331 - Podcast Editing Tools and Techniques

0:05 Good morning podcasting morning Chat. Today is Tuesday, July the 1st, 2025 and today we're diving into the truth behind podcast post production. From tools to time saving tricks, we're answering the age-old question, how long should this really take to edit? So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're listening via podcast, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again podcasting, Morning Chat. Thank you for being here.

1:24 I am your host Mark Ronik. And on this full stage with me we have producer Ashley Feller, Dr. Faye, Sid Meadows, Jonathan Howard, Nick Naul back and Alex Baelish. And I think Amanda Sharp is going to be joining us here momentarily. And I say that because she gave me an idea for an upcoming episode. And I'll give you the the whole back story here yesterday. If you follow me on social media, you may have heard, and I had started letting the team here know we had a good last few days here at the podcasting morning chat. Yesterday I saw on the Apple Podcast charts that we hit #42 in the How To category #42 of all podcasts that are in the How to category. We are, yeah.

2:18 We're #42 it's pretty impressive. We've not gotten that high before. I think we have cracked the top 100 in the past. But the reason I think that really kicked this into high gear for us was that Steve from Blue's Clues episode that we did on Thursday last Thursday. It has become by far our number one downloaded episode ever since we became a podcast and went from streaming only to a podcast. And when I say by far, I mean, I actually haven't done the math yet, but it's got to be like 3 or 4 times the amount of downloads. And then the after effect all of our other episodes, not all a lot of our other episodes have gotten a big bump as a result of I guess people finding our show.

3:10 So to any new listeners, new community members, welcome to the podcasting Morning Chat. Thank you for being here and thank you for catapulting us up the charts to number 42. I think we're in the 60s as of this recording now, and still very proud of that. And I was really affected by that episode in the sense just the story and just how powerful Steve from Blue's Clues has become as far as social media goes and his messaging and how it affects people. And now that he's starting a podcast this fall, I'm just fascinated by him. And Amanda, I know you've been thinking about that episode since I hipped you guys along to, you know, this whole idea of that, you know, we've got so many downloads from that one episode.

4:01 It got you thinking. And I was curious if you would share that thought here because I think I want to talk about it later this week. I would love to. So I was just going grocery shopping, doing some driving and I thought, I think a lot in my car obvious. I think a lot of people do it. I just started thinking about the setup of his podcast and just how hungry I think people again are for real conversations like we discussed during that episode. And then it took me to what if he would have never said yes to being Steve from Booze Cruise. Now he was younger. Can you imagine? I'm sure his friends maybe teased him, made fun of him, that as an actor, that is not like your slam dunk role, right?

4:44 Like, I think that would not have been what he maybe would have chosen, given a list of several things. So had he not said yes to that and taking that leap of faith, like maybe he didn't understand why he was saying yes, but he did. And because he said that yes, it's led to this, this, this and this, and then now this. So it's kind of, it just got me thinking, what did our past cells say yes to that really set up our future to be able to have the opportunity and say yes to something else, even if it didn't make sense at the time. Yeah, I absolutely love this. And when you texted me that, I think probably the first thing I said to you is, yeah, that's a good idea for a room topic.

5:29 And I actually think taking it a step further, saying or asking ourselves what are the things we said no to that led us here? I think that can be equally as powerful and eye opening. So the reason why I'm at. I asked Amanda to more or less. It feels like a big set up and then yet we're not going to do that right now. The reason for that, it is calculated, I promise. I want to give you all time to think about your answer because to me, 7:00 AM the beginning of the week, it may be a tough one for you to just come up with on the spot. Take some thinking sometimes for others. I'm sure you probably have your answer. Alex, did you want to say something? To go along with what Amanda said, I think that we're in a time with podcasting and social media and everything else where we can reflect.

6:22 We're more nostalgic, I think, than we ever been before. And I think that that's really the thing. And because of the fact that we can have all these recordings and we can look back, it makes it more nostalgic. I mean, that's why, you know, for the podcasting that I do, that's how I got involved just through conventions. So I mean, I, it's a great topic I think to explore, but I, I think that's a main mainstay of what we do now. I think it has to do a lot with just streaming and all that other guy. The, the nostalgia, not so much being nostalgic, but having access to the nostalgia. I mean, if you look on Facebook, it's all over the place if if you're of a certain age. Yep, Absolutely.

7:06 Thank you, Alex. Yeah, go ahead, Amanda. That's why I do my TikTok the way that I do it because I'm documenting things that I don't want to forget because you know, we get busy and those moments that were so important to us at that time and that we swear we'd never forget. Sure enough, we do. And anytime I'm going through my Facebook memories or something like that, I love when something surprises me and I go, I did do that because I'm not a dweller. I don't, I remember the really great big things typically with Owen, but there's all those little things that were also important to that I often forget. So to Alex's point, I love that we can utilize social media or a podcasting to to just document our life because if we're living, it's worth documenting. Agreed.

7:53 And you all have me, you all have me thinking because I'm also seeing in the chat, Jonathan says. All right, I got my answer and it sounds like, you know, Alex is interested in discussing this. I think Amanda's probably thought about this a little bit and I know I told even Dr. about this earlier this morning. So I'm going to audible this for a second or actually I'm going to ask you to audible this with me. In other words, do we discuss today editing because we have a mail back question about how long it should take? Whatever it is, whatever the topics are, not editing. Whatever it is, it's just not editing. OK, OK, I love it. OK, thank you.

8:36 So there were only two It was either editing or the saying what have you said yes to? So what do we what do we want? Put it in the chat. Would you do you want to talk about editing or like Alex? Hell no, Don't want to talk about editing. Let's talk about what are the things that you said yes to. I know you don't. What are the things that you said let yes to that led you to today? What do we think, Jonathan? I'm coming to you. What do you think? I can share what I've said yes to and and how it's impacted my life, but if everybody else isn't ready, it's a lot for all right, not for me to carry the rest of the show.

9:16 I'm not putting it all on your shoulders. Yes, go ahead, Amanda. I would recommend that even if we just table this until Thursday like you originally suggested, only because since we spoke, I have so many layers of feelings. I've went through this like, oh, this is the yes, but then a better one comes and then a better one comes. And I just feel like the more I think on it, the deeper it goes of how that yes impacted something in the future. So I definitely recommend giving it a day or two to, to sit with us. And I think the answers are going to like, maybe Jonathan has the one, but I think a lot of us will really go, oh, wow, this one's even better. Or like, formulate the story better with it, you know? You know what Amanda Mark is going to send out on the the thing?

10:01 All the short codes for Audacity so we can get really do a deep dive in all the short codes of Audacity and Final cut that would be. Great look. I think that sharing a few shortcuts wouldn't be wouldn't be the end of the world and. Actually, we had that conversation in a, in a chat with my other group and and like, I forgot to show codes. That's why I'm laughing, because it it's totally, Yeah, appropriate, Yeah. So all right, so we will, let's dig into the editing stuff. I accept what Amanda's saying. I think that was the original thought I had anyway. So we will dig into that on Thursday. And for those of you who are new, the reason why I say Thursday and not Wednesday, which is tomorrow is because Wednesdays are scheduled news and comment episode. So we go through all the headlines around the world of podcasting tomorrow and we discuss them and not just really the world of podcasting, also anything content creation related.

10:58 So we'll do do news tomorrow and Thursday. What are the things you've said yes to that brought you to where you are today? So start thinking about that now and would love to have your participation. And again, thank you all for helping us crack the top 50 of how to podcasts on the Apple Podcast platform. OK so today I want to get into then editing. This is from a mailbag question. It comes from Femi. I hope I've pronounced the name correctly. Femi in Brooklyn, NY. Femi says. Hey everyone, just wondering how long should it take to edit a 30 minute podcast episode? I'll tell you right now, in my opinion, there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

11:44 For example, what kind of podcast are you doing? How many people are participating on your podcast? Is it just you? Do you have you and a Co host? You and a Co host and a guest, multiple guests? I mean, these are all factors that you have to consider and we'll talk about that. We'll breakdown what really affects your edit editing time, what tools can help, and whether you're making life easier or harder for yourself. Plus, we want to hear any editing horror stories if you got them, time saving tips and maybe even some confessions. So who's who's still editing out their podcast, whether it's every Go ahead, Alex. What and what are you using?

12:28 Alex, what are you using to edit? Tell us that too, OK? First off, when I first started, I used Audacity because it's free and that's what was, that's what I was taught on. And I got to tell you without a doubt, I know there's better editing programs out there, but it's the best. It's free, but it's the best and it's what I know. So when I first started editing, I learned from, thankfully and not thankfully, a sound engineer who basically drilled into US every and space needed to be filled in a certain way. As I am right now. It would take me it seemed like days to do an hour podcast then.

13:13 And how many people on the podcast? Usually was 2, maybe 3. And the way Audacity does it, if you line everybody up, it's great because audio only is so much easier then I did, you know, use the script and I actually like the script for one Piece in terms of, you know, seeing this, the transcript and editing that way. So I used to do that, but I can't do certain things in the script that I can do in Audacity because I can't figure it out. That all being said, then I went to video and now I really don't edit unless there's a major problem the video because it's just too hard to do. I've worked with Final Cut before years and years and years ago when my sister had a company, but in terms of audio, there's nothing better than it.

13:57 It does have its quirks just like anything else. But in terms of the editing process, you know, once you get good at it, I can do it on like 1 1/2 or two times the speed and kind of go through it. So it'll take it a longer time. But if I'm, if I'm truly editing, I'm going to listen to the whole thing all over again in a lot of cases. But for my lives, I just don't do it anymore because I'm just sick of it. But I don't know if that's the right answer. But that's the answer. Well, there's no right or wrong. It's what you do. So that's great. Thank you, Alex, and I'm with you. I still use Audacity usually. Look, I'm not editing nearly as much as I used to anymore. I have people that are, I'm grateful to have people that are helping me with the editing process.

14:42 For example, Ashley here, she edits this show for us, although granted not a typical edit because we try to lightly edit, but still at she is doing all of the editing for me. And sometimes it is a more complicated edit like the other day and I'm not going to get into that at this moment, but maybe we'll get into it in a little while. So yeah, Audacity, I still use it for quick stuff. Whenever I'm putting together a clip for this show, for example, I go into Audacity and do it. I think similarly to you, it's the tool I first really learned on, So it's just where I'm very comfortable. But also, what I think is great about Audacity is that it does have a ton of bells and whistles, but you don't have to use them all.

15:29 You can use the very basic tools that it offers without getting overwhelmed with all of the things you can do. And there is still a little bit of a learning curve. The the biggest downside to it right now that I can think of is it's audio only. And we're where we're in this world right now of podcasts must be video, which I don't agree with, but more people now are starting to steer away from Audacity. Yeah, I use Audacity more for business then I use it for podcasting in some cases. And what I mean by that is if I'm putting clips like you said, like when you put clips together or I want to pull out sound, it's it's great for doing that. And there's just a lot of benefits to that particular platform.

16:15 They don't change it up too much. I know Dr. is like, you know, she, she knows a lot about it, but I mean, they don't do too many changes. Yeah, and I'm with Alex also. As far as you know, we do this live on YouTube as well. I don't do any editing to the video and I leave it up there after we're live. I just, why not, right? So yeah, I, I'm with you. Because video just takes a lot longer for me to edit. And I think for most people it takes a lot longer 'cause there's more factors to consider in there. Not me. No, not me. Why not? Well. And good morning, Dior, by the way. Good morning I'm in the kitchen, so I might sound a little different. That's OK.

16:56 So I started editing video when my clients the business coach, she insisted on going over to YouTube. The audacity of her, pardon the pun, anyway, exactly. So she said, you know it it, it takes me so little time. So we don't do every umm and awe, because that would be jump cut crazy if we did that. But she has a thing where she clears her voice or she coughs or something during every single episode. So I have to keep, I have to keep an ear out for that and any kind of tongue stumbles, anything that would detract from the subject itself.

17:48 Dr. Can I stop you real quick? What do you What do you call a? What is a tongue stumble? You know, if someone tries to get out something like three tries and is still having a hard time, I will do a crossfade. So, and that's what I like to do. I like to do crossfades. I really don't care for jump cuts and it's so freaking easy in Canva, and I know I'm going to get a lot of shade about Canva, but it is really, really easy in Canva. You put your tops and tails on it, put a few crossfades in there, maybe at the end there's an end card with some contact information, and voila, chef's kiss.

18:33 ATR, I did my openings and Closings. I use Canva. I've done, I've done tons of shorts with Canva. Don't I mean, Canva is a good tool. It has its limitations, but it's don't, there's no reason to give shade towards it. I mean, are there better tools? I know, Nick, I'll tell you, there's 27 other better tools out there. But you know what? It, it, it does its job. It's like, it's like audacity. It's it's a workforce. And one of the things about Canva is holy gosh there is updates all the time. And if someone has made a decision about Canva like 6 months ago that it's not for you, take another look because there's been several updates since then. Yeah, yeah.

19:17 And to be clear, in case anybody's wondering the reason why I think we're why Dr. said people may throw a shade at her freezing Canva. Not for the tool itself, because I use Canva regularly. I use it for episode art, I use it for pretty much so all social media stuff. Not necessarily video editing though. And I think that's where some may throw shade because I personally think it's fine for throwing something together, for putting something together like a short, etcetera. But it, it does have a lot of limitations as far as video editing is concerned. So that's why I, well, I wouldn't ever really throw shade about it.

19:59 I just think that there are other tools that are just as intuitive that offers a lot more. The learning curve is so low when it comes to Canva and when I first started editing I I avoided it like the plague. I did everything. I would pay other people to do it. And eventually I just had to buckle down and learn the language of the time of the sound wave. And this was before, you know, editing via text. The transcript came about. So it was that whole idea of learning another language because that's what that sound wave is.

20:44 It's kind of another language. And I eventually got to where, you know, I could see an umm in the timeline and I can. OK, that's normal. I wouldn't even have to listen to it. So I love editing now. I mean, I, yeah. I have a question. You know how you always talk about your this, this person, and she always has these intricacies with her coughing or whatever? Yeah. I'm not trying to be funny when I say this. Have you taught her how to use the mute button? I'm not trying to be funny. I'm really not. If she knows they. Usually come on so organically and they usually come on while she's talking, so sometimes she even finishes her sentence during the anyway, you know, during the clearing of the voice.

21:36 So that's always a challenge, but. So that's something it sounds to me almost like a reflex or I don't want to say a tick, but it just sounds like something that she normally does in her regular conversation. So she probably wouldn't be able to hit that mute button every time. And that's a great call, Alex. But I think the way Dr. is describing it, that would be a challenge. Jonathan, I wanted to ask you what you share just now in the chat and to elaborate a little bit, if you don't mind. I mean, Canva to me kind of blows my mind when it comes to video because to me it's so slow when it comes to video. But I want to know about the crossfades because crossfades to me seem like they would almost feel out of place in a podcast edit when you're trying to get rid of a cough or an omener. It why the jump cut hatred.

22:33 I can say in TV, I think that's what's made it a no no because TV generally no jump cuts. I mean, when I was doing TV production, it's anytime if I had a jump cut it somewhere, I would get slapped on the wrist for it. Like no, no, you missed that. You got to fix that. It just wasn't. It's not accepted in the world of. TV You might have to explain jump cuts to some of the newbies. So jump yeah, jump cuts where like and go look at a lot of my videos. You'll see it all the time as far as my shorts, because you do see it a lot in Tik Toks and reels where basically the person is, let's say, looking directly at the camera, talking to you, sitting in their chair. And then all of a sudden there's a jump cut to them turning to their side, looking off camera, looking away.

23:18 There was no it. You can see it's a clean or clear edit, whereas if you do maybe a crossfade or you maybe put up a picture or a video to cover up that jump cut. No one knows the difference in its looks and feels more smooth. That's But jump cuts become a thing in the world of social media. Yeah. I mean, there are standard and social media, but is it a single person podcast that you're editing with the Crossfade or do you do all your podcasts? It's an interview. OK, I just do jump cuts to the other person. That's just it just makes life easier. But. I think as far as far as digital media goes, I think it is way more accepted and it didn't used to be either. But I think as social media grew and grew and grew and, and creators were creating content, DIY style, right, and teaching themselves how to do it, the jump cut just became the norm and now people are doing it in social media. True social media has made it more acceptable. When you look at my clients videos, I mean you barely notice that there has been a crossfade.

24:33 You barely notice because Canva. I'm sorry not a brat because Canva. You can adjust the timing on the crossfade. It could be anywhere from 0.1 second to, you know, to a full 3 seconds or whatever. Yeah. And most places, most tools, yeah, that you can put a time frame on that transition. And yeah, when you do a very quick short crossfade, sometimes it's barely noticeable, if at all. Nick, I saw you wanted to say something. Good morning. Go ahead. Hey. Good morning. I would say jump cut versus not jump cut is still a highly contested topic and I see it all the time on people's vivos in the comments section on YouTube and stuff like that.

25:18 People either bashing the way that they edit because they use too many jump cuts or why didn't you use fade or why'd you fade not jump cut. It does make for very snappy edits that we're used to seeing on social media now. So I think the style is being more accepted like you guys are saying, but it is definitely still a highly contested subject among. They actually jump cuts work for me on shorts because the captions are there and the captions are very jump cuddy. So it makes sense to have the rest of it be jump cuddy. And yes, I just said jump cuddy. We can add that to the languaging of. Everything. Which I looked up and languaging is a word, at least from what I found.

26:02 It's a word, but it had not been a word in my world until I heard you say it, and now I won't let you forget it. I know it, I know it. Oh man. And of course, now I lost what I wanted to say about the, the, oh, the jump cuts. It is. So it's that famous phrase. I like to say it causes the pattern disrupt. And I think that's why it works so well on social media because it doesn't feel so smooth and there isn't it. There is such a noticeable transition between 1 scene to another. It keeps people's attention. You know, if I'm looking in One Direction, talking to you on camera and then all of a sudden I'm in a completely different setting or in standing instead of sitting, it does. Whether you're consciously aware of it or not, it does keep your attention.

26:53 But are even going to B roll? I was just going to say it keeps the pace moving, which is why I think it works on social media because everything needs to be fast to hold everyone's attention. And with a crossfade, it's kind of a, it's obviously a slower transition, right? So that's a potential opportunity to lose a viewer. So I think that's why it worked so great on social. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Nick. All right, I'm going to go, Ashley, if you don't mind, I'd like to put you on the spot. And ask you to share a little bit about how long it takes you and what you're using to edit a typical episode. And I know you edit more than just your own podcast, so pick one and tell us a little bit about it.

27:37 So I guess if I'm going to pick one, I'd pick My Happy Ass Life. That's a video and audio podcast I've been working on for a few years now and it usually takes me about an hour and a half to fully edit. A hour long podcast that has lots of visual elements, lots of transitions, background music and things that are in place every time. The thing that has really helped is having a preset template, you know, so that every single time I don't have to, I'll go find the intro, drop that in, I'll go find these credits from the sponsor, drop that in, that sort of thing.

28:17 And I use the script and there's things I love and there's things I don't love about it. I'm strongly considering going to Final Cut. Final Cut, I know Nick was just talking about Pro Tools in the chat. Maybe there's something there for you. Nick, did you want to mention anything about Pro Tools and specifically? Oh, Ashley actually mentioned Pro Tools and I was just kind of back in what she said. I think Pro Tools is awesome, but it's a lot. It is a lot. There's this talk about learning curves. There's a lot to learn there. And again, I mean is if you just learned the basics, I think you could get by. But Pro Tools is also cost you a pretty penny I believe, so you may want to make sure you take some time to really learn the software to take full advantage of it. Cool.

29:09 OK. Oh, go ahead. You know, it's just so funny because I keep going back to Audacity and they make it so simple. I like Dr. Said, it's a shame that they don't add the video piece to it because editing isn't that hard. It's the programs that make it hard. I swear I beat up Simona about the script all the time. It is so confusing and I've tried and tried. I mean, I've just, you know, put my hands. I mean, she could teach me 1000 times. It's still not going to make it any better and I just don't understand. I mean I've used iMovie which is pretty easy, but it still has it. It's a little, yeah, it's a little limited.

29:50 It's a little limited. I mean, it's just so hard and I don't understand why these these programs are so hard because all you're doing is taking stuff out, putting it in and extending it. I mean, going back to what Dr. said, you can say what you want about the. Canva. Canva. But it has. I know, I know, she's going to have to edit the lock out now, but it has its, IT has its little quirks, but it still does the job sometimes. I just wanted to say that really what I've noticed is that I think Riverside is, for me, much easier to edit with than descript. It is super intuitive, it's user friendly, and it lets you do pretty much everything you want to do. And it keeps, it keeps expanding, it keeps upgrading and it what it seems to always do, though with every update, every upgrade gets a little easier to use. It's not the opposite, right Where we talk about descript. It seems like when there are new updates or first of all, there are lots of updates and it feels like it's, it's a challenge to learn some of the new things.

31:07 Riverside I, I do most of my editing for social media, for video clips. I do mostly in Riverside and sometimes in Minbo. Some in a lot of times I'm using actually both because there are some features about Minbo that I really like that Riverside doesn't have. And I use Riverside mainly because that's where I record everything, whether it's this show, whether it's my social media content. And it's nice just to have it all there. I don't have to export then import it into something else. So I do my first big pass of editing using Riverside, and then if I have extra things I want to do to it that Minvo has to offer, I'll export that.

31:53 What I did in Riverside, drop it in Minvo, add whatever I want to add to it there, and export it. Let's see. OK, Dr., did you want to respond to something about Riverside before I go to Ashley? You had mentioned first pass and my first pass is done on a, a dock called Resound dot FM. And what it does is you can program it to flag all the Umm's and Ah's and big gaps and things like that. And you're basically just a babysitter. As you listen to the podcast occasionally when there's a word that sounds that has the, uh, sound like a round about sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes it will catch that word. So you just go in and, and you make the adjustment because it's, you're just playing the, you're just playing the show and, you know, listening to it for that kind of thing. And it's, if it's a solo show, that's usually all I need. If it is a interview show and there's, you know, in any organic kind of situation, people are going to talk on top of each other and things like that. I will take that interview show, I'll put it into Audacity after Resound and I will move the conversations to where they're not speaking on top of each other. Unless it's if it's laughter and stuff like that, I let that go. But other than that, I'm a big fan of Resound. Unfortunately, I feel like the

33:27 creators are either abandoning it or they've got something else going on because they have not done an update in a long time. And this is one of those that you can see their road map of things that they've done things that they're planning. You know, the the things that they're planning have like a years, a year ago, they were planning it. So it's I just want to shake them so bad because it was I couldn't use it last night for something that was time sensitive and I had a little bit of a mini mini breakdown. Yeah, I rely pretty heavily on it.

34:09 Yep, thank you. DRI was thinking about a comment as you were sharing about resound that you had made earlier about how you can visually see the Umm's. I wanted to comment on that earlier. I can pick out an UMM in a wave format almost every time and that I was curious how many people in this room who have edited for themselves before, How many of you could recognize a word like UMM in the waveform as you're going through an edit timeline? Yeah, Dr. says yes, obviously put in the chat. Can you recognize the word or another word that you commonly are editing when it's a way in a wave format? Yeah.

34:51 Ashley says yes to. OK. And Speaking of Ashley, I said it was going to come to you. Ashley, what did you want to add from earlier? Because I think there was something you wanted to add to or to respond to. I see Alex took off, but I just wanted to empathize with Alex a little bit on what the script does. And part of this leads into my my love frustration relationship with the script. And it's that, you know, every time that you use it, it has to essentially upload the file to the online version of the script, whether you're using it or not. So if you're in a place that has no Internet or bad Internet, or your connection is poor, you're really not in a good place to be. So it can really, really mess with the playback speed. And if you're doing video, that's not good. So part of my motivation for Final Cut is I'm pretty sure that you can use it without Internet connection. I was wondering if anybody knows the answer to that? Yeah, you, you should be.

35:49 And I'll let Nick answer that for sure. But yeah, that that software that you put on your computer and work from directly through your computer, you're not using it via Internet. I mean, it probably it does connect to the Internet, but you can still edit and use it even if you don't have an Internet connection. And that's a downside to Riverside too, because it is an Internet based application. Nick, I know you wanted to chime in anyway, so take it away. Yeah, Final Cut, Davinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, all those programs can function without Internet access. And like you guys said, a lot of them have Internet functionality. Like I think with Final Cut, you can probably upload your edits to the cloud and then you can download it and continue editing on your iPad kind of thing. Most of them have that kind of software functionality. But I wanted to bring up because we've been talking about Audacity a lot and the limitations and video, and it's hard to beat 399 of Audacity, but I really love Audition. And part of the reason that I love it is that's Adobe, that's Adobe Audition.

36:54 Yep. And one of the things that I love about it is once you get to the video editing side and you're going to be doing Premiere Pro for your video editing, all of those Adobe programs are essentially linked. Or in my case, what I use a lot is Premiere Pro links files directly with Adobe Audition. So I can be editing my video file and I'll right click on my audio track and there'll be an option that says bring it into Audition and then it opens up audition. I can do all of my edits, save the edits, and then all of those edits are automatically brought back into Premiere Pro. What's even cooler with that is they are actually linked. Like anytime I go back into Audition to make an edit, that edit is automatically going to be pulled back into Premiere Pro.

37:44 And I never have to worry about, oh shoot, I have to bring this back into Audition and I have to bring that back into Premiere Pro and like keep going back and forth like that. Like I can literally have both programs open and every time I make a change, it's reflected in my final video. So it it's really nice and intuitive like that because you're not constantly exporting and importing files just to get something simple done. But again, it's not 399 like Audacity. So that's definitely a limiting factor for a lot of people. But if you're already using something like Audacity, the jump to audition isn't that great. You just get more functionality in my opinion. Yeah, I agree with you there, absolutely. And that is super convenient to be able to bounce between different applications.

38:28 And they just automatically know intuitively how to work with one another because they're all from the same brand, the same family. And by the way, I don't think when I asked Dr. And Ashley and Jonathan, I'm going to come to you next about your editing processes, but I don't know that either of you shared how long it takes you on average to edit the episodes of those podcasts that you work on. So Dr. what the one with the business coach, how long does that take you on average to edit? And does she have guests as well? She does have guests. She does about 50% guess, 50% solos.

39:12 Her episodes run anywhere from 30 to 40 ish minute. OK, so that's just like the mailbag question. They were asking how long it takes for a 30 minute episode to edit. Yeah. So it might take me probably about 40, maybe an hour to do those with because I have the two programs, I have Resound and I have Audacity. So yeah. OK, and how about you, Ashley? How long does it take you to edit my? It's my happy ass life, right? Yeah, my happy ass life. Most of the time anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to do full video was, like I said before, lots of moving elements, a sponsor block, all kinds of stuff going on. OK cool, that helps.

39:57 I want to make sure we are actually answering that question and I've heard I don't know if this is. Right or wrong, but I've heard a lot of people say in the editing world that your edit should take you around 1 1/2 to two times the total running time of the episode. So if you're doing a 30 minute episode, it should take you an hour to 90 minutes to edit. But you know what's wrong with that? Is that that saying that rule of thumb was created or thought of before all this technology started? You know, before the transcript editing and before all of that? And by the way, I hate transcript editing. I would much rather use the the sound waves. I'm wondering how many people are in my boat with me. I would say, you know what I and I'm glad you brought that up. I would say that it's a kind of a combination. I don't say I solely work in transcription editing, but it does come in handy for some editing even just to find my place.

41:06 Right? Like I don't need to use it markers as much because if I know what word or phrase I'm looking for, I could either search for it in a with their search tool or I can just eyeball it and find it very quickly. But that's one way I'm using it, but not I'm not using it 100% of the time. I'm not using it to like edit everything out, but again, when I'm making my shorts using say, Riverside, I do use their transcription editor as like a first pass edit. I will go through the transcript and I'll identify the fluff, basically the things that doesn't need to be in that short, and I'll just delete them from the transcript and then I go back and then I play in the timeline editor to make sure it's a clean cut, make sure it didn't lose anything, etcetera.

41:54 So I think it's a great tool to have in in coordination in combination with the typical timeline editing, in my opinion. But great point, Dr. that that rule of thumb was, is something that I've heard for years and years and editing tools have come a very long way since then. So it probably should speed things up. So Jonathan, I'm coming to you now. Tell us a little bit about your editing, how long it takes you and and give us a little more on, you know, do you have guests, how many people on average, etcetera, so we can get a good sense of your project. Yeah. So to answer, first of all, the keep only feature on Riverside in the in the transcript editor is gold when you're just taking a chunk out of it or you know you want to move apart to the beginning of your episode, stuff like that. The keep only function is gold.

42:48 I love that from the transcript editor. I also do half and half really when it comes to transcript or wave because I do it on Riverside and there's a lot of stuff that you can do just in the transcript on Riverside. So for me it takes about now. I will say for coffee social, the one where I have Mimi as my Co host, it usually takes me about so it's a 15 minute episode, it'll take me 1/2 hour to edit. If it's 1/2 hour episode, it'll take me an hour. But one of the reasons that takes so long is because I do an edit and I send it all off to Mimi. Mimi will look at it and and say hey, this has to come out. I don't like how this sounds and I come back and I re edit it and then listen to it.

43:32 So that's one thing that I that's a little bit different. So that takes a little bit of extra time, but I, it still works really well for us because it does give us a clean, you know, a pretty clean edit. If I miss something, she'll catch it. If she missed something, I catch it on the second pass. So that's usually, you know, how it goes. I would say definitely, you know, 15 minute episode, half hour is what I'm going to what it would take. Now with my own podcast, I'm a little bit quicker because I don't have to have that second person listen to it, although it probably would still benefit me if you also. Don't have a second person? And I don't have a second person on mic with me, which, yeah, when I first started editing, that was a big deal.

44:15 Because, as Mark knows, Mimi used to love holding her microphone in her hand. That was fun to edit. Yeah, that's, that's just for anybody. I know that on social media we like to hold our microphones a lot and it doesn't work well for podcasting. You you can hear when the person is touching the microphone. Yes, I'm doing this for effect, but you can hear it even when they're touching just the base of the microphone, not the actual part you talk into, but the actual base. You can hear all that hand movement and it is an editing nightmare. Yes, yes it was and I'm so happy she has a light stand now. Like no, you can't believe how happy I am. But I have a question with Riverside. So I have the option to have I have three potential cameras when I'm recording now.

45:04 I'm only using for my one right now a single camera. Can I do multi camera in Riverside? I haven't been able to figure it out. I don't know if you can do multi camera. I feel like I heard that that's like a newer thing but I don't know if you can actually do it yet or not. I mean it it records in multi camera for you if if that's what you're asking. Like if you have but are you talking about in person or remotely or both? So it's just going to be me. So it would be sort of in person. I see also sort of remotely. Yeah, so you're going to have more than one camera on you.

45:44 Right. I can have more than one camera on me. I could have up to three because I've got, you know, my iPhone, my Mac and you know, my, my webcam. So I could have up to three. Interesting. Yeah. So that I don't know, if anything, I would say that if you want to do something like that, as far as I know, you got to use something like and you're a Mac user, so something like Ecamm, right? Because then you can plug in the three cameras and you can do this, do it all live. Right. I think that's probably your easiest solution, but I will find out for you. I'm in a Riverside beta group with with the Riverside people. So I'll, I'll ask if anybody knows and I'll get back to everyone and let let you all know.

46:27 OK, thank you. And now let's go to Mike Short who has joined us on stage. Good morning Mike. What did you want to add? And if you want to share about your editing process, would love to hear it. I'm playing with the script and I started off with GarageBand and I'm still trying to figure out how long it's going to take. But I think we're missing a couple of key points here. I mean, we're talking a lot about tools and technology. And you know, if I've got to move 500 lbs of sand, I could do it with $1000.20 year old Chevy or $100,000 Ford Eddie Bauer Edition. And they both get the job done. And once you're used to whatever tools you're using, I think that, you know, you can be pretty efficient.

47:09 But what I think the part we're missing is having a system, having all of your assets located in one place, having it all, having your the system for editing structured as opposed to focusing on the tools. So I've got spreadsheets where in specific places on the computer where I can grab music or intros or other elements for the program, quickly find them, put them where they need to go. And I think having a efficient system is probably even more important when you're talking about how long it takes to edit than the specific tools that you're using. So I just wanted to share that because I think we've missed that in the conversation.

47:53 I think you're right. Thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, I mean, we came close because I know Ashley brought up the fact that she likes to use templates and that is part of the process in my opinion. She uses yeah, yeah, DR2. So yeah, having those built in templates to the editing software. So, you know, like, all right, I'm going to be editing today, the podcasting morning chat, and you pull up that podcasting morning chat template that's going to save you a lot of time right there. But to Mike's point, having a system in place, a process in place, storing files that you know, you use regularly, tips like that are invaluable. Like I, I think you, you've got to set yourself up for success, set yourself up to save yourself as much time as possible. So I'm curious then, does anybody have a process in place that they'd like to share similarly to what Mike said about, you know, know your file storage and knowing the different things you're using to produce an episode in post production, Does anyone have any, anything in place that they could share?

49:01 Go ahead, Jonathan. One of the things again, that I love about Riverside is I already input all my assets that I need at the, you know, when I set up the show and you can have it automatically set your brand for you, set and add your intro at the beginning, your outro at the end. When you click the auto edit to create your episode, it will do those things for you and whatever settings you have on the on the editor there, it will automatically do those things. You just go in and it's got your basics done for you. So it's kind of AI template for all intents and purposes, where it puts, it lays in all the things that you need as long as you put your assets there. So you've got your logos, you've got your, you know, the songs you use, you've got anything right in there, it will automatically do that for you.

49:50 And it is. It saves so much time because I remember spending time uploading it each time going in and changing the you know, the layout and how I want the the screens to look. And that's all done for you now when you hit the auto edit. I like that. Thank you, Jonathan. And I saw Ashley. Oh, Mike, you want to say something before I go to Ashley? Yeah, real quick. I think the most basic thing that you need to have is a checklist for every episode. And they just start with that. And that way you don't miss anything. You make sure you've got it covered. And that's that helps you get the whole idea of systematizing started right. Yeah, checklists come in very handy in my company at Ironic Media because we have so many different clients and it's important to, you know, what you do with one client might be different for another client. So having the checklist of all the main things you've got to do for them, that's really helpful.

50:46 And that that goes for one independent podcast too. I think you still want to have your checklist because I don't know about you, but when I don't use them, there are often times I forget a piece or a step of the process and then kick myself later for it. Let me go to Dr. and then I'll go to Ashley because I think Dr. wanted to respond to something Mike was saying at least. That's my guess. I actually meant I actually meant to do 100% that I agree, but I will. I will say that I am a checklist girl. I don't know how many people do this, but I will purposely write stuff on my checklist that I've already done just so I can cross it off and I can see that it's crossed off. I love a good checklist.

51:31 I am. There's just so many moving parts to a an episode, so many moving parts that I I don't know if I could function without a checklist. Yeah, agreed. Ashley, how about you? Dr. Around here are these parts. We call that a done. Did it list? We do that too, yeah. So what I wanted to say is that for every show I work on, I keep 2 folders on that show. One on an external hard drive and then another one in Google Drive. So that way, if anything ever happens to one or the other, I can always access the assets needed for that show.

52:13 And I have in each show folder a list of priorities. And this is just a suggestion for those who may want to hire an editor someday. This editor will love you if you do this. And that is too if, especially if you have any experience editing yourself, write out a list of priorities. For example, you know some podcast hosts want a high degree of editing. They want every umm and ah and fill their word taken out. And then others have a more relaxed approach and if you can work with them to make a list of these are the things that are important to me. Concentrate on this first, then it'll work out really well for both. Of you. Love that.

52:53 Thank you, Ashley. Great tip, great advice. And again Mike, thank you for bringing that portion, that piece of the process to the table today. I don't think we would have otherwise and agreed it is just as important and could be a bigger time saver at the end of the day having those systems in place for sure. Dr. Did you want to add something else? Yeah, we're, we're getting close to the time that's going to be in the show, but it's really important to me that everyone know that we've done a lot of talk about Audacity today and Audacity 4 Point O is coming. I know because I was in the beta group so get ready. OK.

53:39 It's very it looks very much like Hindi, like a Hindenburg. So you've gotten to really play with that too, I guess. OK, all right. Cool. Well then be on the lookout for Audacity 4 O. Do you have any idea when have they said told you when they? Haven't, but best guess is probably January or March of next. So first quarter of 2026, we're looking at. OK, OK, cool. Thanks for that tip, Dr. And thank you all for adding and contributing to today's conversation. We are back tomorrow at 7:00 AM Eastern covering all the headlines around the world of podcasting and content creation.

54:24 And if you've got something that's new to you, bring it. We'd love to hear it because if it's new to you, it's probably new to someone else. But we'll have plenty of headlines to cover as well. So come and join US, join the conversation. And remember Thursday we're going to be asking you, what did you say yes to that got you to where you are today? And bonus points if it's specific to podcasting. Maybe this is also your career. Maybe you've got something that's very clear. That's very well. I'll just say that's very clear to you that yeah, if I hadn't said yes to that, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today. I want to hear all about that and also think about maybe some things that you've said no to that brought you to where you are today.

55:09 Because there's plenty of things that I'm sure we've turned down along our paths that if we hadn't, we would be on a much different path today. So start thinking about that. We'll do it Thursday and until tomorrow, make it a great day. Everybody take care.