7. Metasode: Podcasting Hacks with editaud.io CEO Steph Colbourn

In this metasode (meta-episode where we talk about our own podcasting experience), Arnab and Ilya discuss how the previous recording went, how to deal with initial awkwardness, and how to fix audio quality. We go through a few most important audio repair effects in the iZotope RX software and cover things like removing echo, breaths, mouth clicks (yuck!), hums, noises, and other unwanted artifacts that make you sound like a rookie. It wouldn’t have been a good metasode if we didn’t go on tangents… Do you know what the Canadians call a couch? Chesterfield. Do you know what the Russians call photocopiers? Xerox. We also had a little back and forth on whether “iZotope” has a “zee” or a “zed” in it. Zed’s dead bady, zed’s dead. So it’s a “zee.” Chapters 00:00 - Cold open on the Peter Principle 00:38 - Welcome and the one-hour tangent confession 03:36 - Reflecting on the Steph Colbourn recording 05:01 - Headache and initial awkwardness with guests 07:10 - Stream lag and connection problems 10:00 - Editing around technical hiccups 11:28 - Warmup questions before recording 14:11 - Scheduling guests without pre-calls 16:43 - Restart your Mac before recording 19:00 - Mario Kart and Microsoft Flight Simulator 20:17 - Reflecting on Steph's episode highlights 20:36 - iZotope RX deep dive 22:40 - Zee vs. Zed and Pulp Fiction 24:32 - VST plugins explained 26:00 - Xerox, Jeeps, and Chesterfields 26:46 - Breath control and de-bleed filters 29:05 - De-click and mouth clicks 30:22 - De-clip, de-crackle, and de-ess 31:19 - Dog farts and the de-ess filter 32:02 - De-hum and background noise 33:00 - De-plosive and pop filters 33:51 - Would a new podcaster need iZotope 35:05 - Voice de-noise filter 36:46 - Arnab's dog and cutting silence 39:04 - Garbage in, garbage out 41:16 - Favorite moments from the Steph episode 41:36 - The transcription pedal revelation 45:20 - Guitar pedals and effects chains 47:53 - Swiss army knife vs. single-purpose tools 50:00 - Descript as a Swiss army knife 53:00 - Comparing DAW prices 55:30 - Wrap-up Show notes Software iZotope RX -- audio repair effects suite for fixing issues and improving audio quality SquadCast -- recording tool that saves high quality audio locally and uploads files to the cloud Amadeus -- audio editing tool VST (Virtual Studio Technology) -- standard for audio plugins Logic Pro -- digital audio workstation from Apple Pro Tools -- DAW used in music industry Reaper -- DAW costing $60 for home/small business Spectrogram -- waveform representation method Alfred -- MacOS productivity and scripting tool Descript -- audio editing via text-like interface Gear Neewer Professional Microphone Pop Filter Shield Foam cover for Shure SM58 Podcasts Postlight: How It's Made: 300 Episodes Metacast Ep. 4 - Jake & Jonathan Do America Metacast Ep. 2 - Brian McCullough Internet History Promotion? No, thank you -- Well...Adjusting Random mentions Peter principle, Dilbert principle, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Mario Kart, Pulp Fiction, BOSS ME-80, Fender Blues Jr. IV, Into the Wild Full show notes with links: https://www.metacastpodcast.com/p/007-fix-audio-quality-izotope-rx-metasode Download the Metacast podcast app for free iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/metacast/id6462012536 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.metacast.podcast.player Get in touch Contact us: [email protected] Ilya's LinkedIn Arnab's LinkedIn