#48: What's Remote Podcast Editing Like?
I've sorted through 191 bits of information to create this newsletter. My information obsession problem is your time saving gain.
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Greetings from a rainy day in Split, Croatia.
Global Podcast Editors newsletter is a space where I share a mix of my own podcast editing learning, conversations, and resources about the technical, business, and creative sides of podcast editing for clients.
For more about the Global Podcast Editors community, check out our
A special thank you to Motzie Dapul, creator of the Hi Nay Podcast, for crafting our new GPE logo. Isn’t it amazing! She’s open to doing more podcast logos so reach out if you or your clients need an artist.
Fun fact: Motzie was part of this fun experiment that we did last year on the Podcast Review Day YouTube channel.
As a Podcast Editor
…I’m working on and learning more about my workflow
Workflow: What edits do I really make? A practice in tracking changes for 1 week.
Every once in a while I slow down my editing and analyze my workflow. Normally this involves me timing myself to make sure that I’m spending my time effectively. As Karim mentioned in a recent LIVE GPE Chat, it’s easy to get stuck on making one thing perfect and accidentally throw off our entire workflow and client deadlines. I’m not one to obsess, I tell myself, but I can misallocate my time sometimes. I’m human.
But this time I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do 2 things:
see what kind of edits I do
make a list of edits I’d like to learn to make, essentially a stretch editing goals list
If you haven’t guessed already, this bit is going to be a lot of lists. Ready?
Most common edits:
My most common edits were all “remove this” and “adjust that". There really wasn’t anything surprising, except that I still enjoyed doing it. Seriously, usually repetitive tasks like this bore me. It must be the voices. It’s always the voices.
My biggest takeaway is that this is all of this is still more fixing than enhancing, which is fine if that’s what is needed. But for my own professional development, I’d like to be adding to a mix instead of just taking away bits. How does that work if I don’t want to lean heavily into sound design? I want more stylistic mouse clicks, but how?
Stylistic Podcast Editing Stretch Goals
Here’s a list of my editing stretch goals for 2022. I’ll be testing them out on Geopats, my personal podcast, well before offering them to clients.
panning voices. I know this is not revolutionary but I just haven’t used this much. I won’t be using a pan left, pan right, not all the way, because many people listen with one earbud/headphone and then they’d miss it all. But I would like to pan delicately and hear if it changes things.
music. I’m not a fan of a lot of music or sounds in an interview podcast, which is what I primarily make and edit for clients. But I think there can be more music and possibly sounds than just in the intro/outro. Where this feels natural and useful for the story being told is the thing I’d like to explore more.
binaural audio. I mentioned in the last issue that I might use binaural audio clips for the past reflective moments of the upcoming Geopats season with expats who grew up with immigrant parents.
This is all I can think of right now. Just writing this will expand my list because it’s on my brain and when I hear something inspiring while I work on this season, I’ll jot it down and try it out.
Can you think of any other delicate stylistic elements I should consider experimenting with this year?
☕ Podcast Editing Espresso Shots ☕
Experimental adding chapters to podcast episodes in Hindenburg, part 2 video is out now. There were a few glitches I fixed in this round.
A DAWs overview article from Riverside
A viewer of the last LIVE GPE chat asked if editing experience sped up our time spent editing and this led to us talking about our mice. Extensively.
As a Business Person
…I’m experimenting with how to publish some courses I’m working on
A few issues ago, I mentioned Yoga Body’s Science of Stretching course that I’m doing. I’ve been doing it for about a month and loving it so I signed up for Lucas’ 21-day Hip Challenge. It started in late May and I was blown away by the business lesson that came from the first day of doing it.
Lucas does 15 minutes of live gravity yoga hip stretches with us and then answers questions live.
Here’s the math that blew me away:
There were 171 people in the live room and the 3-week challenge is $69.
171 people x $69 = $11,799
Granted, the live question and answer section lasted 45 minutes. So the whole live event was about 1 hour. And he’s doing this daily for 21 days.
Going deeper into the math and pretending that the 171 people are the only people who bought the course (which is highly unlikely), that’s $4,000 a week for 7 hours of live streaming.
How could this apply to my podcasting projects?
So this is inspiring me to upend my Podcast Why workshop, which is an info and resource dump for motivated indy podcasters as a roadmap on how to get started. I held these in person in the before time. I’ve already been slowly updating the content and was about to put it up on an online course platform. But you know me, I love LIVE events.
What if I did the Podcast Why course LIVE once a month?
What does this have to do with podcast editing?
And that’s where my podcast editing trail I’ve been writing about in the premium version of the GPE job alert and client attraction sub newsletters this week. Since I don’t do launches BUT have all this helpful info for self-motivated podcasters, why don’t I build these LIVE events to be part of my podcast editing trail? Aka, my marketing strategy, if you want a more traditional term for it. Meh.
Here’s why this might work (for the podcasters AND for me):
podcasters sometimes edit their own podcasts until they don’t (this could lead them to me as an editor)
podcasters sometimes edit their own podcasts and fall in love with it and start to edit for clients (this could lead them into Global Podcast Editors)
It’s super easy to set up and deliver because I could talk about podcasting for days! It would be an hour-long event tops. That’s not a big ask for such a personal, face-oriented meeting of pod minds.
Now all I just have to do is schedule a time, a sign-up, and finish tidying up the slides and the takeaway sheets. Just.
☕ Business Espresso Shots ☕
Dave from Podcast Engineers manages over 100 shows. You read that right. Check out this convo where he shares how he does it.
Video podcasting is becoming more and more popular! Wondering if you should start offering video editing as part of your services? Listen to episode 112 of The Podcast Manager Show to hear what you should consider before doing so.
Is your tax country the U.S.? Then you’ll want to watch this FREE replay before Sunday, June 12th (until midnight New York time). Steve interviews Heather Zeitzwolfe about various U.S. tax issues Americans need to be aware of. Watch it in the Podcast Editors Club Facebook group, which is one of the groups on this podcast editing communities and resources list.
As a Podcaster
…I’m pondering even more about how to do face-to-face online recordings
On May 20th, I online attended the Asian Podcast Festival. I forgot how interactive this conference was. It was on Zoom but there were so many opportunities to chat with folks during and between sessions. I’m not just talking about the chat room, I mean face-to-face and voice-to-voice.
Live podcast recordings with some special sauce
One of the sessions I was able to attend was for the Taiwan No Why 台灣,沒有為什麼. It was a live record with a healthy question-and-answer period after. The first place I lived in Asia back in 2003 was in Taiwan. Tainan, Taiwan to be specific. So I was loving this throwback to my time over there. And the cultural chatter about chopsticks that we were having while they were recording (we were on topic, I promise) made me smile so big.
Live question and answer periods into GPE chats?
And as with all things that inspire me creatively, I thought, wait, how can I incorporate more of the live question and answer period into my own LIVE Global Podcast Editor Chats? Or even, if/when I start to do Geopats recordings live again? I’d love to do this but always assume that folks wouldn’t stick around that long. GPE lives are already usually 45 minutes long. And we don’t do face-to-face videos with the audience. That part was really special about the conference lives. I’m investigating options but if you have any, please let me know. I know a lot of folks are going back to live events but as it was pre-pandemic for me, my podcasting life is both ON and OFF line, no matter the year such. So I want to be able to include folks from all over, not just in one place.
Thanks to Lee and Andy for putting on yet another great conference.
☕ Podcaster Espresso Shots ☕
Accessible Podcast Course from Seneca
6 Unconventional Ways to Make Money Podcasting from Buzzsprout (I especially love #1 and #5, they’re really accessible for most podcasters)
What Makes a Podcast a Podcast? By me for The Podcast Host
I love doing guesting spots on other podcasts and I’m also tickled that Daniel of Vocab Man podcast likes having me do guest posts (like this recent one) as well. I was an English language instructor for 15+ years before podcasting so this is a nice reminder of that life.
GLOBAL events & conferences:
Podcasting, Seriously Live (online: Wednesdays) is a weekly Twitter spaces gathering of podcasters that gets into all things podcasting from LWC Studios. We invite industry experts and creators every Wednesday to discuss everything from launching a podcast to finding collaborators, promoting and marketing your show, finding and growing your audience, metrics and interpreting your podcast analytics, advertising, production, editorial, publicity, and more.
Podfest Berlin (Berlin, Germany: July 2022) is a fairly new conference, I believe. It’s supposed to be a multilingual experience and after having lived in Berlin for 9 months (2020) and dipping my toe into the podcasting scene there, this sounds very true to life. I might be jinxing it but I applied to speak. Don’t know how I’ll deal with going back to Berlin after the mega fail that was my experience there last time but I refuse to let that mental obstacle stand in my way of an in-person event so close to where I’ll be living. Here’s more on the founder, Daniel Stern.
Content Creators & Influencer Tech Live (London: 5-6 October 2022). Thanks to Matt Cheney for the info on this new podcast adjacent (and creator-focused) conference.
If you know of any other global podcast editing-related conferences, please let me know.
Podcast newsletter joy
Tal Minear’s newsletter, Podplane, is “a podcasting newsletter spotlighting trans and nonbinary podcasts!” It has #podcastrecommendations, audio drama crowdfunding updates, sound design interviews, and more! GOOOO!
Tony Doe’s Podcast Related newsletter is an amazing share on podcasting on the African continent and more. I interviewed Tony recently and you’ll be able to hear that episode tomorrow on Geopats.
Fiction Podcast Weekly is a solid read every time, even if you’re not in the audio drama space.
Danny Brown’s podcasting advice using Whitesnake song titles. Oh Danny, this is hilarious!
As a Digital Nomad
…I’m talking about working remotely in this weird, weird world we’re in now.
What it’s like remote podcast editing as a digital nomad?
Nick Hilton of Podot recently interviewed me on my remote podcasting work recently here. He asked about the GPE origin story, the podcast industry in China, the downsides of remote work and so much more. Love the conclusion he comes to in the end, TLDR flexibility rules. His questions I think are solid ones that many folks would have when first wanting to podcast edit remotely.
Special consultation offer
And as I write this, I’ve gotten a few more emails about people wanting to chat with me about getting started as a remote podcast editor. So, I'm happy to offer anyone who’s reading this a 2022 special consultation offer of $50 per half hour where I can answer your questions and help you plan. A recording of the chat is available as well. Just screenshot this section and email me with the subject line, “remote podcast editor consultation” to get started.
And I’m on the move again soon
The calendar flipped over to June last week and my heart pitter-pattered. Our country shift to Valencia, Spain on June 24th. I honestly don’t know what else to call it other than country shift. “We’re moving” sounds so intense, labor-heavy, and permanent. And as digital nomads, it’s simply none of those things. It’s a bit of cleaning and putting mostly the same few things back into the suitcase and carry-on. And hoping for no flight delays. It’s still stressful but not as long and for different reasons.
☕ Digital Nomad Espresso Shots ☕
You’ve been asking me about tips and tricks for living elsewhere, so here are some of my favorites. Because my financial home is in the U.S., many of these are based or cater to that country.
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Thanks for reading the GPE newsletter. The next issue comes out on June 30th. We’re skipping June 23rd because that’s when I country shift over to Spain.
Global Podcast Editors is a global podcast editor community where we dive into the successes and growing pains of being a freelance podcast editor, running a small podcast editing business, or transitioning between the two like I am!
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My current tools:
-Audio podcast editing: mostly Hindenburg & rarely Audacity
-Video podcast editing: Reaper and Windows Video Editor
Location:
Split, Croatia until June 23, 2022
DAWingly yours,
Guesting episodes:
https://www.podchaser.com/lists/stephanie-fuccio-guesting-spots-107aNEz7dI
Website:
Twitter: @stephfuccio
Instagram: @geopatscoffee
LinkedIn: @dstephfuccio
Email: stephfuccio (at) gmail.com
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