Full Transcript: School of Podcasting – The Best Sounding Audio For Your Budget

Full Transcript: School of Podcasting – The Best Sounding Audio For Your Budget

: Today, on episode number 611, hold on to your hat. We have a cool Because of My Podcast story, thanks to Jim Harold. Then, we're gonna get into audio quality, and audio formats. Which sounds better, Fraunhofer or Lane? Should I use 64, 128, 32, etc., etc. Then, we're gonna talk about Skype calls – how I can save you $20 a month and how I saved $44 a month, and I ended up with faster internet. It's pretty cool. Hit it, ladies!

: The School of Podcasting, with Dave Jackson.

: Podcasting since 2005, I am your award-winning podcast coach, Dave Jackson, thanking you so much for tuning in. If you're new to this show, welcome aboard. I'm gonna help you massage your message. I'm gonna help you face your fears, tackle that technology, and get you going in the right direction, when it comes to podcasting.

: My website is SchoolofPodcasting.com. If you go to SchoolofPodcasting.com/start, and use the coupon code – write this down, it's L-I-S-T-E-N-E-R; better known as "LISTENER" – that will save you when you sign up for either a month, or a yearly subscription.

: I always like to start off the show with a Because of My Podcast story. Today, it's from Northeast Ohio's own Jim Harold. You can find him at JimHarold.com.

: He is The Paranormal Podcast guy. He's been podcasting since, you guessed it, 2005. If you wanna see a guy that has a lot of podcasts, a lot of books, and a lot of things going on, and yet, his website is well-organized, check out JimHarold.com, and check out what Jim has been up to.

: Hey, Dave, Jim Harold here, and I have a great Because of My Podcast story, at least I think it is. If you don't know me, I podcast on the paranormal, and you can find my shows at JimHarold.com, and everywhere fine podcasts are heard. Been doing that since 2005.

: I just made my eighth appearance on a radio program, called Coast to Coast AM. If you don't know what that show is, it is the most-popular radio show for overnights in the United States, and it's on over 600 radio stations.

: Now, do you think I would have had that opportunity to be on two hours, speaking to the people who love my kind of content, the supernatural, and the paranormal? Do you think I woulda had that chance had I not had a podcast? I don't think so.

: So, what are you waiting for? Talk to Dave. You should start your podcast as soon as possible. Don't think about it, go ahead and do it, because you'll have your own Because of my Podcast story. Thanks, Dave.

: Thank you, Jim. You don't have to plug The School of Podcasting. I really appreciate that, but if you can answer that question, Because of My Podcast ___, do what Jim did – record it, and send it on over. I deeply, deeply appreciate those. They actually kind of inspire me. Again, you can find Jim over at im Harold.com.

: You know what would be really spooky? Not going to Podcast Movement. I would cry. I would be so afraid, I tell you what, because I would be missing out on having over 2,000 podcasters from around the world to network with.

: You're like, "Well, where is this happening at?" It's in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, don't you know? July 23rd through the 26th. It's three days of workshops, panels, and parties, and there's gonna be over a hundred sessions, of which will be myself, and Jeff Brown. That's right, I'm speaking a Podcast Movement. The topics are gonna range from the super-technical stuff to the equipment, and audio production, marketing, monetization. Anything you need, it's gonna be there, [plus]. That's right.

: But wait, there's more! Over 60 podcast service, and equipment providers. I will be there, as well, at the Libsyn booth. Stop by, and say hi. Whether you're in the market for a microphone, or you're trying to figure out which host is better. (Libsyn!) It's super-easy. You can go there.

: Anyone who matters is gonna be at Podcast Movement. That, again, is July 23rd through the 26th, in Philadelphia, PA. That will be here sooner than later. Get your tickets now, and when you go to buy your tickets, at PodcastMovement.com, use the coupon code "SOP," and you'll get $50 off any level of registration. Again, that's PodcastMovement.com, coupon code – "SOP." Thank you, Podcast Movement, for sponsoring The School of Podcasting.

: Hey, check it out. I am way over here, in your left headphone, because today, we're gonna talk about audio. One of the things we have to get a grip on is what the heck is stereo? Stereo is when you have sound coming out from the left side, but you can also have things coming out of the right side. This is typically heard, when you do things with, like, music. Just to get the full stereo sound, let's do this: Left, right, center … Nothing better than two-and-a-half-part harmonies.

: Where you can really hear this is in music, so let me … I found some music that I think is very stereo-esque. Now, we're gonna go a little crazy with audio today, but not too deep. For all you super-duper audiophiles, this is gonna drive you nuts, but this is one style of audio that a lot of people use. If you're going to use stereo, it is called 128 kilobits per second.

: We'll get into what the heck that means in a second, but really all that is, is it is like this: I've got 64 kilobits per second audio, in the left channel, and I've got another 64 kilobits per second, over here in the right channel. When you add those up, you get 128 kilobits per second.

: What you need to know about this is this sort of audio takes up about one megabyte per minute; roughly one megabyte per minute. If you're gonna do an hour-long show, that's 60 minutes, and you're gonna do it weekly, that's four weeks, that 60 minutes times four weeks is 240 minutes. We said 128 kilobits per second is one meg per minute, so you're gonna need 240 megabytes per month to host your file.

: I was afraid of this. Everybody's mind was blown. Yeah, too much jargon, I realize. I'm gonna try to … This is where the audiophile people are going to send me nasty letters, but we're gonna try to put this into something that we can all understand. That is, if you've ever had to paint, isn't it fun?! All the taping, and the … I admire people that love to paint. I'm not one of them. If you've ever done it, we're gonna talk podcasting to painting, here. When you have …

: First of all, you always want to record in the best possible format you can. On a PC, that is in a WAV format. That pretty much means what you hear is what you get. There's no loss of the audio. On a Mac, it's AAC. That's the good news. The bad news is these files are huge, like gigantic, and by that, I mean they're big.

: What we're gonna do, then, is you take that giant file, cuz you can't send that to your audience … They're gonna be like, "Dude, you took up all the room on my phone! I hate you!" Hence, enter the world of MP3s. The sound isn't as pristine as it was, but it's also like a tenth of the size of a WAV file, maybe. I don't know, but it's much, much smaller.

: We're gonna talk about now … I have an original painting. I'm going to now draw a new copy of that painting. Let's go at it that way. We're gonna use paint. If you paint in stereo, it is like painting with two paint brushes. Now, if you're painting with two paint brushes, what's gonna happen? You're gonna use twice as much paint – one for the left side, and one for the right side.

: That's why a stereo file, at 128 kilobits per second … You're like, "Dave, quit saying that! What is 128 kilobits per second?" Here's the thing we need to know about this. The bigger the number, the more paint on your brush.

: I think it's GarageBand, or iTunes that occasionally … The desktop version, of course, because if I was talking about the app, I'd be saying Apple Podcasts, but the desktop version. I believe if you convert audio files there, I believe the default is 192 kilobits per second.

: Now, going back to the painting analogy, have you ever tried to paint with too much paint on your brush? What happens? It runs, and then you're like … If you let the run dry, it's like, "Oh, it was perfect, except there's this big drippy thing in the middle." Too much paint can be bad.

: Well, 192 kilobits per second – warning, this is an opinion – is way too much. Now, today, I'm actually going to export at 192, because I'm gonna give you an example of 32 kilobits per second, 64 kilobits per second, 96, and 128. These are gonna be very short, but I want you to hear the difference, because, in the end, it's up to you to vote with your ears.

: That number, the kilobits per second, that's how much paint you're putting on your brush. The more paint, of course, we know that, especially if you're trying to paint over something, the more paint, the better the coat. The better the coat, the less you have to paint again. If you're painting in stereo, you're painting with two brushes. You're using up twice as much paint, and in some cases, you don't need that much paint.

: For example, let me play you that stereo file we played a second … Let me play you that clip again. Now, did you notice anything? My guess is you didn't, unless you've got really good ears. The first part of that was in stereo. The second part was in mono. I'm gonna play this again, and when we switch from stereo to mono, I'm gonna put a little beep so you know that we switched.

: Now, how can you tell which one is better? Here's the word that doesn't … One of these things doesn't belong here. The word 'better' does not work here, because it's really, and I mean really up to you. What you can do is you can go into your software, whether it be Audition, or iTunes, or Hindenburg Journalist, or whatever you're using, and you can export it as stereo, and then, you can export it as mono, and then vote with your ears, and pick the one that you like best.

: Just realize that when you're in stereo, your file is going to be twice as big. Then, the bigger the number, the bigger the file; the bigger the file, the more hosting you need; the more hosting you need, the more expensive podcasting becomes.

: Now, let's talk about what does a voice sound like? This is me being recorded as a WAV file, right now, and I will say, ohm let's use the good-old standard, Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. Now, just to prove my point, I'm going to play that file, now, mono. Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Now, you might be saying yourself, "Dave, that didn't sound a bit different," and that's the whole point of that exercise. There is no difference. There's no stereo separation with a voice. You're listening to me in the middle of your headphones. Now, what I'm going to do is export that same little 'Mary had a little lamb' thing at different bit rates, so we can hear what they sound like.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: If you're like me, you're saying, "Dave, that sounded like crap!" You are correct. That is 32-kilobits-per-second stereo. Now, ooh, you ready for the braintease? If it's 32-kilobits-per-second stereo, what is in each speaker? What's in each headphone, right now? You got it? 16. 32 is 16 on one side, and 16 in the other, which means it sounds horrible, and that did. What does 32 kilobits per second sound like in mono?

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Not bad. Listenable? Yeah. Great? Eh … The upper frequencies, where your S's, and your T's are – a little wonky. Let's listen to what 64, which most of us consider high mono, because, again, 128 kilobits per second is kind of FM-stereo-CD quality. Now, let's listen to … What I'll do is I'll play the 32 mono, and then I'll have it right followed by the 64 mono, so we can hear them, back to back.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: This sounds better. Why? There's more paint on the brush, so it covers better. It covers the audio frequencies better. This is why a lot of people … You can get by with producing a file at 64 kilobits per second mono, and it will be fine, because technically, it is that CD-quality/FM-stereo quality, but there's no stereo separation.

: Just for giggles, let's go up one higher. Now, we're gonna compare 64 mono to 96-kilobits-per-second mono.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: I dunno about you … My opinion, I didn't hear a whole lotta difference. There was definitely a difference between 32, and 64, but 64 to 96, now we're talking about icing. We're talking about do I need more icing on my cake? No. I think that's listenable, without being distracting, at all. That's just my personal opinion. Then, the question has to be … Remember the music we heard earlier? What really takes a beating, when you go mono, is music, because you go from stereo to mono. Let's do that one more time.

: The School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson …

: The School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson …

: Now, if I start talking over that, is it really a big deal that it's not in stereo? That, again, is up to you to decide. Let's kill that. This is when you can then decide, because, again, the bigger the bit rate, the bigger the file; the bigger the file, the more hosting you need from your media host.

: Yes, you need a media host. Use the coupon code, SOPFREE, when you sign up at Libsyn. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N-dot-com. Full disclosure, I work there, and that's my preferred media host. There are others. Blubrry, B-L-U-B-R-R-Y-dot-com. Also use the coupon code, SOPFREE, to get there …

The bigger your file, the more media host you need; the more media hosting you need, the more money you have to put out. It's up to you. It's a balance between your ears, and your wallet, but there's also other considerations. This is where you have to look at your target market, cuz you might say, "But, Dave, I think you publish in stereo, don't you?"

: Here's my thought. If you're living someplace where you don't have a lot of bandwidth that it's gonna take forever to download my file, you are not my target audience. You're gonna have a hard time creating a podcast without a decent internet connection. We'll talk about that in a second. Now, some of you may say, "Hey, hold on! I've got poor bandwidth! Don't go peein' in my Cheerios!" Well, that's my thought, at least, and my shows aren't six hours long. They don't take up a huge amount of space. Sometimes, I actually still do publish them at 64-kilobits-per-second mono, if it's extra-long.

: Now there's one other thing. Remember how we say the answer in podcasting is it depends? There is no one size fits all. Can you say that with me? There is no one size fits all. When somebody tells you something, please consider the source, and I mean consider it coming from me, because I have another reason why I podcast in stereo. I have an online streaming channel. I use a service called Abovecast. I spend $12 a month. I get maybe – I haven't looked in a long time – not very many listeners on this. This is something that's in … Just like there are podcast directories, there are also streaming-channel directories. Not nearly as popular as podcasting, but I'll put out the 12 bucks for that, and the way I have my channel set up, it wants – you guessed it – 128-kilobits-per-second stereo. So that's the other reason I do it, cuz otherwise, I gotta convert the file again.

: My target audience, I think, has the bandwidth to handle it. I think they have enough space on their phone. If I was doing a show for moms, though … If I was doing a show for moms, I would definitely do it at 64-kilobits-per-second mono. Why? Because moms' phones are full of pictures and movies. This is something to think about. There is no wrong answer here. It's really up to you.

: The final part of this, and then, we're gonna get into more fun things with the internet, is when you go to figure out how much space you need, we said you need to know how many episodes you're putting out a month, how many minutes those episodes are gonna be, and then your bit rate, cuz we said … Here's the thing, 64-kilobits-per-second mono, which is just a little bit of … It's one brush with a decent amount of paint on it. It's a half a meg a minute.

: If I was doing a 20-minute podcast, it would be 10 megs. If I was doing that once a week, I would need 40 megs, so there's that. If it's 128-kilobits-per-second stereo … Remember, that's the same thing as 64 mono, except now, you have a left, and right channel, so your music's gonna sound better. That is double the size, one meg. These are roughly, don't hold me, roughly 1 meg per minute, so if I was doing a 20-minute podcast, a 20-minute podcast would take 20 megs of space. Times that by once a week, that's 80 megs of space. Now, I'm probably more into the $15 range of media hosting, versus the five-dollar, or seven-dollar range. Then, the more minutes you do, the more episodes you do, it just adds up.

: I just wanted to let you hear that, but now, now … Ooh, the final … We're gonna pop a myth here. I've been exporting these in Hindenburg Journalist, and you may not know this … I didn't really know this until a while ago, when I looked it up, Hindenburg Journalist uses the Lame encoder, and the official MP3 encoder is from Hasenpfeffer … No, that's Bugs Bunny. Duesendorfer? It's something very German-sounding. I will look it up here in a second, when I go into iTunes, but I'm now gonna take a WAV file, that 'Mary had a little lamb,' and I'm going to convert it to 64 mono, using Lame encoder, which we've kind of already heard, and one using the one in iTunes, and we're gonna see if there's any difference.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: For me there's not a giant difference. One more time.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

: Now, think about listening to this in the car; think about listening to this at the gym, walking a dog. Think about listening to this, not like I am, in a quiet room, with my headphones smashed into my head, because I'm really … I'm like, "Okay …" Now, for the record, the first one was the Fraunhofer. It's not Hasenpfeffer. Bring me my Hasenpfeffer! I couldn't remember that. The second one was the Lame, and listening to it four times, I finally went, "Yeah, the Lame is a little …" Just like, if you could put your fingers … It's that much worse in the upper end, barely.

: This is the thing that people obsess over, and that drives me bonkers, that we're like … We're sitting in a room, smashing our headphones in, listening to think … Nobody's listening to your stuff, five times, going, "Wait a minute, did he say rents or rent?" No. Nobody's caring about that. So, my point here is, really, all you have to decide, in my opinion …

: If somebody asked me, as a podcast consultant, "Dave, what should I export as?" I'd go, "Here, it's really easy." Go in, record your file, recording everything as a WAV file, an AAC file, if you're on a Mac, so you can get the best quality recorded. When everything's ready, and all your music's in place, and everything else, export that once, as a 64-kilobits-per-second-mono file, then go right back in, and name it something like Episode 1-Mono 64. Then go right back to that same software … Everything's still in place. Go file, export Episode 1-128 stereo, and go back and listen.

: Again, you have to do the math. How many times am I gonna publish? How long is my episode gonna be? How much hosting do I need, based on whether it's mono or stereo? Then look at your wallet. It's really that simple, but I wanted you to hear the difference, because there is a difference. Definitely, when you get down to 32, 32 is not good, in my opinion. That's like, "Ehh, it's a little …" Oh, I don't wanna be mean, but there are other media hosts that use things with the phone that sound pretty horrible, and that's what it kinda sounded like to me. It's, for me, 64 or 128, and again, that is just my opinion.

: I just see people all the time, they'll upload a file. Not at 128, not at 192 … 256 kilobits – double the high. They'll upload it to their media host, and go, "Hey, why am I out of space already?" Because you're using a twice as much paint as you need, and it's not really … It's not benefitting the wall you're painting on any more. In fact, you're kind of running … You have runs in your paint now, and all it's doing is taking longer to download, and taking up more space on people's phone.

: This next topic came to me, and I was like, "Well, that's a really good point," from my buddy, Troy Heinritz. You can find his podcast, The Blacklist Exposed, at, you guessed it, TheBlacklistExposed.com. Shockingly enough, The Blacklist Exposed is about the TV show, The Blacklist. See how that works? He's smart like that. Then he, and my buddy, Wayne Henderson, do the Packers Fan Podcast, which, you guessed it, is about the Packers.

: He sent me a note, and I was like, "You know, this really makes a lotta sense." I'm playing with SquadCast, right now, and there's Ringer, there's Zencastr. I've yet to play with Discord. I know a lot of gamers use that. He made a great point, and I'm just gonna paraphrase his email. "If you have crappy internet, none of these is gonna work. It's not …"

: Let me tell you a little story about a man named Jed. Well, first, let's go back a second. Let's talk about Skype. I use Skype, and I'm one of these weird people … I rarely have a problem with Skype. I have one example of somebody who … I was doing an interview. They were interviewing me, and they said, "Look, I live in Africa. I have crappy internet. It's gonna drop about six or seven times. I will call you right back. We'll pick up where we left off," and we did. He did. He fixed it in the edit, and everything was fine.

: I went over to Skype, and I'm like, "What requirements do you need on your PC?" On the PC, you need at least one gigahertz, it said, with 512 megabytes, and it's … Basically, I always tell people … When I used to teach software, I used to teach a lot of Microsoft Word, and Excel, and QuickBooks, and things like that. We used to laugh when they'd come out with a new version of the software, with their recommended hardware, because it was always like, "Okay, you need to like triple that."

: I'll give you an example. Zencastr, on their website, states you need at least 1.5 down, but then, they say, but really, it'd be cool if you had five. That is your typical … Like, well, you can, you can … On a Mac with Skype, you need at least one gigahertz, which probably means, again, about two or three … A core-two duo, and at least one gig of ram, which means, again, about three.

: Then, how much bandwidth does Skype need? If you go out to the website, at SchoolofPodcasting.com/611, you'll see a screenshot I took. Again, I laugh when I see this. They say the minimum download/upload speed is 30 kilobits per second, and it says recommended download/upload speed – a hundred kilobits per second, which is kind of …

: Can I tell you something? We're gonna get into talking about cable, today. I live in Akron, Ohio. I had Time Warner Cable. They got bought by Spectrum. I cannot go to their website, and find a different internet packages. The cable company needs to realize they need to make things easy. We want a la carte, and we wanna look at a page, and go, "How much is that, and what do I get?" They do not do that.

: Anyway, I did see, for $29 a month, as long as I bundle it with a bunch of other crap I don't want, I could get a 100 kilobits per second up, or down, and they have other things. Now, if you have multiple people, right, if you have more people, and especially if you're doing video, you're doing a video, and you're doing that, now, that goes from 30 up to 128. In reality, again, it's probably 300, which is pretty fast internet.

: Again, I went over, I just did a quick speed test at, I believe, it was SpeedTest.net? He said, looking at his website. Yeah. Right now, I have 162 down, megabytes per second, and 23.78 up. I might get a new modem, because I just … Well, here's what I did. I just saved myself 44 bucks a month. Before I get off of Troy's point, here … So, I have okay internet. Then, I realized not everybody does. Please don't call that white privilege. I don't know I am sorry I have the internet, but I do. I don't golf, I don't bowl, and that is my main hobby.

: I spend … Well, we'll get into what I spend, here in a minute, but here's the thing. Let's say I'm having a problem with Skype, so I try SquadCast, I try Zencastr, I try TryCast, I try … There's a billion of these things now. If I'm getting an audio glitch on Skype, there's a good chance maybe that when I'm connected to my guest, I'm still going to hear a glitch. Now, the fun part of things like SquadCast, dotFM, and Zencastr is, in theory, they don't record the glitch, because they're recording locally. They're recording your side of the conversation on your computer, your guest's side of the conversation on their computer, so I get that. Again, Zencastr states you need at least 1.5 down. They've recommended five megabytes per second.

: To kind of tie this in with the story, that sometimes you're just gonna have to change something, or, in some cases, you are out o' luck. I saw my cable bill came in the other day, and it was over $200, and I was like, "inaudible." I had had HBO, ShowTime, and those were free for a year, and they bundled it in. It was the Triple Play. It was the phone, which has been sitting on the floor gathering dust; it was my internet, and the TV, and I had a decent TV package, and I had a DVR, and all this other stuff.

: Well, I was like, "No, no, no, I don't watch enough TV. I watch The Profit. I watch Shark Tank. I cry every Tuesday, when I watch This Is Us, and that's about it. I tape Jimmy Fallon, and I watch him in the morning, while I'm eating my breakfast. Other than that, and really, I don't need that … Bar Rescue is another show that I like. I tried, I heard of these people … "Oh, man, just get a free antenna. If all you want is the local channels, just get a HD TV antenna."

: When I lived in Cleveland, where I could almost see where the TV was coming from, I had one of these things, and I still could not get … All I wanted was the four major networks here in the U.S. – NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, and then any kind of local channels, where they play … Why don't we just call it the dead channel, because everybody … It was like old black-and-white stuff; it was like here's more dead people. I see dead people …

: I'm in Cleveland, and I cannot pick up all the channels. Now, I've moved 50 miles, 60 miles, maybe, south from Cleveland. I went to the Wal-Mart, and bought this … It was pretty cool. This little tube that, according to the box, picked up TV signals in every kind of direction there is. As long as I stood by the window, and held it about 12 feet in the air, it picked up almost everything. It was just kind of inconvenient if I wanted to take a shower, or, I don't know, do something else. So I was somewhat like, "Oh, maybe there's hope for this.".

: I went back to Wal-Mart, and took it back. Went to Amazon, bought this one that said, "Look, 80-mile radius," and I'm like, "Hey, that's me." Put it by the window. Did the thing. Picked up seven channels. Now, the great thing about this, by the way, the seven channels that you're gonna get are all about like Home Shopping, something else shopping, blah, blah, blah, Jesus, more Jesus. In some cases, selling Jesus, or shopping with Jesus. I don't know, but it was all the channels, you're like, "Nope, nope, nope," you know, and so, I was not … I have nothing … I'm actually a fan of Jesus. One of the things I'm gonna ask him, when I get to heaven, is like, "Dude, what was up with letting people with purple hair, who point at the sky when they sing, represent you? What is up with that? But anyway, so I was like, "All right, that didn't work either."

: It'd come to me. I talked to my brother, because I know, for a while, he was like, "Yeah, I've tried like five of those things. None of them will let you get the four major networks. We just …" If I lived in a metropolitan area, maybe, but I'm in the suburbs-ish.

: Here's what's interesting. You wanna start a podcast, right? I bet there's about 80 million podcasts about this. I know there's a bunch of YouTube stuff. I totally went down this rabbit hole … Michael Delaney heard me go down the rabbit hole, from Baby Mountain Radio, which is actually a show about caregiving for dementia; links out in the show notes, of course.

: He let me know about SiliconDust. This is a company that makes HDHomeRun, which is only 66 bucks. What's cool is you plug this thing in, and you can like take your HD antenna, and stream it to any device, and in some cases, multiple-multiple devices. Well, that's cool, except for one thing. It starts with an HD antenna, and we just … We've been there, done that. Dave can't get all the channels he wants. Even though that's a really cool product, and you can actually have a DVR for about … You can have like a recording of stuff for like 35 bucks a year. For Michael, he is like, "I love this thing." I think if you're in the right spot, you got it going on.

: StargatePioneer, and I just mentioned this … I mean, this episode hasn't even been published yet. StargatePioneer. You might know him from Better Podcasting, or he also does the Agents of SHIELD podcast over at the GonnaGeek Network. He told me about Tablo, which is this cool Wi-Fi kind of DVR thing. It's, I think, close to 200 bucks, and it works great with, you guessed it, an HDTV antenna. They do make … I watched some guy on YouTube, Modern Dad, somebody like that, and he explained how – he's doing all sorts of cool stuff. – if you have an outdoor HDTV antenna, but I don't. I live in an apartment. I can't go pound one on the roof here. I might …

: At any rate, here's the thing. In the same way that there are people that are going from Skype to TryCast, to SquadCast … If you have crappy internet, you have crappy internet, and I don't really think that's gonna … It's like saying, "Hey, my bed is too short. Can you give me a new blanket?" Okay, here, use the red blanket. "My bed's still short. All right, give me the blue blanket …" It's not gonna fix the problem.

: Here's what I did, and how I ended up with faster internet, and I saved myself 44 bucks a month. Again, my bill was 200 bucks, and so, I was like, "No, I don't think so." Well, that got my bill down to 176, and I'm like, "I still don't think so." I contacted my cable company, which was formerly Time Warner Cable – they got purchased by Spectrum – and found out that, while I was on the fastest internet for Time Warner Cable, now that they were Spectrum, I was not on the fast internet. I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's up with that? I need me some fast internet." I said, "Here's what I …" They're throwing bundles at me, and I'm like, " I don't want a phone. I really don't want a phone I don't wanna … Look, this is what I want. Tell me how much it is for the fastest internet you have, and for the smallest TV package you have. They go, "110 bucks," and I go, "Done! That's what I'm looking for. It's like 300 megs I think is the fastest they have. Like I said, I might need to buy a new modem if I'm gonna really get up to 300, but I downloaded that and it's a much faster internet.

: I was using a SquadCast, and I interviewed JJ Virgin, and when it was done … I used to kinda watch the progress bar. Again, it's not a SquadCast thing. I was watching the progress bar as it uploaded inaudible and I was like, "All right," and the call was done and … It was done. That was cool.

: Originally, it was over $200. I was down to 106. Now I'm down to 109, but their basic-basic-free-cable thing a) did not have a DVR. Well, you know us podcasters, we love to time shift, so I was like, "All right …" Plus, again, the TV selection was like … I finally had the four main channels, and M*A*S*H. That was it. Then, of course, Jesus, and the Shopping Network, which I believe was the band back in the 70s. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus and the Shopping Network, coming to the show right now … All right, so anyway, and then, later, Jesus went solo, and he did just drop the Shopping Network, and depending on … Oh, never mind. Inaudible.

Now, I looked at … This is what's gonna be really interesting to watch in the future, cuz this is slowly … I don't have a PlayStation. I kinda looked at PlayStation as option. YouTube Live, I believe is what they're calling it now, I looked at them, and you could use your Chromecast and … I'm a big Amazon guy. I have a Fire TV. I looked at Sling. I looked at Hulu. I still like the thing that Michael told me about, the SiliconDust thing. I might call them, and say, "Look …" cuz here's the thing that's stupid about them. These people sell these things that stream what comes from an antenna, but they don't sell the antenna. How dumb is that?

: Anyway, I look to YouTube Live. I looked at Sling. I looked at Hulu. I already had Hulu. To make a long story short, cuz I realize you're going, "Dave, this has nothing to do with podcasting." I did YouTube … YouTube … I did Hulu Live, which adds a whole bunch'a channels for 44 bucks. Now, my cable's 153, but come Monday, I'm cutting my basic cable. I'm basically cutting all of it down, and then it's gonna end up to 133. So, I went from 176 to 133. So far, it's OK. It takes a little bit for Hulu to figure out that you're now this live-streaming dude. It's a little clunky, but again, I don't watch a lotta TV. I really don't.

: My point here is, again, going back to Troy's original point, is if you have crappy internet, and this does not mean you need a gazillion megabytes up, but if you're going to be doing Skype calls, you might need something more than you have now. Instead of spending $20 on, and I'm sorry, SquadCast, and I'm sorry, Zencastr, but instead of spending $20 on these guys, why not see what is better at your cable company? There might be a way that you can spend that $20, and just get faster internet. Then, you don't need SquadCast, and Zencastr, cuz, I'm gonna demonstrate this, you can actually …

: If you want somebody in a split track, where you get separate tracks for each one, I'm gonna show you how to do this. Now, I'm using a mixer right now. My microphone is plugged into one channel, and my computer is plugged into the other one. What I can do is pan this so that I'm going to be all the way left, and the color … This is another thing, if you ever wanna test your Skype, you can do that. It's super-duper easy.

: I'm gonna do this live. Here I am. I'm in both speakers, and now, I'm going to go all the way over here, to the left channel. There is a woman called Echo, just E-C-H-O. You'll see her. It says Echo Sound Testing Service, and she's from Britain, right? So, I'm gonna give her a call, here; give her a little chin-wag.

: Hello, welcome to Skype Call-Testing Service. After the beep, please record a message.

: Now she's in the right channel.

: Afterwards, your message will be played back to you-.

: I'm gonna talk over her, here, and this is me testing my microphone. Hello, right, you. Cup of tea? Chin-wag. All that kind of stuff. Pip, pip, Guvnor. This is me testing my microphone. Right, you, cup of tea, chin-wag, all that kind of stuff, pip, pip. Now I'm gonna talk over her.

: If you're able to hear your own voice, then you have configured Skype correctly. If you hear this message, but not your own voice, then something is wrong with your audio-recording settings. Please check your microphone, and microphone settings, or visit Skype.com for more help. Thank you for using Skype Call-Testing Service. Goodbye.

: This is an example of why you'd want to have people in separate channels so that I can cut me out, here. Right. You can call her as many times as you want. Again, in Skype, just search for the user Echo, E-C-H-O, and you'll see her, Echo Skype Testing Service.

: I mentioned how I was gonna talk over her, so I could do that. Here's the fun part, I now have that track. I can go into Audacity, and split that track, and when I'm talking over her, I can now just mute me, and then export that as mono. Let me do just a quick second of this, just to show you what I'm talking about. Okay, now I'm gonna talk over her-.

: If you're able to hear your own voice-

: This is an example of why you would want to have-

: -then you have configured Skype correctly. If you hear this message, but not your own voice-

: -people on separate channels. Now, in Audacity, you can say split that track into … It's one file, but split the left and right of that file. You can also do this in Hindenburg Journalist Pro, and say split that into two separate tracks, so it sounds like this. Okay, now I'm gonna talk over her-

: If you're able to hear your own voice crosstalk

: -this is an example of why you would wanna have people in separate channels. Now, I simply take me out, and we're left with this.

: If you are able to hear your own voice, then you have configured Skype correctly. If you hear this message, but not your own voice-.

: If you have a mixer, and a portable recorder, or something to record into, you can basically pan you all the way left, and somebody else all the way right, and save yourself 20 bucks. Again, sorry to my friends at Zencastr, and SquadCast, but if that's really the goal, you can do that, and save yourself 20 bucks.

: Now, a couple other quick things here on sounding good. Number one, I wanna give a shout out to my buddy, Kim, from Toastmasters101.net. She gave me this tip, and that is what if somebody doesn't have great internet, or what if they don't have a great microphone? This would be a better example of that … What if somebody doesn't have a good microphone. They're gonna use their built-in microphone. What you can do, and I'm gonna add in my spin to this … Her spin is have them use Skype on their phone. That's a great suggestion. I say let's take that one point further, and this is where I think this is cool. You can make a Skype account for free. You just need a free email. Go to Gmail, and make up [email protected], go over to Skype, and sign up for a free Skype account, and then, all you have to do is say, "Hey, can you install an app in there?" I'm like, "Yeah, I know how to install an app." I'm like, "Okay, good. Install Skype. Are you on Wi-Fi at the moment?" "Yes, I'm on Wi-Fi." "Okay, install Skype on your phone, and just log in with [email protected]. The password is: Don't forget the password." "Okay, got it. Don't forget the password." "Type that in, and I will call you in two seconds.".

: You're recording on your end. They're calling on their phone, which actually sounds pretty decent, using your log-in name and password, and when it's over, just have them delete the app. I really, really doubt they're gonna remember your log-in name, and password, and if they do, well, shame on them, but it doesn't really matter. There's no credit card information, I believe, with that. It's a free account, so that's another thing.

: Now, the other thing you wanna do is mic technique, and that is you want to avoid popping Ps. Right now, I'm talking directly into the microphone. I'm using a Electro-Voice RE320. If I say something like peanut butter, yeah that was pretty bad … I'm trying really hard to make 'plosives. Those are awful, and you want a pop filter. What you actually wanna do … Here's an easy way to remember this, and I'm gonna move my mic here. I'm pointing the microphone at the corner of my mouth. I'm not talking directly into it. If the microphone is 12:00, I'm looking at basically 2:00, and this is pointed at the corner of my mouth. Now, the other thing you wanna do is make sure you understand how to use your equipment. Right now, I'm gonna say the dreaded words, that's right, you heard it, Blue Yeti.

: So, this is me on a poorly placed Blue Yeti. Hear all the room noise? Yay. There are a couple of settings here, and what you wanna do is … Here is one, I think it's picking up the front. Hello, this is me in the front. This is me in the back. Hello. Can you hear me? Im the one doing the British accent. Listen to all the popping Ps. Isn't that a little bit annoying? I think so. This one, yeah, I think just picks up in the front. This is the setting you want with a Blue Yeti, where you want things in the front. Also notice this, if I touch anything on my desk … This is why this microphone isn't … If I had this in a stand, where it wasn't connected to the desk, it might not be bad.

: My buddy, Rob Walch, who is the vice president of podcast relations at Libsyn, uses one of these. Sounds great. So does Ravi, from SubscribeMe. It's not a horrible microphone. Not my favorite, but you have to know how to use this. Right now, I'm not using a pop filter, which is really unheard of, so just be careful with this, if you're gonna buy one. I don't recommend them, unless … I just think there are better things, cuz it's … They're kind of a pain in the butt to get in a stand; they're kind of a pain in the butt to get a pop filter, depending on if you wanna get the specialized one, just for the Blue Yeti. I recommend the Audio-Technica ATR2100, but this is an example of not great sounding … If we go back to the original one, where I've got it picking up everybody, and I've got the game cranked up, and yeah, and now, if I tap the desk … Yeah, bad audio.

: Aright, And as we now … Again, that was … I was surprised, that … I think that's my lamp. Not sure what that thing is picking up. Did have one other tip for making you sound good, today, because we're talking about audio quality, helping you pick that. This has nothing to do about kilobits per second. My buddy, and I, Erik K. Johnson … You might know him as the Podcast Talent Coach, or PodcastTalentCoach.com. We do a show called Podcast Review Show, where we basically … You give us an episode, and we go over, and we look over every rock. We go through it with a fine-toothed comb, and we were … If you go over Monday, you'll hear us review a show called A Modeler's Life. It's about male railroads … Male railroads … It's about model railroads, both female and male railroads. One of the tips we had for the person was he didn't really set up the show. They just kinda started in. I was making all my notes, like wow, they're really taking a lot of tangents. They're not just talking about … Why do I wanna keep saying male railroads? Model railroads. I was really like, "Wow, this is not a great podcast." Then, I went back, and I read their description in Apple podcasts, and it says talking to people about model railroading, and the lives of those that like the hobby, or something of that nature. I went, "Oh …

: An easy way to make your stuff sound better is to let people know what to expect, because I can see people tuning into this episode, going, "I don't know, I tuned in to hear about podcasting, and the guy started talking about cutting the cord." Well, okay, that was about how to save money, and the fact that it doesn't make any sense if you don't have a good internet connection, and you're trying to interview four people over Skype. It's not gonna work …

: You want to frame your podcasts so that people know what to expect. Then, check this out, when you give them what they expect, they're like, "Wow, that was really cool." So that's my last little tip: How do you make yourself sound good? Let people know what's coming, and then give them what you told them you were going to give them, and they will appreciate it. If you tell them what's coming, and they tune out, they like that, too, because you just saved them 20 minutes.

These are the kinda tips, and the strategies, and things like that, that you will find at TheSchoolofPodcasting.com. I realize we got kind of technical today, but I built this episode on feedback that I get from people at Libsyn – I do tech support at Libsyn.com. Libsyn is L-I-B-S-Y-N-dot-com. use the coupon code, SOPFREE – A lotta times, they don't know how much storage do I need, and they don't understand kilobits per second, and things like that. I will have a video, as well, out at SchoolofPodcasting.com/611.

: Remember, the bigger the number, the bigger the file. Think of it like adding more paint on your brush, and the more paint, the better recovers, but if you get too much paint, it's just a waste of paint. In the same way, having too high a bit rate is just gonna cost you money in the long run.

: Thank you so much for tuning in. If you'd like to work with me., it's really easy. Go over to SchoolofPodcasting.com/workwithme, and we can do one-on-one consulting. You can sign up at The School of Podcasting, using the coupon code LISTENER. All sorts of ways you can contact me there. Everything you need. SchoolofPodcasting.com. Thanks so much for tuning in. Until next week, class is dismissed.

: If you like what you hear, then, go tell somebody. If you like what you hear, go tell someone …

: You can find him at TheBlacklistExposed.com. He also does the Packers Fan Podcast with my buddy … Uh-huh, my buddy, Wayne Henderson. Total brain fart.

: If you like what you hear, then go tell somebody. Go tell somebody. Yeah, go tell someone.

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