INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The beauty of podcasting is that anyone can do it
It a rare medium that nearly as easy to make as it is to consume
And as such, no two people do it exactly the same way
There are a wealth of hardware and software solutions open to potential podcasters, so setups run the gamut fromNPRstudios to USB Skype
rigs.
We&ve asked some of our favorite podcast hosts and producers to highlight their workflows — the equipment and software they use to
The list so far includes:
Broken Record Justin RichmondCriminal/This Is Love Lauren SpohrerJeffrey Cranor of Welcome to Night ValeJesse
Thorn of BullseyeBen Lindbergh of Effectively WildMy own podcast, RiYL
This week, it a nice, in-depth workflow from Mary Phillips-Sandy
and Lizzie Jacobs, the host and producer (respectively) of Let Talk About Cats
Now in its second season, the Acast network show sits down with artists, musicians and other creatives to, well, talk about their cats
Recent interviews include Spin Doctor Chris Barron and adult actress/writer, Stoya.
Episodes can be found on the official Let Talk About
Cats website and purveyors of finer podcasts everywhere.
We record most of our episodes at our network office in New York
They&ve set up a little recording room that Acast shows can use — it convenient, and there are always cute dogs hanging around
No cats, though.
The Acast space has ElectroVoice RE20 microphones with windscreens on ElectroVoice 309A mounts
Love that warm, classic sound
Also, I (Mary) am self-conscious about my S&s, and these mics do a good job of controlling them
The headphones are Sony MDR-7506s
Over-ear headphones always kind of suck for me because they squish my glasses
The headphones run through a PreSonus HP4 amp, which lets everyone set their levels exactly where they want them
The studio board is a Zoom LiveTrak L-12 and the DAW is Hindenburg, which we only use for recording
Lizzie edits and mixes the show at home with ProTools and her beloved Sennheiser HD 380 pros
She has to be listening to a lot of Cats before her head hurts from the headphones
But she doesn&t wear glasses.
We try to avoid remote interviews
The more we do the show, the more we&ve realized that it works best when the guest is here in person
We make fast transitions between segments, and one bit (the Cat Quiz) involves handing over a special prize, so getting that IRL reaction is
Mary prizes are next-level
It incredible what she able to find on eBay, Etsy and I don&t even know where else
The show would not be what it is without them, or without Mary research skills
Every week she digs up something like a vintage perfume packaged with a cat figurine in a feather boa, or musical theater-themed cat
stickers.)
When remote is the only option, we&ll do Skype with Ladiocast on the studio laptop
We also ask our guests to record locally with whatever prosumer or office studio gear they can get their hands on — anything to make their
voices sound closer.
This may be obvious, but Dropbox is essential to our process
We have a shared folder with Acast where studio tracks get uploaded so Lizzie (or Virginia, who helps with production) can grab them
We also use it to share clips and images for social media
Speaking of which, we&ve been using Headliner to make captioned preview videos for Instagram and Twitter
Very convenient, highly recommend
We are not graphic designers, so we use Canva to make images for our social accounts and website, which we built on Squarespace, using one
of our favorite podcast promo codes for a discount.
Scripts, research, booking trackers, scheduling and everything else happens in Google
Drive/Calendar, which we&d be lost without
In season one we worked with a human for transcription, but she went back to grad school, so now we use Otter
It not perfect, but it by far the best automated transcription tool we&ve found, and you can&t beat the price
I (Mary again) actually like taking some time to go through and correct transcripts, because it a good way to become (even more) aware of
By the fourth &of course,& you want to travel back in time and slap yourself.
