Podcasting isn't easy. It takes a lot of work every week for us to consistently put
out episodes. And the most helpful thing that we can outsource is the podcast editing. There are
countless podcasts, editors that you can find that can help you edit your show
and likely do an even better job editing than you can
and improve the overall quality and the overall experience for your.
While saving you a ton of that valuable time. So in this video,
I'm going to share six really important tips for hiring your podcast editor. Let's get to it.
Hey, welcome to the pod sound school. We are podcast producers. We're podcast. Editors are.
I'm Studio Steve, I'm an audio engineer and an all around podcast nerd. If this is your
first time to our channel welcome consider subscribing. We post new videos every week
that are really fun. All about podcasting content creation and taking your online.
To the next level. Okay. So let's get right to the six tips that you can put into practice
that are going to really give you good results from hiring your podcast editor.
Okay. Let's start with tip number one. So for tip number one, the first thing is
let's do a recording quality check. Before we are going to get anybody else involved.
It's important for us to make sure that the audio we're recording to begin with
sounds the best that it can. Maybe you've heard the expression garbage in garbage out,
or a favorite of mine. You can Polish a turd, but it's still just a piece of, if we share a
really bad sounding audio file with an editor to work on, there's really nothing they can do.
No matter their level of expertise. The best editors in the world are
still not going to be able to make a really bad sounding recording.
Sound good. So I have a video right here, how you can improve the sound quality of your
podcast that talks about just that number two, pick a service or find the editor.
There are tons of places you can go to find podcasts editors. The most popular are Fiverr
and. I really like Upwork a lot, had really good results using Upwork. Also you can just Google
podcast editing or podcasts editing services. And there are a lot of great
companies that come up too. There is we edit podcasts.com that has a really good reputation
and also pod lab and different companies like that, where they have a team of editors.
So you have a lot of different options. And number three, ask for a portfolio or examples of.
After you find an editor on Fiverr or Upwork,
or even multiple editors that you want to start a conversation with
before you get too deep into the conversation, ask for an example of their work. That's an
immediate indicator of whether or not they're able to provide a good quality sounding podcast.
Number four. Schedule a video call. I really would recommend this. I think it's a really good idea to
get your new podcast editor onto a video call with you. So you can vibe out their personality and see
if this is somebody that you feel comfortable, maybe having uncomfortable conversations with,
like when they apply in effect, you don't like her when they do something you don't.
Is this somebody you're going to be able to communicate effectively with.
And this brings us perfectly to number five and that is know the lingo and talk the shop.
So we're here on the video call. We're here communicating with the podcast editor here is
where it can be really important to understand some basic audio production terminology,
and how the tools that podcasts editors use, how they work and what some of the names are of the.
So that you can ask them some very important questions. These are the exact questions that
I've asked our podcast editors that we've hired and that worked for the pod sound school. And they
work really well to just kind of get to know. Your podcast editor, and to understand their level of
experience, we want to ensure that we're actually working with an audio professional, somebody who
has at least some education who has educated themselves, who uses good quality equipment.
So here is a list of questions. Now I will also leave these questions in the description, right,
where you're watching this video. So if you want to go copy and paste those, you can have
those for yourself. When you are interviewing your podcast. Now, some of these terms might
scare you. They might be the whole reason you're hiring an editor anyways, so that you don't have
to learn about some of these big audio words, like compression and limiting and DSM and all.
But it's important that you start talking the lingo and that you get a basic understanding of
what these things are and how podcasts even sound good to begin with. What tools do podcasts editors
use to make their podcasts sound good? So here's the first question that I asked a podcast editor.
Absolutely. And that is what DAW do you use? Okay. Now the second thing I would ask,
because I would just have to know is what noise reduction solution. Noise reduction is really
important. And it's something that you're going to want your podcast editor to apply on your mixes,
especially if they have noise, but using dynamic microphones that need a lot of gain.
We usually always have a little buzz that comes from our electronics,
a little buzz that comes from our USB microphone. Or we have some computer buzz that's being picked
up because we're recording into a computer on our microphones right next to a computer.
So noise reduction helps with those kinds of things.
Now there's only a few more kind of processes or plugins or effects that they are going to be using
that I just have to find out about and a big one for. It's
compression. I'm an audio engineer. So I really care about compression. You might not
really care about compression. You might not ever want to talk about it or hear about it.
If you're anything like Veronica compression is really important. Simply put what it does is it
makes what's quieter, louder, and what's louder, quieter it squeezes and compresses your voice
into a more manageable little chunk. That sounds really fascinating. It
comes through and sounds professional, especially when a good compressor is being used.
Okay. Now of course, I couldn't even think about hiring this person unless I could talk
with them about each cue. You cue. Oh, come on studio. Steve. Don't make me talk about IQ.
Let's talk about you for a minute. It's not that bad. It's not gonna hurt. So basically is
just how we can color and really correct some of the nasty noises that happen in our sound.
So E Q stands for equalization and it really has to do with
the color or the frequencies of the sound. But a good question to ask here is, Hey,
what type of EEQ do you like to do your podcast voices? And then of course, the other thing I
would talk about with each queue is. That is in the same classes. Q and that's a D S her.
So you could ask, do you have a DSR that you like to use? I have a very sibilant voice
and some of my guests that I have on have a very sibling voice. Do you ever use a DSR
and the DSR as you guessed is just something that helps with, to subdue those harsh
S noises. And it's a really cool effect. So definitely ask them if they use that as well, too.
And then finally, you'll probably want to discuss limiting and mastering.
So do you use a limiter? What kind of mastering effects do you use? Things of that nature? We
really good. A fun conversation. And then finally you would end the conversation
or have already talked about some of the specific things that you want from your podcast.
So do you remove filler words, ums and UHS. Do you charge extra to add music? I want a lot of. You
have access to a sound effects library, will I, what do I need to provide you with so that you can
edit my vision? Whatever it is, you'll be happy. You have these conversations and
you'll be happy. You set aside some time in yourself to learn about some of these things.
You can talk to the shop that way, when you do get a mixed back from an editor
that you're not so happy with, you'll be able to communicate more precisely to them. What you don't
like. Okay. So here we are. Point six, the last thing, and this is just to test the waters.
So here it's important to have some episodes ready, record yourself, a nice batch of episodes
that you can test new podcast editors with.
It's not even a bad idea to work with two or three podcasts editors at the same time
and give each of them an episode to work on, to see which one you like the best,
which works. You really hear the vision of your podcast coming. And don't be afraid to
get confrontational and just say that it's not working after you have tried an episode.
If it's not working for you, if you don't like how it sounds, if you didn't like the extreme.
Then just cut it off right there and save yourself further trouble in the future.
So it's good to just say, let's do a test episode. Here's a G
drive link I have, or here's how I'm going to share this file with you.
And how long is it going to take you to give it back? What is your turnaround time,
figure out what their turnaround time is. And if they give you an episode back,
that sounds really good. And it was on time when they said their turnaround time would be,
and that's a really good sign and you can keep testing a few more episodes and that's it.
Pasky, you're ready to hire yourself a podcast editor. And as I mentioned before,
we are podcast editors. That is not a service we directly offer. However, I do teach a really
cool course all about podcast editing. So if you would like to really become a good podcast editor,
check that out. You can find out more information by going to pod sound, school.com/r four.
Pete stands for Reaper for podcasters, Reaper, or reaper.fm
is a really great audio editing software or DAW really great solution. For independent podcasters
and independent podcast editors, it's designed like a lot of the professional applications
like pro tools. So if you ever want to learn pro tools after learning Reaper,
the transition is very simple and that's it for me today.
Let us know about your progress. And like I mentioned, please comment here. If you have any.
Let's say you have talked to your podcast editor and they told you what compressor
they used or what DAW they used. And I didn't list it here in this video. I would happily
answer your questions about that and lead you in any direction that you need to be led into.
We are here to see your podcast become a success. We want to see your online content
go places. And we know that podcasting is one of the most effective way. To build a brand
and to stand out online. So thanks so much for tuning in today. Make sure you subscribe to our
channel and check in next week to see what crazy fun podcasting video we'll be posting.
And until next time, the same two things we always say,
do your homework and happy casting. Excuse me. The air vent just turned on. Sorry for that.
I'm going to go turn it off and resume recording. Okay. I just turned the air off. Sorry about that.
Speaking of, of noise reduction. Can you hear that vent? Come on.
Eric turned off already. There it goes. Okay.