Let’s take a second to admire the affordability of the latest and greatest technology of 2021. This list would be entirely different if it were written 3 years ago, and let’s face it – within 6 months this list might as well be updated. I’d like to keep this list as simple as possible so I’ll name 3 microphones at 3 different price points and give my opinion on why I think they’re the best of today. These microphones were all chosen based on their versatility at their price point and not necessarily on the type of microphone they are. Lastly, I’ll keep this list COVID friendly and under $1000. Let’s get started!
Coming in at the most affordable of this list is the obvious AT2020. The little brother of the AT4040 (that’s been a workhorse for many studios) is a great start for anyone that wants to get their feet wet. It’s a simple and easy-to-use medium-diaphragm condenser microphone. Just be sure to flip that +48v switch and get started. Price $99.
This microphone has been put side by side with some of the most expensive big-name Neumann’s under the same signal chain and has stood its ground. It’s versatile, durable, and great on pretty much anything. Side by side and pound for pound this microphone will sound good on just about anything. Weighing in at $499, you’ll consider it money well spent.
There’s a lot of controversy over Slate’s VMS, but its groundbreaking technology has paved the way for a new niche in the market. One microphone that can emulate the sounds of other microphones with the flip of a switch. The only limitation is that sometimes you need more than one. A larger system will run a pretty penny, but for a single microphone in a home studio setup, this will go a long way. You can choose different microphones, pre-amps, and emulations until you drop. A vintage U47 can run up to 45,000 for a single microphone, and this system will run $999.
Podcast Editing Tips: Speed Up Your Workflow in 5 Easy Steps
There’s a reason many podcasters forward their podcast edit’s to the Pros. Biggest reason? They simply don’t want to deal with it. The editing process is seen by most to be time-consuming, flat, and outright boring. We’ll be giving you some of our biggest time-saving tips to save you hours of editing time on your next podcast.
If you want to save yourself a couple of hours of editing right away, send us your podcast for a free trial of our editing service (no credit card required). Check that out here: Upload Form.
Organization
This is where most of you are going to skip to the next section because you think it isn’t important. “Organization” is at the top of the list for a reason. Putting in a little bit of time on the front end will almost ALWAYS save you time on the back end. Anything you can do to make finding projects and files quickly and easily will mean you’ll spend less time thinking about where you put things or looking for where you left the files. That includes sound effects, bumpers, podcast episodes, advertisements, music beds, project files, exports, and quite literally everything else.
Let’s talk about file structure real quick. Most people say you should find a way that works for you because every situation is different. I say that’s baloney. Our system works, so I’ll give that away to you because “Merry Christmas”. Feel free to add, improve, take away or whatever. If you do, comment down below what you did and why you did it to help everyone else out too.
All of your project files should be located in 1 (one) place on your computer or external hard drive. Always have a backup drive or 3 just in case because computers have a strange way of showing their love. We like to organize it like this:
User’s Mac Pro > hard drive > users > Studio 411 > Music > Podcasts > Client Name > Podcast Episode
Once you have your files organized you add folders that will be your “go-to” for that project. Like a “Source Media” folder, or even sound effects the client likes to be consistent with. That would look like this:
Templates
Here’s the part most of you are going to skip to. If you didn’t read the first part, I’d recommend you read it and come back to this. If you didn’t read it the first time, you’ve proven the point that doing things in an unorganized way will take more time to do.
Templates will not fix all of your problems. It will just set you up for faster workflow. The ultimate point I try to make with designing your template is to make sure that you:
Don’t think
Don’t look for things you use all the time
Are already set up
Are ultimately ready to go
Here’s what your template could look like:
When you start a new session, most DAW’s will give you the option to start a session from a saved template. All you would need is re-name the session to something appropriate. The example above is literally the template we use for most podcast applications and gives us the ability to duplicate if we need more tracks, and has instructions for some of the newer people on the team.
In Pro Tools, you have the option of leaving plugins “inactive”. This comes in handy if you need to record the podcast, you won’t be using any processing power for having them in the session. Whenever you are ready to work on your post-production, all you have to do is switch them to “Active” and you’re ready to rock and roll.
Hotkeys:
It isn’t far fetched to assume that most people calculate “speed” as equivalent to using hotkeys. Knowing which hotkeys to use is half the battle. It’s just as important to use them consistently. If you need to think about what to use, and what the command for that function is you’ve already thought about it too long. The whole point of using them is to condense your thought process and speed up your workflow. The faster you can get the required task completed, the better. It doesn’t matter how you get to the end result, just make sure that it works for you.
Focus:
If I had a dime for every time anyone told me that they don’t know how to speed up their productivity, I’d have around $2.70. All jokes aside, lack of focus is one of the biggest killers of someone’s workflow. Every distraction you can think of will take its toll on the project. Do not multi-task. Do not check your emails. Do not message clients. Do not answer phone calls. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
A 100% focus is needed to do one task right and correctly. If you do this, consistently, over time, you will get astoundingly faster than you ever dreamed you could. Pretend as though your boss was standing over your shoulder watching you work the whole time, and you’ll get the idea of the amount of focus I’m talking about. Better yet, ask your boss to stand next to you while you work and then you’ll really fly.
Offline Bounce:
This is a dream come true for us software nerds. When offline bounce finally became available on our platform everyone I knew rejoiced. Except for the ones that already had it (they only made fun of us). My point is, if you’ve never heard of offline bounce do yourself a favor and make sure you jump on a platform that has it. Most podcasts we edit are between 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes. Offline bounce will make it up to 10x faster to export the entire length of the podcast.
When it comes to long projects, it’s going to save you lots of time to not have to wait for the entire length of the project to export for you to send it off to where it needs to go. All of that time adds up. Imagine if you never had to wait an hour to jump to the next project again.
That’s about it. I hope that this short list of tips helps you work on your next project. If you are working on something please feel free to comment below what you are working on and start a conversation with us. If you need help with your podcast project, don’t be afraid to reach out.
