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
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
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