if I should. Neither 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.320 of us are really offended, because you know, Chuck's a 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.000 cool guy and and I'm not on his radar. So 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.200 um now, as for as for the software we use, 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:18.280 we're using uh final cut right, Yeah, so that's the 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.119 that's the audio software we're using. We record with Soundtrack, 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.440 which is part of that suite, and then um for 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.480 all of our sound effects whenever we do soundscaping, Liz 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:32.280 pulls that from the suite as well. Yeah, we're we 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.200 are using a Macintosh computer to do this, but you 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.560 there are software programs for Windows and Linux both that 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.240 can can do the same kinds of things. And and 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.760 Matt Frederick also wanted to me to point out that 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.240 his favorite piece of equipment that we have, We're not 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.440 using it right now, but his favorite piece of equipment 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.840 is called the Blue Icicle, and you can plug an 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.080 xcel Our microphone into this. It converts it to USB 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.000 and it actually has a volume control on the device itself, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.720 so you can help control that the levels before it 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.800 ever reaches your computer. Yeah. Yeah, then the name of 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:11.440 the company is Blue and it is the article. So 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.880 but he he wanted specifically for us to point that out. 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.440 So that's that's our setup. But here's the thing. Now, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.960 we're gonna get into some podcasting tips. And one of 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.240 the tips I would give people is don't sweat the 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:31.160 the equipment and software that much. Yes, that's not necessarily 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.760 that that that should not be your number one concern, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:38.679 because if you're concerned with having the most technologically advanced 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.760 equipment and the most the software with the most features, 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.040 you might have a podcast that sounds really good, but 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.200 that that's not enough for listeners to tune into you 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.320 week after week. Yeah, I mean it's it's uh, as 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.280 long as you have a quiet room, um, you know, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.400 something preferably without hard floors and some where you're not 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.240 gonna be Yeah, I mean you might. You might even 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.840 try out a couple of different settings, especially if you 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.360 have a laptop computer and something that you know, something 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.680 that simply plugs into your your machine should be fairly 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:16.640 easy for you to test a couple of different environments 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.520 and see what sounds good to you. You can, I 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:23.040 would suggest testing up several different kinds of microphones. Maybe, 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.920 like there's some headsets that actually aren't that bad. They 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.920 actually provide a very decent sound. Um. At home, I 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.240 use a snowball mic which works really well for me. 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.520 It's a nomnidirectional mic and it actually I like it 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.320 a lot. But I use that with my mac um 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.520 and then a lot of you know, I would probably 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.600 recommend against using a a native microphone on a computer. 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.600 I mean, some of them can pick up sound pretty well, 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.880 but most of them you're not going to get the 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.160 best sound quality out of those. And that's one thing 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.240 I would say is getting an independent microphone is probably 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.320 a good purchase, a good investment. I I think that, Uh, 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.480 that's sort of a very basic necessity unfortunately, but you 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.080 don't have to to fork over, you know, hundreds of 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.200 dollars to to do that. In fact, you can even 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:15.800 get a good XLR for less than hundred dollars really 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.560 or maybe just over right. You would just need to 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.800 have the equipment to plug it into exactly, so perhaps 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.960 a nicicle or or a pre app or uh, you know, 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.080 in an expensive board. It depends on how many inputs 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.040 you're gonna want to use, too, because if you are, 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.840 if you're gonna want to have, say, get your your 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.600 friends together and do a podcast with a bunch of people, 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.720 you're gonna need something to handle the different channels, assuming 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:42.880 you're not all going to speak into one mic. Uh, 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.920 you could be a little cozy quarters there. So let's 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.480 talk a little bit about some other stuff like uh, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.720 post production. I just said right there, that was yes, 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:57.480 I heard the now. Some podcasters would want to go 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.840 in and take out all the uz um pauses things 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.000 like that in order to make a podcast sound more 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.320 smooth and professional. That would be really time consuming. It 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:11.080 takes so much time that that can take. Okay, you 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.560 imagine a thirty minute long podcast and then you and 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.040 now you're going to interruptions you're gonna take keep doing. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.360 It will take you hours to get the sounds of 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:27.359 Plette screaming out of your podcast because you're strangling him repeatedly. 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:33.880 So concerning yourself with this, I think taking out really 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.600 really bad stuff, like stuff where it just it brings 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.760 the recording to us halt. That's fine, But I wouldn't 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.320 worry about any of the small things because it gives 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.800 your your podcast little character. People really talk like that. 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.960 It's not something to be ashamed of. Unless you're like 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.280 some sort of professional voice over actor or radio personality. 0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:00.000 You probably haven't trained yourself to take that that stuff 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.000 out of your speech. I haven't, and I'm doing this 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.680 as part of my job. So that's all well and good. However, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.280 you know, um yeah, I think one of the problems 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:13.879 with that is, I mean, you sort of have to 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:15.840 think about what you're gonna do here. But I think 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.239 that also makes it sound really flat. Yeah. I mean, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.159 if you were, you know, reading off a script, you 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.600 don't have any ums or us it just it comes 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.760 off as really really flat. Yeah, it doesn't. It's not 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.160 very inviting to the listener necessarily. Uh So let's talk 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.520 a little bit more about some other tips. The one 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.200 of the big tips I would I would give anyone 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.560 who's getting into podcast is really, what's the purpose of 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:41.280 your podcast? Define that figure out why you want you know, 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:43.600 why do you want a podcast? What is it that 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:47.000 you want to say? Is there a specific topic or 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.560 uh category of information that you really want to talk about. 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:53.960 Is there a specific game that you want to do 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.600 a podcast about, or a specific television show or genre? Um, 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:02.679 don't you know? Doing a podcast about practically anything sounds 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.680 like it's very liberating, but it actually ends up being 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.320 really frustrating and difficult to to pull off well. It 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.200 also is hard to get an audience because someone may 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.080 have a real interest in one topic, but your next 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.560 topic doesn't interest them at all because it's not at 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.160 all related to the first one. It's hard to build 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.440 an audience that way. And one thing you can consider too, 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:29.960 is um limiting yourself more at the beginning, because you 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.560 can you can always change. You think back to the 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.000 early days of tech stuff. We had to uh, we 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.800 had to talk about a specific article. So we would 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:39.439 look on the site for something that we wanted to 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.679 talk about and then okay, we got a topic, a 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:45.919 specific topic, and we you know, would riff on that 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.600 for five or ten minutes. Well, now, um, one of 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.800 the things that Jonathan and I and I like to 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.240 try to do, I mean, other than answering listener meals. 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.560 That's kind of been where we've been the last few weeks. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.960 But um, you know, we've want to try to come 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.679 up with something that's not on the website. But you know, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.560 we still are working within the confines of computers and electronics. Um. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.600 But you know, it did give us a platform from 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.200 which to start, because we already had something to talk about. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:14.960 I mean, you could say, well, I want to talk 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.840 about everything, but maybe start with something you know, well, 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.919 like video games. And then maybe you say, well, I 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:23.960 like talking about video games, but what if I want 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.399 to talk about board games too, so you could have 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:31.119 a games podcast or even like you yeah, exactly, I've 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.600 been talking about role playing games. Now, maybe I should 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.000 talk about this fantasy movie that I really like, and 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.080 that that'd be fine too. I mean, having it grow 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.560 organically is probably a good tip as well, you know, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.360 don't You don't necessarily have to force it into any 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.160 kind of um any specific model. Another thing I would 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.520 recommend an easy way to build an audience, a good 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:57.080 dependable way pay them no, is to have a regular 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:03.200 and dependable production schedule. If you if you publish your podcast, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.840 you know, whenever you have time, and that's it. And 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.640 so it may be that you push one out one 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:11.920 week and then the next week you have a second episode, 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:13.720 and then it maybe three or four weeks before you 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.159 have a third episode. It's very difficult to build an 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.320 audience that way. People will tend to um, to lose 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.840 interest and start to leave. So it's good to set 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:27.040 up a schedule of publication and stick to it as 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.560 best you can. And part of that um that can 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:31.920 be really challenging if you just you know, some weeks 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.280 you just don't have the time to to do recording, right, 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.920 I mean, and have or you're sick with the swine flu. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.320 So what what what what we do is Chris and 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.080 I will sit down. We record two podcasts at a time, 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:49.440 sometimes three uh in one recording session. Uh. And then 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.320 we do enough of these so that we've built up 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.919 a backlog of episodes so we can when when we 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.600 started publishing, we had actually recorded and I don't know, 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.960 maybe six or seven episodes it's total before the first 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.800 one ever was released. I think there may have been 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:06.439 more of that. More than that. It could have been 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.720 as may as like ten or twelve. Yeah, so they 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.760 plus they wanted to evaluate them. We wanted to um. 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:13.760 They had other people listening to them too to see 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:18.880 what they thought. And you know, so, you know, because 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.720 it was a thing we were lucky they didn't have 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:22.520 to They didn't want us to change too much. I mean, 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:24.840