(upbeat music) - How much is that? (all groaning) - And welcome to the Podcast Editors Mastermind, the podcast dedicated to the business side of podcast editing. I am Daniel Abendrath. You can find me at Rothmedia.audio. - And I'm Jennifer Longworth. You can find me at bourbonbarrelpodcasting.com. - Awesome. Well, welcome to the show. Thank you everybody for joining. And if you're listening to the podcast, thank you so much for following and subscribing to the show.
Tonight, we are going to be talking about ways to speed up your editing process. So if you have any tips or tricks or any questions you want to discuss, please drop it in the comments, either on Facebook or YouTube, and we will gladly talk about it on the show. But exciting news, this episode is brought to you by Riverside, and it's actually what we're using to livestream this episode tonight.
So if you want to record your episodes or your clients' episodes in high definition, creators.riverside.fm/yetis, and use the code yetis for an exclusive 15% off. All right, so Jennifer, this is actually your idea to cover this topic because you're going to talk on it soon? - Yeah, so Steve Stewart always talks about how we should pitch more editing talks for conferences, so we'll get picked because there's not enough editing talk.
So I'm like, okay, what can I talk about that I think will get picked? And I thought, well, what about speeding up the editing process? And Podcast Movement picked it. And I'm like, great, now I got to write a talk, and I haven't done that yet. So like, what are we going to talk about tonight? I'm like, ah, I got an idea. - I think it's a great topic. The faster you edit, the, I mean, 'cause like time is money, yada, yada, yada.
But like per hour, you can be making more money, less stress, you can take on more clients and just have a better, more efficient process if you can figure out ways to speed up your editing process. - And it's like the number one question I get from other editors is how do I speed up? I mean, I did a panel discussion locally. Oh gosh, mate, it's been quite a few years ago now. And afterwards, someone's like, how do I get faster at editing?
Hate to tell everyone this, but the number one way is to just do it and practice and get better. But that's not what you want to hear. (laughing) - Yeah, we want something tangible. But because like the biggest thing you can do is just learn your software and learn its ins and outs and like what all it can do. 'Cause that's what it kind of comes down to is like the ability to use whatever tool that you chose.
- So I jotted down some things that I've learned over the years that have sped up my process. But the first thing that popped into my head was if you're using iZotope's RX, using their batch process, which if you're not familiar, what you can do is you can set up like your process change to put in your voicey noise or your multi-click or whatever. And then whenever a new client sends you their audio, you can just drag it into the process, hit go and not have to worry about it.
But it's really useful 'cause like if you have repeat client same person every week, you can easily kind of fine tune what, you know, how much voicey noise you're gonna need, what their EQ is gonna be and just run the process each week on their audio. - I call that my pre-wash 'cause I do that too. And like everybody gets a basic pre-wash because like mouth noise, yeah, everybody does that. - Yup. - To a certain extent.
And I watched a tutorial video once the RX did it and they're like, here's some basic baseline settings you can use for these things if you're too lazy to dial it in, this will take care of most people. I'm like, sounds good, boom. So that's my pre-wash, yeah. - And it's really handy. So like I have a client who basically he's like two months ahead, so it's really convenient.
So instead of like spending all that time trying to clean up like eight episodes, I can just drag them all into this batch process, run it and then move on to something else. - Yup. - So one thing that I've learned is about project templates and there's something that I do in Reaper and I'm assuming there might be similar feature in other DAWs or you can simply just say like a blank project, make a copy of it and then open it, whatever DAW you're using.
But basically what I do is pre-wash NRX for every client and then when I get into Reaper, that's where I do my compression or like final EQ or like different other things and typically it's gonna be very similar week in, week out for each client. So I'll just have like a track in the project with all my plugins that I'm gonna be using on that client as well as like their intro and outro is already in the tracks.
So whenever I go to start a new episode, I just open the project template and I have everything I need for that client rather than going in, bringing in all the media each and every time and then bringing in all my plugins that I know I'm gonna use for every episode. - Yeah, I haven't done that yet. You know, I've been editing for eight years and I still.
(laughing) It took me a while and one problem I have is like, I'll tweak something one week and not update my template so the next week I have to do it again. But it just saves a little bit of time but it also kind of eliminates some of like the tediousness that comes with like just the repetitive task and it kind of helps me not forget. So like I have one client who updates her outro every few weeks and so this way I can just like update the template so I know like what we're doing this time.
- Bryan says templates, yes, I even have template folders for each show so that I have places for all the assets as well as the template file. Hey, where'd it go? Oh no, a template file for the actual edit.
- Yeah, I love using project templates and also in Reaper you can do track templates as well, which I haven't gotten into but like I have, what's useful with that is my like intro and outro and like assets like that for, like if I'm doing video with the client, it's gonna be different with the audio versus video so I can have like different track templates that I can bring in for each episode. Patrick said my first template and audition came out of necessity when I got my road caster.
What was the necessity with that? - Yeah, I'm curious. As far as speeding up your editing, always work your timestamp request from your end to the beginning and I learned this when I was working in a radio show actually and if you start your timestamp set to be a set to beginning, it's gonna mess up all the rest of the timestamps so you have to work backwards when you're working with timestamps.
- Look, caveat to that is if you use Notetrax, so if you're not familiar, Notetrax is a kind of review thing so basically you upload your audio to Notetrax and it creates like this project where you can leave comments on the audio file.
I use it with my assistant so when I edit a show, I send it to her, she uploads it to Notetrax and she listens through and to catch any edits that I might have missed and then she'll leave a comment with what it is or if you have a client that you do a lot of revisions with, they can do the same thing so they go into Notetrax, make the comments on what they want edited and then if you use Audacity Reaper Edition but basically you can download the comments
and then import them into your DAW and then it shows it on your timeline in your editing software. - Oh, okay and that will move with it? - Yeah, yeah so if you do like ripple, turn on like the ripple deletes, whenever you delete something, everything moves forward. If you set it up properly then the timestamps or the markers will move with it. So it's Audacity, Hennenberg, Reaper and Audition. So cool little thing there. - Nice. So my next tip is faster playback speed.
Just like listening to or editing the show at a faster speed, obviously you'll get through it faster and like any more, like I can't listen at normal speed when I'm editing, it's just way too slow. Typically what I do is I listen at 1.5. If it's any faster then like I tend to miss stuff. Yeah, I know like some people like edit like two times faster and they'll say, I can't go that fast. I think mine's probably 1.5 as well. But I don't do it as frequently as I used to.
And I guess, I mean, there's some clients who I can do fast on and sometimes I just can't. I'm like, you just missed it, I gotta go back. I don't know if it's their voice or their topic or what but it's like, okay, I can't do you on fast speed. - Yeah, if the speaker doesn't enunciate well or if they already speak pretty fast that makes it that much more difficult. Another downside to faster editing, depending on your software is the pitch. So like it speeds it up.
It's like chipmunky sound, really high pitched. Reaper has a cool feature to where you can, it'll fix that where like it'll drop the pitch to where it sounds normal, but just sped up. - Yeah. - Just very useful. - Okay, so Patrick says, the only time I speed up is when I'm listening to my final edit for show notes and timestamps. That's fair. - That makes sense. - So another way to get faster, and this is so obvious but yeah, I did I do this before is the keyboard shortcuts.
Before I got my gamer mouse, my right hand stayed on my mouse and my left hand stayed on the left hand side of the keyboard, so all of my editing happens on this hand, so ripple delete, zoom in, zoom out, everything like that. And I just don't know, I'm like, I know it took me a while before I set those things up. What the heck was I doing? (laughing) That's why it takes five hours for a 15 minute episode.
- I remember when I first started using Reaper, I didn't know how to do any of the functions. So I wanted to cut something instead of highlighting and deleting it, I would have to click on where I wanted the edit, split the track, drag the track to cut the end, and then drag everything back to eliminate that dead air. It was a nightmare before I finally figured out what the keyboard shortcuts were and how to customize my own.
Another cool thing about Reaper is that you can essentially create macros, they call them action chains, but if I have a really loud breath, I have one button that I hit, so I highlight the breath, hit one button, and then I split it on either side of the highlight and then drops it 10 DB to make whatever that part is quieter. So Reaper has a lot of functionality where you can create your own custom keyboard shortcuts as well as macros and whatnot.
- And it's an extension of the keyboard shortcut based on the recommendations of many, many in the podcast editor club, but game changing now, now I just one-handed editing in this hand, 'cause like I got one hand in my pocket and the other one's editing a podcast.
- Yeah, the only thing I wish this one had, it's like my old mouse, I had like, there was a button kind of next to, like he has like the one and two, then there was like one up to the side that I would use for like to pause playback, which I don't really have a button set up right now, but pretty much like 95% of my editing I can do with my mouse, which is really convenient whenever my cat wants attention and like to curl up and have to hold it with one arm,
I can still keep editing with my other hand. - Yep, cats will do that, come and lay on top of the keyboard so you couldn't use the keyboard even if you wanted to. - Patrick uses a track pad, which I've heard good things. I think Tom Kelly does too, which is probably a good idea for us, 'cause like a normal mouse can cause like carpal tunnel and just a lot of issues that a track pad can solve. Not a bad idea. I think it'd be hard for me to give up my 12.
- Yeah, I can't, I only use eight of my buttons. I don't go to the other side, but still, yeah. - I use all 12 of mine. (laughs) - Patrick says he sucks at speeding up his editing. Maybe this episode will inspire you to do greatness, Patrick. - Even more greatness, not that you're not already great. - That's true, that's true. - So my next tip is just to be organized.
So actually my wife and I were talking with some friends just about like how different our file system is, 'cause she's like not super organized with the computer files and like I'm very, especially like when it comes to my clients, like I have like in Dropbox, I have like my podcast folder. Within that folder, every client has their own folder. And then in every client folder there is assets. So like intro, outro, music, any video clips, whatnot.
Raw media, where is a temporary hold for like the files they send me. Graphics, like their artwork, they have any headshots I need for their website or anything like that. And then project files. And that project files is a separate folder for each episode. And each folder there is my autosave, my backup files, my, and then like a media folder for all the things. And then, so each episode is split up and separated.
And so like, no matter what client it is, I know exactly where I need to go to find their music or any of their assets or anything. - I hadn't even thought about that as being like a thing to consider. I'm not an organized person outside of the computer, but when it comes to my files, for podcast files, it's kind of organized kind of like what you said. I have the big file, the little file, and everybody has their individual show files. And then, yeah.
Yeah, of course the unfortunate thing right now is that I have people who insist on using Google Drive and not Dropbox. So then I have to download from whatever. - I only have one client that uses Google Drive. It's always been a nightmare, especially when it comes to like sharing. 'Cause like the permissions with Google Drive, like it's very annoying. - Yeah, I wish, I mean, I tell them I prefer Dropbox, but I'm not strict enough on it to make them use Dropbox.
And I don't know, like, well, I don't have to pay if I use Google Drive. I'm like, but you just. - My big issue is whenever I like, you know, I upload it to their folders, I'm still like the owner. - Right. - So I delete the files, like it's gone forever. And so like my Google Drive is constantly maxed out because I'm still the owner on all these files. The last one, so kind of like same thing with like organization.
This one isn't really like editing specific, but just kind of being more efficient with your entire workflow is just having some sort of project manager system. So like I use Airtable with like some Zapier integration. So that way, whenever, if a client wants to like send me a new episode, they fill out their Airtable form or whatever, and then that sends me everything I need, like their show title, their show notes, their audio files, everything.
And then it keeps it organized based on like when it gets published, what the status of it is. Like if I've just gotten the files or if I've started editing it or like if it's edited, I'm waiting on the client to review and approve it or whatever stage of the process, like it's all in there. So that way I'm not wasting time trying to figure out what my workload looks like, like what shows I need to be working on, what my status is on each one.
So it's just like being able to like stay organized just kind of takes a lot of time wasting out of my business as a whole. - I'm still not there yet on systems. (laughs) Which is wild because you have a bunch of contractors now, right? - Yes, yeah. And I use Basecamp with one of them after talking to Daryl on that episode.
So I use Basecamp with one of them, but the other two are in Dropbox and it's like, but the Basecamp one has, she has the biggest load, so it's easier and she likes seeing the deadlines and it keeps us both on track and everything. So we do that. But as far as having, I've talked to another editor who also has her clients upload directly to Asana or wherever her project management, I'm like, gosh, I would have to retrain a heck of a lot of people.
- That is the challenge is trying to get all your clients to use your system. My wife and I have some projects in the pipeline and everybody who's not aware, like my wife and our business partners in the business, but we don't have a good way of keeping track of everything. So like we'll have like weekly meetings, but then it's like, hey, what did we talk about here? 'Cause she's a much better note taker. So I'm like, hey, what did we talk about this? Blah, blah, blah.
And there's like no good way for us to keep track of everything. So we're looking into using Notion, which is a super robust system, but like I'm very overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to use it. It's super customizable. So now I'm like in the process of moving away from Airtable 'cause the pricing for Notion makes more sense than Airtable.
So I'm looking to move everything over to Notion, but that means getting all my clients to start using a new platform, which I am not looking forward to. - Yeah, good luck. I remembered my big tip. And I got this, I stole it from somebody else, but you know how we always say fix it and post? The way to speed up your editing is to fix it in pre. Just record it right the first time. Don't hit the table, don't record in your bathroom, don't do that too many times in the microphone. Sorry.
Just be aware of your mic technique and everything and it'll make your editing go a lot faster if you're editing your own stuff, if you record it right the first time. That's my biggest tip to speeding up your editing. - Oh, I just thought of another thing. In Reaper it's called Auto Trim Split. I forget what it's called in other platforms. Oh, like Strip Silence. So I have one client who she'll say a sentence and there'll be a 10 or 15 second pause before she gets her thoughts together.
So it'll be like an hour plus audio, I'll be like an hour, five, hour and 10 minutes. And then if I run like this script that I have, it's like Strip Silence, usually eliminates between like 20 and 30 minutes of just dead air. - Dang, whoa. - Yeah. - Wow. - So if you have clients with a lot of dead air, trying to like manually cut all that is a huge time sink. So if your DAW has some sort of Strip Silence feature, that I know that saved me a ton of time, especially with this client.
- How do you feel about text-based editors? - I'm not opposed to it because like my wife, she does a lot of content editing, a lot. She does some content editing, but she uses a script. And so that way she can kind of go through and just delete. I think on like a macro level, or like if you're trying to arrange an episode, I think it's really good being able to like copy and, cut and paste entire paragraphs, whatever, move them around or like cutting big chunks of audio.
And there's a lot of times where like, I'll go, like I'll finish editing an episode and then either like my client had sent like a note being like, "Hey, at this point I mentioned this, cut that part out and I forget until afterwards." Or there'll be like something where like, I need to cut something specific. And it's like trying to find that spot in Reaper is a huge task, especially if it's a long episode.
So I can just like throw in the script and just do fine, type in whatever word or phrase I'm looking for and see the exact timestamp, then go back into Reaper and edit there. So I think like text-based has a lot of usefulness, just not quite to the point of being a sole tool. 'Cause I do have a client who like, I go through and I make my edits, I send it to her 'cause she likes to fine tune it, but I upload it to the script for her and then she'll go through and make the edit she wants.
And then I didn't have to go in afterwards and fix like the timing 'cause like, it'll cut too much silence or it'll cut in the middle of a word or like a breath. And so I need to go and like polish it. But like as a tool, I think it's really good. - Cool, yeah, that's kind of my theory on it too for big, big chunks. It speeds things up.
If you think you're gonna save time and remove all your filler words with the script, it's gonna take you 10 times long to fix all the awkward cuts, the jump cuts. - Yeah, when the script was fairly new, I tried doing that, like uploading it, cut filler words and then bring it to the Reaper to do the rest of the editing. Yeah, and it was just trying to fix all the bad edits was a huge task. I think I did it twice before I just gave up. - Oh, that's a good one.
So Steve said, did you talk about having two or three monitors? - We did not. - That's really useful. Not so much like for me when I'm editing, but just my workflow overall, being able to have like my main thing on my main monitor and then having like folders, whatever, like Word docs on my second monitor. And I have to like flip between windows all the time. Well worth the investment. I have two monitors in my office at work, but I have just a really big monitor here at home.
- I've seen people like with like the ultra-wise and look so nice. I do have a curved monitor, which I don't notice it anymore, but it's a nice little thing, kind of make it a little bit easier. So if anybody has any more tips or tricks, please drop into the chat and we'll cover them before we go. So in a little bit, we'll do our chat GPT question of the episode, the stream, but just a quick preview. We actually are a little bit prepared.
So in two weeks, barring any life events or catastrophes or whatever, we will be back live streaming right here on Facebook and YouTube. And we'll be talking about video podcasting and all that that entails, working with clients and all that. So be sure to join us for that, follow the Facebook page, subscribe on YouTube, do all the stuff and things. I do plan on getting our newsletter sorted out. So hopefully you'll get notified if you are on the newsletter. So subscribe to that.
You just go to podcasteditorsmastermind.com for all the details on that. - Are you ready? - Yes, well, probably not, but I was ready in a little bit. - It's a fun one this week. - Okay, good. - So the chat GPT question of the stream, I had to ask it what's a unique question or else it gives me the same thing every time. So I said, I need a unique question. And it says, if you could create a new sense for humans, what would it be?
And how do you think it would change the way we perceive the world? I'm gonna drop that in the... - Oh, I got a missing comment. So Patrick says, he's still wanting to try a wide screen monitor. Same, they can be pricey. I think mine, I have a big one, but it's not super wide. And then Steve says, exactly, big monitor in the middle for editing folders, notes, et cetera, on the side monitor.
Now, Steve, based on your comment, I'm assuming you have three monitors, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I just haven't actually been able to. - Yeah, it is a difficult question. That's why Daniel's alluding it. If you could create a new sense for humans, what would it be? And how do you think it would change the way we perceive the world? I'm like, is that like spidey sense? - That'd be good.
Like what popped into my mind at first, I don't know how good or like the ramifications of such a thing, but the ability to sense like a person's and like real intention. Yeah, so almost kind of like the inability to lie, but it's just like, you can tell when somebody, you can sense when they're not being sincere or meaning what they're saying or something along those lines.
- This is hard 'cause it makes you think outside of your, like, I don't, I'm like, oh, I'd love to have an eye in the back of my head, but that's not a new sense. That's just a new way. (laughing) - Extra sight. - Extra sight, like, okay, like extra sight, like enhance my vision. But I'm not sure how to come up with something completely new there. - It's a challenge. So Patrick asks, is being able to teleport a sense or bio location? - Those are like super powers.
- I don't know if that's a sense, but I'll accept it. That'd be pretty cool. - Here's an easier question. - Okay. - What's your favorite way to spend a rainy day? Mine's sleeping, hello. - Something relaxing, either just like the windows open, like reading or just like chilling on the couch or the video game or something. - Steve says, I'm with Patrick from the previous question. I want to twinkle my nose, like bewitched and transport to another place in the world.
I think that would be pretty sweet, but Patrick also says, yeah, go ahead. - I just like for all my senses to work fully. - Yes. - As somebody that has a little bit of tinnitus and has to wear glasses, I am 100% with you. - Yeah. - Patrick likes to spend his rainy days with coffee, nap and book. - Absolutely. - Or cross stitching. I crawl up on the couch with like a movie, some coffee and just like cross stitching. - You cross stitch? - I do. - That's cool.
- So I guess here's kind of like another trick with Reaper, having like multiple instances of my DAW open. So whenever I like start rendering an episode, I can open a new like instance of Reaper and start editing another episode while it renders. 'Cause before what I would do is like, 'cause it would take me five or 10 minutes to render an episode. I start cross stitching during that downtime. - Oh. - Now I can just like move on to the next episode. - That's cool.
- All right, so Jennifer, if somebody wants to be a guest on this show, what do they need to do? - They need to go to podcasteditormastermind.com and click be a guest and then tell us why they want to be a guest. And we'll say, okay, come on. Or just approach one of us and tell us you want to be a guest. - Yeah, we're always looking for new topic ideas.
So if you're an expert in something that you really think people need to hear, or if you're looking for help on something you're struggling with in your own business, reach out. We would love to have you on the show. Once again, this episode is brought to you by Riverside. If you're wanting to record your own episodes or record with your clients, just go to creators.ruverside.fm/yetties and use the code yetties to get 15% off. That is it for tonight's episode. I am Daniel Abendroth.
You can find me at RothMedia.audio. - And I'm Jennifer Longworth. You can find me at bourbonbarrelpodcasting.com. - And not with us tonight, Bryan Entzminger. You can find him at toptieraudio.com and Carrie, you can find at Carrie.land. Thank you so much for joining us. Or if you're listening to this in the future, thanks so much for that. And we will see you next time. (upbeat music) - How much is that? (mimics snoring) - No. [music fades out]