Clean Cut Audio | The Science of Sound and the Art of Great Podcast Audio

Clean Cut Audio is dedicated to educating and inspiring higher standards of audio in podcasting. Every week, audio engineer and podcast producer Tom Kelly will teach editing tips, workflow tricks, and necessary values that will help you produce a better sounding podcast more efficiently.

Summer Break and the Future of Clean Cut Audio 08/07/2020

28. Explaining and Listening to the 4 Topologies of Compressors (VCA, FET, Opto, and Vari-Mu) 07/30/2020

27. Compression for Color, Tone, and Depth 07/16/2020

26. What My Dog Taught Me About Love, Audio, and Community 07/09/2020

25. How to Become an Amazing Podcast Engineer (without a degree in audio production) 07/02/2020

24. Noise Reduction in the Recording and in Post Production 06/18/2020

23. Ear Training and Critical Listening Exercises to Better Hear and Mix Podcast Audio 06/11/2020

23. Ear Training and Critical Listening Exercises to Better Hear and Mix Podcast Audio When new podcasters or audio engineers are reaching out to their peers for help with their production, it's not uncommon to hear the super frustrating and unhelpful response of "just trust your ears". Unfortunately when you're so new to audio, that means nothing. It's a lazy cop out that relieves the person being asked for help from actually teaching anything. It would be like a new fighter pilot asking his superior how to fly a supersonic jet and getting the response "just trust your gut". Sure the stakes are much lower in audio production, but there still needs to be some foundational understanding in place in order for our ears to be trustworthy. This process of analyzing and critically listening to audio is called "ear training". It's very aptly named, as it's a very long term process that is constantly expanding upon previous trainings and exercises. Just like you would never finish a marathon with 0 training, you won't hear audio the way a professional does after a couple of days. With running, you need to run to the edge of the block first. When that feels too easy, go all the way around the block, then work your way up to 1 mile, 2 miles, 5 miles, 10, 15, then 26.2 miles. When we first start critically listening to audio, some changes may be so subtle you start to question if you're listening to 2 identical audio files, meanwhile someone else is waxing poetic about how wildly different the sounds are. This episode will teach you how to effectively develop your skills as an audio professional and podcaster so you can better hear subtle differences in audio, then use those skills to slowly but intentionally increase the quality of your audio week by week. Links: (free 14 day trial) My Signal Chain Hardware: Audio Interface: Microphone: Headphones: Earbuds: Studio Monitors: Mic Stand: Software: IzoTope RX6 Mouth De-Click IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise FabFilter ProQ3 Waves Vocal Rider Waves CLA-2A oeksound Soothe2 Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter Waves Abbey Road Studio3 -!- *most of these links are affiliate links Midroll Song: by Joakim Karud Closing Song: by Joakim Karud For more info, or to ask any questions, check out and reach out to /episode/index/show/cleancutaudio/id/14774492

22. Local Recordings: The Only Way to Capture Great Podcast Audio 06/04/2020

21. Mixing Your Podcast on Headphones or Studio Monitors: The Pros and Cons of Each 05/21/2020

20. A/B'ing Your Audio to Produce Better Sounding Podcasts 05/14/2020

20. A/B'ing Your Audio to Produce Better Sounding Podcasts My father always taught me the worst thing you can do is to constantly compare yourselves to others. It can be limiting, anxiety inducing, and can guide you off the path you should be taking in life. Every person, every voice, and every experience is unique and should be treated as such. However! When we're duding our own audio quality, it's important to keep comparing our audio against that of other podcasts and voices that are KNOWN to be of good quality. Here's the reason why... I've said it many times in past episodes, our ears are more susceptible to change than constants. When we listen to nothing but our own audio for an extended period of time, we become deaf to less than ideal qualities in our sound. When we first hit play, we may think "oh, that sounds a bit off...". But after 20 seconds, our ears adjust to the sound and the longer we sit with that audio, the more it becomes normal to us. It's not until we take a break and listen to a show with audio we love that we realize we took a left turn somewhere in our mix and now we have to undo a lot of moves to get back on track. If we take periodic and frequency breaks from our audio to listen to a show with amazing production quality, we will keep our own audio in check, constantly comparing our sound to something great so we know where we should be heading. It's like a beacon of light letting us know which path we should take when we hit a fork in the road. There are several tools we can use to quickly switch back and forth between our audio and the audio of others, but the process of A/Bing can be as simple as you want it to be. Hit pause in your DAW, hit play in the browser of NPRs website. Take stock of the differences in quality. Maybe you'll realize your voice could use a little bit more low end. Maybe it needs a little less midrange, and we wouldn't have noticed that if we didn't have a comparison to look to. This is also extremely helpful to compensate for the coloration of our output devices. In past episodes I've mentioned that EVERYTHING affects how we hear sound. The shape of our ears, the size of the cones in our studio monitors, the quality and accuracy of our headphones, and the environment in which we are listening. When we have something to compare our voice to, we can compensate for the coloration of our output devices, and this is EXTREMELY helpful when we're not 100% comfortable with the way our devices translate sound. Links: (free 14 day trial) (free 30 day trial) My Signal Chain Hardware: Audio Interface: Microphone: Headphones: Earbuds: Studio Monitors: Mic Stand: Software: IzoTope RX6 Mouth De-Click IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise FabFilter ProQ3 Waves Vocal Rider Waves CLA-76 Waves API 2500 oeksound Soothe2 Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter -!- *most of these links are affiliate links Midroll Song: by Joakim Karud Closing Song: by Joakim Karud Find me online! /episode/index/show/cleancutaudio/id/14409743

19. Get More for Your Money By Buying Used Podcast Equipment! 05/07/2020

19. Get More for Your Money By Buying Used Podcast Equipment! The title says it all. You can almost stop reading now if you want to. But, I find buying used gear to be one of the most valuable "life hacks" when it comes to buying audio gear for podcasting. Podhacks? Anyways, in audio production, with very few exceptions, you get what you pay for, and usually spending a *little* extra money can go a very long way. This is where buying used comes in! If we have a fixed budget, which most of us do, we can get MUCH higher quality gear if we buy used and spend the same amount of money. With a couple extra dollars typically comes a better sound, better build quality, sometimes better features, and possibly better customer support from the manufacturer. Over the years I've saved tens of thousands of dollars by buying used, and many of these items I've bought from eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Guitar Center, or Sweetwater (yes the latter 2 have used sections to their websites!) are still working perfectly after owning them for 5-10 years. We should try our best to buy fewer things, and buy things of higher quality. I've seen several folks go through 4-5 low quality USB mics that kept breaking after 4 months only to finally realize they should be buying a more rugged and field tested microphone like a Shure SM58. These folks spent $200-300 on USB mics by trying to save a little bit of money (which totally backfired!) when they could have just bought a BRAND NEW Shure SM58 for $99, or a used one for $40, which is damn near guaranteed to last a lifetime. Next time you want to buy a new piece of gear, check the used sections on Guitar Center and Sweetwater. Check eBay and Facebook Marketplace for a seller with good reviews. Check the manufacturers website for B-stock and factor refurbished gear. It's a super easy way to get great gear at an even better price. Episodes Referenced: 7. 8. My Signal Chain Hardware: Audio Interface: Microphone: Headphones: Earbuds: Studio Monitors: Mic Stand: Software: IzoTope RX6 Mouth De-Click IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise FabFilter ProQ3 Waves Vocal Rider Waves CLA-2A oeksound Soothe2 Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter -!- *most of these links are affiliate links Midroll Song: by Joakim Karud Closing Song: by Joakim Karud feat. Andrew Applepie Find me online! /episode/index/show/cleancutaudio/id/14316605