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Hello podcasting people and welcome to another episode of Behind the Show where I chat to you podcasters to find out more about you and what you're using to make your podcasts. In this episode you're going to be hearing from Mr. Danny
¶ Behind The Show: Danny Brown
Brown, Head of Podcaster Support and Experience at podcast hosting platform Captivate. Danny has a number of shows on the go and uses a whole bunch of
¶ Intro
hardware and software to help him make them sound as good as they possibly can. If you enjoy this podcast, you can let me know in the comments down below and give it a like. I'd love to build podcasting people up into a welcoming and supportive community. So any word spreading and recommendation will be greatly appreciated. Now, if you're sitting comfortably, don't worry about taking notes, because all the tools Danny mentions are also in a neat list in the post.
Slash show notes with handy links to said things. So kick back and enjoy this chat with Danny Brown.
Danny Brown, welcome to behind the show.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm looking forward to this new episode. I apologize. This new show, but probably the new episode once this is released.
Yes. Yeah. I've had one episode out, which I should have shared with you actually, because it was my setup. So did a solo episode where I talked through my hardware and software and, uh, I had
¶ Today's guest: Danny Brown
a star of the show, which was Calendly. So, I just find that. That has saved me so much time. And time really is the thing, isn't it? You know, before recording we were talking about video and how long that takes. And so, yeah, for me that was, it's just such a time saver. All the automating, all the intros and, uh, after the show and, you know, this and that.
But first, before we dive into your setup, it would be good to let listeners know who you are, who you work for, what kind of shows you do, because, I mean, you are, I think, like me, you've described yourself as a serial podcaster, uh, any excuse to start something new, so, yeah, give us a little background, Danny.
Yeah, sure. So my name's Danny Brown, not to be mistaken for the Detroit rapper, um, which I used to get mistaken for when I was on Twitter previously. I used to have an old account on Twitter before my latest one. Um, and I used to get a lot of his fans tweeting me some interesting stuff. Um, and he actually connected with me to apologize. He's no, no, it's all good. It's all fun. Um, so anywho. Um, so yeah, my name's Danny Brown. Um, as you mentioned, I am a serial podcaster.
I've been podcasting on and off for 10 years, but consistently for the last seven years now. Um, I have multiple shows. I've got three active at the moment, uh, two, which are my own. One I co host with my colleague at Captivate, which is where I work in. Captivate is, uh, primarily it's a podcast hosting, distribution, analytics, and monetization platform for serious indie podcasters.
Yeah, and by the way, uh, that podcast, I mean, all of your shows are fantastic in and around podcasting, that you co host with Mark Asquith of Captivate. It's brilliant. It's just of a breath of fresh air, I think, in the kind of landscape of podcasts about podcasting. For sure, um, and I was lucky enough to be a guest on, one of your shows. My other podcast is, so, maybe I'll put the link to those shows in the, in the show notes for people to find easily.
okay, so we're here to talk about your setup. I'm looking at your, maybe I can take a, uh, a squad shot, they call it on Squadcast, to show everyone your background because you've got. We've got similar acoustic tiles, haven't we, but yours, yours are funky colours.
I've been told that they're aggressive, which was not the look and feel I was going for. Um, I, I used to have like, um, so I, I moved offices. Uh, this is like my home office at home. It's not huge. Now it's my daughter's old bedroom. But previously I had, uh, a blue background, like blue wall, blue hardwood, hard, whatever material walls are made of. I've no idea.
So that was blue anyway, and it had some black, much like you've got in the background there, Gareth, with the, the, you know, the, the sound panels behind you. So it was black and blue. Um, so I thought I'm going to go for a change now that I'm in a different room, and I like red, but sometimes it can be a bit bright and aggressive, I guess, but I like it.
I don't think, didn't cross my mind, honestly, it's just funky is the word I'd use. Anyway, should I take a photo of that? Do you mind? Uh, okay, uh, so, It'll give a countdown. There we go. I think you'll get that as well, which is a nice little feature. There
Oh, there it is. Yep.
don't know what my face is doing. There we go. Anyway, a very nice setup. So for your shows that, that you do, I'm, I'm guessing that for in and around podcasting, you mentioned Mark does a lot of the video. so for different shows, I guess you do different things, in your production kind of process. but for a typical, maybe for one of your own shows, like a, a lot of us, Uh, making shows, by ourselves and being every step of the process, let's go through what you would use.
So, hardware, what do you use?
Sure, so I'm from a mic, so let's do mics, I'm speaking into at the moment, obviously. So I switched between a condenser, so at the moment I'm on my TZ audio stellar x2 condenser mic. And I've been using this primarily as my main mic since about Christmas, I guess. And if I'm not using this, I've got over there, I've got like the, um, Shure SM7B, for
¶ Hardware
dynamic. And really it's about, you know, what's my recording environment like. So if I'm at home, I'll be using the condenser, um, because I'm in my sort of treated room, etc. But if I'm out somewhere and I'm doing a local interview or anything like that, I SM7B because that's dynamic, so it's more forgiving for background noise rejection. And a couple of other dynamics that I've got just hidden away that I'll use for that. Um, so that's on the mic side.
By the way, just jumping in, You hit on a very good point there, which was to treat the room. So, you sound really, really good. Um, I'm not
well, thank you.
kind of post for fixing the audio or anything, because you've already considered what's around you. and then, you know, that's half the battle, isn't it? To sound good through the microphone. Anyway,
Oh, no, and it's funny, it's one of the things I always recommend. So I see, I'm very active on Reddit, for example, and some of the podcasting groups on Facebook, etc. And any time I see podcasters asking what equipment should I buy, and people all jump on and say, oh, you need to get the SM7B, you need to get the 3, 000 Neumann, you need to get the Rodecaster Pro 2, blah, blah, blah. No, you don't. You can get great sound if your room is treated.
It doesn't have to be perfectly treated, but add some soft, you know, uh, furnishings to it, so blankets on the wall if you're not on camera, for example, cushions, you know, chairs, a rug to cover hardwood floor, anything you can soften the room with. Start with that, and then you can get away with using a 50 microphone, and, you know, USB straight into your laptop, keep your cost down, make sure you like podcasts and you want to continue with it, and then you can upgrade.
I mean, it's taken me seven, eight years. To get to the stage where I'm pretty happy with A, the room and B, the equipment. So it's, don't jump in and spend hundreds of pounds or dollars and then realise a month later, I don't like this because I have to do a lot of work. So,
absolutely right. Yeah. Okay, so we've got the microphone down.
So that's the microphones. So the microphones sit on arms. So the Shure is sat on a Joby Wave arm. So it's like a traditional boom arm. Um, that, you know, goes up and over your monitor and then comes down the way. The arm I'm using on my condenser is the Elgato, low profile, arm. So it's actually down and I can raise it up if I want. But it's basically to keep the arm and everything out of the shot. And all you should really see is my mic popping upwards. So that's the arms.
From a recording point of view, I record and I use the Rodecaster Pro 2. I will say it's a bit overkill for my needs. Had I known the Roadcaster Duo was coming out, shortly after I bought this thing, I would have waited for the Roadcaster Duo, because that's got the number of inputs that I'd be happy with.
Yeah. So is the RODECaster basically an audio interface? I mean, what, differentiates it from, say, just an interface with a couple of inputs?
So prior to this I did use the motto two M two, um, which is just basically that is an interface. It's got two Mike and puts, I think it's got one headphone. Um, and that's it. It's all good. Um, the main difference with the road caster, it allows you to do a lot of pre-production stuff, to save you time on post reduction. So I can set up voice profiles and set up my de essers, my compressor, all that kind of cool stuff.
It has settings for different mics that you use, or different types of mics. So it's got a condenser setting, a dynamic setting, an SM7B setting, a Rode NT1, all that cool stuff. It's got a whole bunch of settings that, that will set the presets for you based on the mic. So it'll set your gain level, it'll set the kind of compression it needs, the noise gate, etc. Cool stuff. So it's got a whole bunch of stuff on there.
Um, it's got, soundpads so you can add sound effects and upload your own audio files. So if you're streaming, you can have your show intro, you can have like funny little dingers, all that cool stuff. So it's, it's basically a little recording studio for your home recording. Um, so it's really cool. I, I do like it. As mentioned, I would say it's probably overkill for what I need, but the duo wasn't out when I got this, or I would have gone for that.
Oh yeah, I mean the sound effects, that's appealing to have those in situ. I've got a podcast where we go back in time so I've got this sting which is like a ticking clock, but I always have to describe it and say yeah I'm going to put that in afterwards but yeah it would add to the experience wouldn't it to have that in situ. Yeah.
and all the, uh, the colored, uh, pads, et cetera. And they, they came in and going, Ooh, what's this? So I put on like the little chipmunk voice effect and the robot, the bad robot kind of sound effect. And they had the headphones on, speaking in the microphone. They were just playing with it for an hour, just listening to the silly voice effects it could do. So yeah, it's, it's really good.
Um, and I'd recommend if you're, a serious podcaster that does a lot of recording and maybe streaming, et cetera, It's worth looking at, but like I mentioned, maybe the Duo would also meet your needs, you know, from that point of view. It's got all the same features, just less inputs.
Fantastic. So where is the RØDECaster going into?
Um, so that's going into, that goes into my software. Uh, just finishing off on the hardware side. Um, so on the hardware, um, for video, I use the Elgato webcam, the face cam, sorry. Um, which is fine. It's okay, but I've not got the best lighting set. That's one thing I do need to improve on is my lighting. Get that sort. just good to go. And then just use my mac book Air. Uh, it's an M1 2020. Nothing special, but it does, it, it's fine for what I need it for.
Yeah, great. I mean, the M1, those chips when they came out, they're insane, aren't they? Basically,
One thing is they're up to, I think the M four or they're about to really see M four, I think. Which is ridiculous. In, in the space of four, well, I guess four years, like watch up a year maybe. Yeah.
so, I mean, these are expensive machines, aren't they? And for the average consumer, But then, you know, unless you're working in tech, you're not really expected to get every single chip. One,
No, not exactly. And I, like I said, I've had this since 2020 and I traded in my old Mac for it anyway, so I probably saved a few bucks there.
Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Okay. So, is that it on the hardware
Um, I guess the only thing is these things. Very important. Obviously, headphones. I always recommend you use headphones when you're recording and editing. But yeah, they're the Sony MDR 7506, um, they're neutral headphones, so it means they're not top heavy on bass or, you know, mid range, etc. They'll basically replicate what you're saying into your mic, and there's no latency, so really important.
Fantastic, yes, I find that level playing field is good for mixing music as well. getting a true representation. Okay, on to the software. What do we have?
Yep, so recording wise, so I'll start there, because that goes back to the Rodecaster, so that plugs directly into Hindenburg Pro. Or Hindenburg Pro 2 now, as it's called, but anyway, Hindenburg Pro, and that's my DAW, so I record into that, if I'm recording locally, I'll also edit that, and that's where I'll add any post production, so any audio,
¶ Software
clean up, all that kind of stuff, I will do that in Hindenburg Pro. I also use, so that's my recording and editing software. If I'm doing remote recording, so we're using Squadcast at the moment, I'll use Boomcaster. Very similar platform, it's a remote recording platform that also offers live streaming, separate audio, video, all the cool stuff that you need on a remote recording platform.
And that actually, um, when I was your guest, and you were using Boomcaster, you could, uh, tailor the background as well, couldn't you?
hmm. Yeah, so you can basically create as many studios as you want. So if you've got multiple podcasts, you might, I mean, I know you've got multiple podcasts, Gareth. You could create a separate studio, all of its own brand and logos, background, etc. And then jiggle it. So if you want to remove the logo, and put it over your guest's mouth for a bit of fun. You can do that. It's entirely up to yourself. So basically it's just a talking logo. But yeah, it's, it's a nice platform.
So I've used that for two years now. Um, yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah, Hindenburg Pro, Boomcaster, um, on transcripts, I think transcripts are important. It should be in pretty much every show. Um, especially cause you can get them for free now. For transcripts, I use WhisperScript, which is a Mac. Uh, app. So it's a desktop app. You download it. So all the transcription is being done on my Mac and then, you know, sent up to get corrected, et cetera. Uh, really good, really accurate.
I found it hard to get a transcription service that recognizes a lot of the words that I say.
Does, does Hindenburg
Hindenburg does have a transcript service. I don't use it. I don't find it very accurate. Um, and I do tend to find it can slow production down a bit because it's processing a whole bunch of stuff. So the more plugins you use and the more effects you add to your audio when you're exporting, it can slow it down. And I feel that the transcript sometimes adds to that, that slowness. Um, so I try to limit that as much as I can. And like I said, I don't find it very accurate. At least for me.
I don't think I've got a strong Scottish accent, but I know it's there. Um, so,
I'm joking.
so WhisperScript is the one I use for that. I also use, what do I use else, um, that I use? Oh, I've just started using a tool, called Video, which is, uh, it's like a, a clip generator. So basically if you have a video, so obviously my other podcast has a video, Option on it. And, and then around podcasts and as a video option.
So if you use video, basically what you can do is either connect your YouTube account or just add a URL to the episode that you want to get clipped and that will create or use AI and create a bunch of clips you can use on TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, et cetera. And I've always, I've always been very skeptical with these tools. I've tried some and found them to make interesting clip choices that have nothing to do with what I was actually.
Talking about, um, but I found video to be really cool at identifying, that'd be a good clip, that'd be a good clip, and having good starting and ending points, um, for these clips. So I've just been messing about with that for the last, I'm going to say two, three weeks actually, it's very new to me, but I do like the results, um, so I might continue to use that.
Ah, that's fantastic. So that rounds off the software, in your workflow.
thing, sorry. One other thing. I just remembered when you mentioned post production that, that just triggered me and says, yeah, I got something else as well. Um, so I know a lot of people use iZotope tools, for post production, audio, prepare, optimization, et cetera. And awesome tool set. I've used iZotope myself, but I, what I use is Accusonus. Um, now they're no longer around. Unfortunately, they got purchased by Meta back in 2021. I'm going to say, or even 2022.
But what they do, very similar. So you've got de breath, de s, de clicker, noise remover. All that cool stuff that you can really fix, you know, um, the sound of your audio. So I've still got that. It still works and it's on perpetual license now. So when they got bought by Meta, every license owner that they had using their software, they just gave them a complete perpetual license. It'll never run out and you can use the software as long as it works with your hardware. No, so that's fine.
It works for now. If Hindenburg ever made an update that broke that, I'm sure I'm guessing I'd have to switch over to Izotope or something. But at the moment, Accusonus Era Bundle 6, awesome collection of tools, and it's a shame that they're no longer around.
I use something called Supertone Clear, which does a very similar thing. It's all based on AI EI, it's not O McDonald, uh, based on AI, and it's called, D Noise and D Reverb Voice Separator, basically. So if it ever does run out, your license, then, that's a new one, a relatively new one on the market. Um, it's down for, it's on sale at the moment for 69, but works really, really effectively.
Um, If you want that quick fix, I mean obviously you can go down the rabbit hole of doing things yourself with EQs and limiters and all the rest of it. so yeah, okay, are we ready for the star of the show? Which bit of your whole production process is the superstar? what is it for you Danny? What could you not do without?
I'm going to say Hindenburg. I know I just berated him a little bit for the processing time it can take for exporting files, but again, that's because you've added certain repair plugins, etc,
¶ Star of the Show
which is always going to add, you know, to the process and speed, etc. But what I like about Hindenburg, there's a lot of things I like about it. I veered away from it for the longest time. I tried it years ago. I found it interesting, but clunky. The user interface was clunky. And again, we were speaking about platforms that were clearly built by developers and not creators. And I think Hindenburg at the time was probably built by journalists, maybe, working with developers.
Um, because it was originally meant to make it really easy for journalists to edit audio and get audio stuff out for the radio. That's where the background of Hindenburg came from. And they've cleaned that up a lot and had a lot of features released over the last couple of years.
I jumped back in and what I like about Hindenburg, so some of the features it does, you upload your audio file and immediately that will remove any noise in the background and it will also bring up your levels or lower your levels to get to a nice level peak when you upload your audio. So if you've got two or three speakers and you upload separate audio files for each speaker, obviously, that will look and say, okay, He's at minus 23, he's at minus 12, and she's at minus 19.
Let's balance them all out and get them at a consistent rate. So it does that for you. Um, the interface is really clean when you want to edit. So you've got big waveforms. You can see where all the ums are right away. You can just sort of highlight that and get rid of them. Go away, ums. Get out. Um, so it sees that right away. Um, It's VST plugin compatible so it supports iZotope, Accusonus, the one he mentioned, etc. Um, so it's got full plugin support.
Um, and on the Xbort, now it also has a new feature where you can actually optimise the audio for video. So you can record a video like we're doing now, download this from Squadcast, and upload that to Hindenburg, do your audio repair, and chuck that back out. So now all the audio will be recorded. to your profile settings with the video that we've recorded on Squadcast, you're not Reliant on the Squadcast audio or Riverside audio or Boomcaster audio, etc.
Yeah.
I think one of the things I really do like about it is on the export So if I add chapters to my audio that goes out on the export and that gets picked up by Captivate when I'm creating my episode It puts in the chapter markers for me and I add an image or a URL if I want to expand it a bit But it also allows you to set to the right LUFS setting for podcasting. Everybody should be mixing to minus 16 on mono or minus 19 on stereo. But,
are broadcast industry
broadcast standards, exactly. And Apple Podcasts, which, let's face it, Maybe not smart, not so much Spotify. They'll disagree, but Apple is the big player still in the room. They kind of dictate what the standards are, so they'll set the artwork standards, the, the, the sound standards, the love standards, et cetera. So yeah, minus 16, you can set all that so you know that you're exporting exactly the way it should.
For the loudness level on podcast apps, which is a major saving point because I know a lot of times before I used Hindenburg, I would have to upload my exported file from GarageBand, for example, and stick that up to Authonic, do a lot of auto repair on Authonic, download the file and then upload that to captivate that. Hindenburg removes all that. So it does a lot of stuff for you when you upload your files and it does a lot of stuff for you when you export your files.
That is fabulous. Well, Danny, thank you so much for talking us through your hardware, software, and of course your star of the show, which is Hindenburg. All that's left to say is thanks for joining me on Behind the Show.
You're very welcome and thank you for the invite. I appreciate it.