Welcome to episode 3 of The Pod Garden Ponderings! Here, I share my experiences and thoughts on creating and collaborating, along with techniques for recording, editing, and mixing gained from working on podcasts, music, and film.
My passion for creative music led me to a career in sound. 25 years in studios made me realize that my true purpose is to help communicate meaningful messages in a clear, engaging way. I’ve clocked 50,000 hours recording, editing, and mixing while coaching many caring, creative performers. I’ve learned that the quality of our words and how we treat each other are crucial. My mom said, “if you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
Part of caring about your message is putting time and thought into the quality of your audio. We’ve known how to make quality recordings since the 1950’s when Les Paul improved multitrack recording techniques, yet careless practices persist. Recently, I heard Trump and Musk belch lispy messages into cheap microphones routed directly into de-essers and limiters at factory default settings. With all of the resources these two have, insufficient thought went into the quality of the presentation. Red flags for problems. It’s a reminder that bad audio disrespects both the message and the audience, leading to obliteration of the message and poor listening skills. I watched Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s shows and they couldn’t get over how ridiculously bad the sound was in that conversation.
As professionals, it’s our responsibility to maintain our purpose: ensure that what we broadcast is clear, positive, and impactful. I broadcast my goals to spread positivity with my sound skills and I've been fortunate to work with teams that share this vision. Let’s honor our words by treating them with the respect they deserve, using the right tools and the right approach to create sound and art that resonates with purpose.
New Work Alerts:
Latino USA
*Daymé Arocena is a Cuban singer, songwriter and composer who left the island looking for artistic freedom. Arocena has been described as one of the most explosive and dynamic voices today. In her latest album "Alkemi" she bridges her knowledge of jazz, Afro-Cuban percussion, and even a little 90s R&B. These last few years have been a time of intense transformation for Arocena, so on this episode of Latino USA, the 32-year-old tells us how her upbringing has helped her create music that doesn’t fit easily into a box.
Army Matters
I’m proud of the cinematic intros that I make for these episodes; sound effects and music, and I hope you give them a listen.
*As a kid, I always thought of Olympic marathoners as the epitome of cool—thoughtful, stoic, Zen-like, and deeply committed. Leonard Korir embodies all of that and more. Give it a listen and get inspired by his story, just like I did while working on it!
*One of the most important elements of any large organization is to ensure free and clear communication between all levels and people. In the 1930s, the U.S. Army recognized this and relaunched Infantry Journal, which many attribute to helping craft tactics and technologies leading into World War II. Listen to Is the Pen Mightier Than the Tank?
What are your favorite podcasts and events at the moment? I’m always looking for recommendations for cool stuff to listen to.
Connecting with Community
I love working remotely, but I wanted to connect with more people in the Chicago podcast community. So, I created Podcasts & Pizza, hosted our first meeting on July 14th and I’ve been smiling ever since! I was so happy to see 30 enthusiastic audio makers come together to shoot the breeze, get to know each other, discuss work, creating, collaborating and building a community of Chicago Audiomakers. Watch out for more events because we are already working on online versions of this to share works in progress and critiques along with more meetings in person. Oh, and we ate some delicious pizza! 🍕😋
Today’s Tech Tip: Back & Play in Pro Tools
When someone showed this to me, I was like, big effing deal. Actually, this shortcut is a big deal and makes me happy on a daily basis. Listening, reading, editing, shortcut, fix, go back and play from earlier, check it, another shortcut, repeat… 50 hours a week. It’s a lot. It can be a creativity killer. I made one more shortcut that really helps my flow: Back&Play. When I hit Back&Play, my Pro Tools rig goes 5 seconds earlier and plays and I listen. It sounds simple but it’s a huge energy saver to skip one final step after my brain just did an edit sprint… and when I’m done with that sprint, I feel like I’m finished and relieved and just want to listen and critique. If you work on a lot of editing or automation or minutia, this will help your workflow.
Set it up:
Go to Setup > Preferences > Operation, look in the Transport section and set the amount of time for backup/rewind before playback
Go to Setup > Keyboard Shortcuts to set your key command.
Next episode, staying healthy and happy with a sitting job so you can be happy and healthy to work and play another day.
Happy listening!
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