Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance. I'm Matthew Passy, your host and a 15 year veteran in the podcasting space. We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and hardware that can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly for insightful interviews with tech creators, behind the scenes studio tours, and strategies for
podcasting success. Head to podcastingtech.com to subscribe to this show on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform and join us on this exciting journey to unlock the full potential of your podcast. Today, we are joined by what is arguably the textbook definition of a serial podcaster. Danny Brown is the host of 1 Minute Podcast Tips. He's also the cohost of In and Around Podcasting and My Other Podcast IS. Yes. That's the name. My Other Podcast is.
He is also, he works over at our favorite podcast hosting platform. He set up Podcasting sport and experience at Captivate, which is what we use here to share podcasting tech with you all. His name is Danny Brown. Danny, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. And that was, I feel a little bit embarrassed by the intro when you say serial podcaster. I that's the only ones I've got live
at the minute. I don't even wanna show you the back end of my Captivate dashboard with all the archived and in test mode, etcetera. Yes. No. There's for serial podcasters, there's, like, 3 dead shows for every live show that they are working on. So, you know, there's definitely a lot behind the surface. How did you get into Podcasting? Like, what led you into the space in the first place? Yeah. It was primarily I used to blog a lot. I was a blogger, 1st and
foremost. And I got just tired. I'm not a great typer. I'm a 2 finger typist. So I'm not a fast, prolific typist. So it took a lot of work just to get a 500 word blog post out the door. I enjoyed it, but just excited to see it get draining. And I listened to a lot of podcasts. I enjoyed them. I was interested in the medium. So I thought I'm just gonna test it out, test the water, see what it's like. And I started just with a little test show, reading some old blog posts
to get a feel for that. Enjoyed it and started a little hobby podcast back in 2017, I'm going to say. And from there, it's like a tattoo. You get 1, you want more, You have a 1 podcast. You tend to want more. It is a little bit of an addiction, especially if you're, having fun with it and being successful. Where you are today with the 3 shows that we are going to highlight, you know, it sounds like the overall theme of what you're doing is really focusing on helping
other podcasters. And so I'm curious in your experience and the things that you've been seeing lately, where is the big problem? Where's the big gap that podcasters are struggling with or they're, you know, missing the obvious and, you know, they could all really use some help with. In fairness, I feel it's the part between launching a show and then getting into whatever success looks like for you. So that could be monetization. It could be growth. It could be brand awareness
of a business or consultant, etcetera. But there's so much information about what equipment should I use, what host should I use, how long should my episodes be, etcetera. So I feel there's a gap where a lot of people saw the podcast and boom from, let's say, 18 months ago where all the money was going into Podcasting from Spotify, Amazon, etcetera. So you saw a lot of agencies
and a lot of consultants maybe saw this. And I'm sure you've come across it, Matthew, in your line of work and you've seen some of the advice that have been given to your clients incorrectly before you've taken them under your wing. There's a lot of bad advice out there, primarily from bad actors, if you want. Just seeing a fast buck, seeing that there's money in Podcasting, and how I'm gonna take
part in that. So I feel the biggest gap is just giving the right advice as to you don't need to spend 100$ on equipment. You don't have to, you know, have a paid Podcasting. So you don't have to monetize all that stuff. It's that stuff that I wanna help with. And basically, that's what Captivate is there for,
to help podcasters in that sort of journey. Yeah. I don't wanna make this a huge commercial for Captivate because I do that almost every episode, and there's so many things that, you know, all the features that we could talk about on there. One day, I would love to have someone from the team talking about, you know, what's been going on with the platform or what the new features are, but it is true often that podcasters can often get hung up on the shiny objects and not be focused on the
mission. And if you don't have a mission, it doesn't matter how good your podcast is. Right? I've never heard anybody say, you know, Danny sucks or I really don't like what Danny has to say, but his mic sounds so good, I'm gonna listen to the show. So really focus on your mission, focus on your why, focus on the value you're delivering, and then start enjoying the toys and the shiny objects and all the other features, that will help you sound better, look better, broadcast better, you know,
reach your goals you know, don't just chase that for them because they're there. And this is coming from a guy who is a serial purchaser of tools than in search of a solution for. Right? I'm always on AppSumo, like, oh, that's a great product. I'll use that eventually. And then, you know, never do. Yeah. And I try to thank my wife, and it gives me grief a lot,
because I tend to buy stuff. Not super expensive stuff, but if I see a good deal on a mic or a mixer or anything like that, Not so much now, but certainly in the past, I would just add it to my cart and then, you know, sneakily buy it. And it got to a ridiculous stage where I had a bunch of equipment that I would never use because I've now settled on equipment I wanna use, for example. So, yeah, I completely hear you now. It's, it is the
new toy syndrome. So with all that being said, let's talk about the toys that you use to podcast because that's what we're here for to kinda take people on a tour of your studio. So take us through what are the basics of your tech stack from Samson, mic, mixer, you know, what are the things that you use almost every time you jump into the studio? Yeah. For sure. So my main, mixer, if you want the interface, it's the Rodecaster Pro 2. I've had that about a year now, just
before last Christmas. So it was basically a Christmas present to myself. Well, birthday Christmas present. So that's how I justified it. So, yeah, Rodecaster Pro 2 as my interface. I'm currently this mic is the Stellar audio TZ Audio. Sorry. Stellar X2. It's a large diaphragm condenser. I've only just started using the condenser probably in the last 3 to 4 months, probably. I do have reach over. So the SM7B is my go to dynamic. And I apologize if anybody's picked up a
bunch of noise there. Sorry (laughs). but, I mean, that's just I know that's, like, a more expensive mic, but it's taken me 7 years to sort of get to that stage. So it's not like a one off purchase. But yeah. So that's I just sort of jumped between the SM7B and the Stellar. I'm using this more at the moment. From the webcam, it's the Elgato Facecam, the original one, not the Facecam Pro, which is a newer 4K version.
And then MacBook Pro sorry. Yeah. MacBook Air 2020 M1 version, using the latest OS. What else have we got? Joby Boom Arm for the dynamic and then the Elgato Low Profile arm for the, Stellar. And I think that's primarily it. And then what you obviously, XLR cables from the the K one point of view I'm so curious because you said you have that SM7B and you just started using a condenser. Why the switch
from dynamic to condenser? And just, you know, for those, by the way, who are listening to this and now watching it over on YouTube, Danny is in a very nicely set up space with a nice, you know, foam padding behind them and a curtain. So it seems like you have a well treated space if that's gonna be part of your reasoning. That was a huge part. We moved to a different house, a different part of the country, 4 years ago. And, just last year, my kids changed bedrooms. And my what was my office? I
moved in my daughter's bedroom. It was really badly treated. I could move some stuff from my other office, but a lot of it didn't fit. So I did go on a a sort of rebuild from that. So that's why I was using the dynamic and I used you know, prior to treating my office, I used the dynamic because, as you mentioned, it's a lot more forgiving
when it comes to what it picks up and what it doesn't pick up. Whereas with the condenser, I've always liked the sound of the condenser, but never been in a position to utilize it properly without needing a whole bunch of post process and afterwards to remove room echo, for example, when using a plugin for that. So, yeah, it's it's primarily I like the warmness and the the natural tones of a condenser, especially this, X2. It's a really nice little mic. And
that's primarily it. It's the fact that the room is treated really well, and I feel that I can use the condenser properly without sounding harsh or not using it to its, you know, capabilities. Mhmm. That's fair. I suppose though if new podcasters are coming along asking you for advice that you're still suggesting most of the time they grab a dynamic just because, like you said, they don't have the experience, the time or the resources to have a room properly treated to work
with a good condenser. Yeah exactly and then dynamic you can get them so inexpensive for like $50 when it's on sale anyway for the Audio Technica ATR 21100X. Great mic, USB plus XLR. So you can start off just using that USB straight into your laptop and it's forgiven. It sounds nice and you don't have to worry. You know? And I'm always a fan of people or podcasters, you mentioned earlier, not worrying so much about the gear as opposed to look at your
room first. Look at your mic technique. Little things like that that can help, you know, avoid having to buy so called better gear to make you sound better. Yeah. I've always been recommending that 21100 or the Samsung equivalent, the Q2U. But, you know, if for a few more dollars, I tell folks get the Q9U. It'll give you a little bit of that deeper bassier sound than you get from those, you know, more dynamic, the ones that look like handheld microphones.
So few more dollars will give you a nice a really good starting point, with those microphones. Where did your tech stack begin? What was some of the early stuff that you use that either you miss or you long for or or you regret having? Yeah. I'm not sure if I say I miss it. My very first mic was the iconic, blue Snowball Ice. I think, so many people have that little white dome. And even now, like
Mark, my colleague over at Cadbury, he's got that. Anytime he does a video, you'll see that the Snowball is in the background, the one in shelves. I think everybody must start off with that. So I had that. Didn't know anything about condensers, dynamics, sound quality, etcetera. I just saw the mic, saw that other people used it, bought that, and I listened back to the episodes and shows I did there. I thought, oh, oh, no. Because I was in,
like, a really bad space. It was a big room, lots of hard walls, big windows, no treatment, and you can tell. So, yeah, I started off the Snowball Ice going into my MacBook. From there, I did move to the Samsung Q2U. That was still going into my MacBook. And then I moved up to XLR keeping the Q2U. And the first proper interface I had was the Scarlett Solo 3rd gen, little red one. Great unit, built like a tank. Then I started to get a bit better understanding audio
quality equipment, all that stuff. So I moved up to I think it was the Rode PodMic that I changed over to. And then from there, because I was doing more face to face interviews, I switched over to the Motu M2. So that's another, you know, really good audio interface. 2 mics and 2 headphone ports, etcetera. Was it 1? Anyway, so I moved up to the the Motu M2. And I used that for the longest time. I tried the Vocaster 1 and did not like it, I felt it it was a bit harsh on the
sound processing. And that might have been me trying to use the auto gain feature or the enhanced audio processing. I just didn't like it. It sounded like it had a lot a loud noise floor on it. So I sent that back. Got a refund, thankfully. And then, mic-wise, I kinda grew. So from there and for the longest time, I used the EVO, the E-V RE320 sorry. Love that mic. Love the sound. So I used that for the longest time, and then that's when I moved to the SM7B and
then ended up on this. And then somewhere in between all that, that's when I got the Rodecaster Pro 2. Oh, that's quite an evolution, and I'm sure your wife is disappointed in how much of a budget that's been on microphones over the past years. What do you do with old equipment? Do you wind up selling it, keeping it, displaying it? What's your? Yeah. No. I don't have a need to keep it for mementos' sake or, you know, whatever. So I tend to either sell it or I've donated some to, like, the
local school, for example. They have a media club and stuff like that. So if I've ever got stuff that I feel they could probably use, I'll just drop it off to the school my kids go to anyway. So I'm hoping they might out at the same time. And others, I might just sell to other podcasters I know. I know, for example, the RE320 went to a podcaster about 20 miles away from me, and he collects, RE mics. you know, ElectroVoice mics. He just collects them. And he saw me
put this up on Facebook Marketplace And he was on there. He says, I'm gonna e-transfer you now. Hold it. Don't sell it. Don't do anything. That was funny. But It went to a good home. Excellent. That's a great idea, by the way. Checking around with some of the local schools to see if they have a media club or if there's Samson to donate. I haven't thought of that as a way to deal with old equipment, but that's a fantastic idea and one that I hope others will hear and and try and replicate
in their communities. Yeah. Well, I think as well, I mean, a lot of the schools and education board struggle for funding. Right? So they can't buy new and you know yourself sometimes how much it can cost for equipment. So, yeah, it's I'm not using it, and it just I'd rather go there than,
you know, someone gets it and breaks or something. Well, and frankly too, even if they have the money, I often see these clubs buying just the wrong equipment because they're not, you know, they're just getting bad advice from bad actors like we were talking about earlier. And so, you know, you often see them look at them like, why'd you get that? And so, yeah, it's a really nice thing to do. Well, once again, it's Danny Brown, host of
One Minute Podcast Tips, and cohost of In and Around Podcasting. He also does my other podcast is, and he works over at captivate.fm. Danny, before we let you go, we're gonna ask you just a few questions that we've been asking everyone. Is there a place in the podcasting space in general equipment, you know, distribution, listening, whatever, where you are begging to see some serious improvement and just it's not coming yet? So there's probably a couple areas. 1 and I've I've said
this to lots of manufacturers. More on the, yeah, more on the live stream, I guess. So more on the Rodecaster Pro 2, like the, you know, the StreamDeck, etcetera. As a lot of them have got great Podcasting onboard and built in. But I feel there's some and I don't know how to do it, but it'd be great to see. So, a lot of the time, podcasters don't know about, loft levels. They don't know about mouth noises. They don't know
about sibilance. All that kind of stuff. So there was something I know some of them, they'll listen to you speak, and then they'll set a process and profile for you on the broadcaster or on the Mackie, etcetera. But it doesn't take into account all these little nuances. So it'd be great if there was something special with AI tools the way they are today They could really listen to any vocal text that you might have. And that's a horrible phrase. I apologize, to anybody who doesn't like the
phrase vocal text. But if you have anything like that, it really adds you know, it supports VST plugins from the off, you know. So you can save a VST plugin profile to your SD card and throw that into your Rodecaster, anything like that. So from an audio processing point of view, really set the Podcasting up for success. And then I guess from say, remote recording. So we're using Riverside at the
moment. I use another platform. There's a whole bunch of different ones. But, generally, all of them, I feel, have similar issues when it comes to sometimes not supporting multiple browsers. And that can really limit the guests, you know, making it easy for guests to jump on a Podcasting or to jump on a recording. So more support for Edge, for Chrome, for Safari, for Firefox, whatever for mobile, for Ipads, etcetera. That'd be nice to see just to make it easier for non
podcasters. We're fairly easy. We'll jump around different browsers if need be. But sometimes, you know, if you've got a guest on it, it's not a podcaster and they're limited by corporate VPN or anything like that, they can't easily jump to a Chrome because they're only allowed to use IE Tech, if that's the other thing. So maybe something like that. It's it's a bit basic, but it'd be nice to see, you know, a bit more support on that point. You know, that's such
an interesting concept and thought. It reminds me when these platforms start to emerge, you know, with Squadcast and Ringer were, you know, some of the original ones. There was one that came out and they started off as a stand alone application. Right? It wasn't web-based. They had to download this app, but it was more reliable because it was running, you know, exactly the way it should run. It wasn't dependent on anything else. But at the time, it was
rejected because everyone said, well, my guest don't wanna download a program. Right? Who wants to have it? Like, I've already got a browser. And then the pandemic hits, Zoom comes along, and everybody just downloads Zoom without a second thought. And so I wonder if maybe there's an appetite to return to that thought of creating a standalone desktop program so that you can avoid that question, have a little bit more control, a little bit more reliability with what you're trying to do.
That's funny. There was a post on one of the subreddits over on Reddit, obviously, on one of the Podcasting subreddits, and someone was basically on about that. They were having issues with local recordings. So their guest was here, he was there, and another co host was somewhere else, for example. And there was an issue with syncing up and all that kind of stuff. And what he was looking for was the option to have actually access to the local recordings on his own hardware and the guest
the same. So the guest could go into their downloads and look and grab their recording, send it over. And I I felt that was similar where that would require an app download because an app would have to talk to your storage and all that kind of stuff, I believe. I'm not sure. But that that's just it's funny you mentioned that now because that very Reddit user was wanting the same kind of thing. I wonder if there's even an app that someone can make that just says, okay, I'm gonna open
up your QuickTime or your, you know, Microsoft voice recorder. I'm gonna check the, you know, internal clock, and and I'm gonna start it here and everything is all synced up so you don't even have to rely on these programs. Although, we love Riverside and Streamyard and all these other guys, so I don't wanna I don't wanna, you know, put them in any peril. Great answers. What about technology? Is there a piece of equipment
that you yearn for? Whether it's a mic or a Samson, like, something that either already exists that you're just you know, it's out of your budget or you can't justify it or maybe something that doesn't exist yet that you'd like to have in your studio or have available to you? Yeah. I mean, I would love because I don't really do a lot of video. So as you can tell, my, my webcam but I use it so yeah. Like I said, it's a face cam. It's Tech 80, but it's not great. And I don't have
the perfect studio light in that. So it never comes across quite crisp as opposed to, you know, what I see, like, looking at you at the moment, Mathew, and others on recordings. So it'd be great. I know there are cameras out there that do a lot of work for you. There's the Insta 360, I think it's called, and it's getting a lot of good reviews. There was one obviously, Algara's got the new Facecam. There was another one, where it sort of tracks you if you're moving, so if
you're going back and etcetera. But it'd be great if there was a a camera that that ties into let's say you've got an app for your lighting. So the camera app and the lighting app and your own browser, etcetera, whatever you're using, all talk to each other and and actually adjust the stuff for you to give you the most optimal, you know, lighting and the most optimal settings on your webcam, etcetera. Because I can't do it. I'm not a webcam. I'm
not a photographer. I don't know advance. I can Google stuff, and I can follow Al Gartner and watch YouTube videos. But I still don't know what's the best how do I place the light against the wall so it bounces naturally, get
natural light coming in, all that kind of stuff. It'd be really cool if there was an app that you scan your room with your phone, and then that talks to the apps that you've downloaded for your webcam, your light, and all that, and it just sets everything up perfectly and Tech you where to place them in your room. That is definitely something that I
think a lot of people would wanna see. So anybody here smarter than us in the photography lighting space, jump on that, and you'll you'll definitely have some takers, I think, of the podcasting space. I would remortgage my house to get something like that. And interest rates right now. I don't know about that. Well, yeah. That that's true. Alright. And lastly, besides the ones that you are producing, is there a favorite podcast out there right now? The one that, you know, when that episode
drops, you know, you are waiting for it. You are stopping what you're doing, listening to it. Right? It's it is a priority podcast you like to listen to. Yeah. So I there's 2, actually. I have them allowed to. Of course. Awesome. So the first one is fun fact Friday with Leila and David. It's a dad and his 14 year old daughter. Started when the pandemic just hit back in 2019, 2020, I
guess. So 4 years ago. But really cool concept. Basically, they just pick a fact that they want to discuss and they don't even really discuss it. They'll just say, hey, did you know that there are 5,000 types of trees? Or did you know that depending on what color the ears are on a, a duck, that that dictates what color the eggs are gonna be. That kind of stuff. It's
like just facts you never know. But the dynamic because it's a father and daughter relationship and the dynamic that it's a teen daughter. So she's gone, you know, she's just gone running high school, and learning more information. All that's a really fun, sweet show. So I always look out for that coming, and because it's fun fact Friday. Easy to pick up. It's every Friday. So really good. That's audio only, so they don't do a video version of that. And then, Verbal Diorama,
which is a movie. I'm a big movie guy. Love movies. And Verbal Diorama with Em, who's the host, she takes a little bit of a different approach. And she looks at the the unknown history of movies and facts about it getting made and, you know, the gestation period of the movie and, like, the the the Passy that could have been involved but weren't involved in that. So it's a real deep dive into huge movies and well known
movies. And she's really good at in, involving her audience as well. So she has a Patreon where you can submit, you know, requests for movies, etcetera. But she also supports in the Podcasting community by putting a pitch out every single week. Hey, my next episode or the next episode I'm planning at the moment is going to be about Dracula or it's going to be about, you know, vampires or
sci fi movies or gremlins, etcetera. If there's any Podcasting that have published episodes about these movies or topics, shout me out and I will make sure I include you in my episode and show notes, etcetera. And I'll give you a shout out on that. So a really nice way to support other podcasters. That is a fantastic idea, and, yeah, a really nice way to support other podcasters. I love the fact, by the way, you know, we often ask this question to podcasters and,
you know, let's say they do a business show or whatever. The podcast they listen to tend to be related to that, you know, topic or that subject. I love the fact that your 2 are just 2 things that you just genuinely enjoy that give you pleasure and and that, you know, make you a little bit smarter. So, fantastic. And I I will definitely be checking out the fun fact Friday show. I love that kind of stuff. So, thank you very much. Well, again, he's Danny Brown. He hosts 1 minute
podcast tips. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Co hosts in and around Podcasting. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. And my other podcast is linked to that in the show notes. And, of course,
head of Podcasting support and experience at Captivate. And if you are just thinking about starting a podcast or you're wondering why your podcast host doesn't have enough tools that will help you grow, help you monetize, just help you be a serious better podcaster, we, of course, will have a link to Captivate in the show notes as well for you to check it out. Danny Brown, pleasure to chat with you. Thanks for joining me today. You are very welcome, and thank you for the
invitation. Thanks for joining us today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to all the hardware and software that help power our guest content and podcasting tech available in the show notes and on our website at podcastingtech.com. You can also subscribe to the show on your favorite platform, connect with us on social media, and even leave a rating and review while you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on Podcasting Tech.