#357 Part 1: The Foundation of Sound Quality & First Impressions

Welcome to the Podfather podcast. You'll find everything about me, scan the QR code, go to brycollin.com where you see my six shows, along with my podcast coaching and all my two school groups and everything else I'm doing. My guest, David Goldberg, he's the CEO of Edge Studio in New York City's Times Square, over 10,000 podcasters, CEOs, politicians, entrepreneurs, and job seekers have used David's one-of-a-kind techniques to become better speakers and sound great on stage, on camera, on the mic, online, and in person.

He has an uncanny ability to uncover blind spots you probably overlook, but your audience doesn't. These blind spots disengage your listeners, reduce your credibility, and ultimately block buy-in. And then, instead of vague guidelines, he provides super actionable, pinpointed speaking, and sound quality adjustments so you can consistently make amazing first impressions and establish trust on podcasts, as well as with investors' pitches, recruiter interviews, networking events, elevator pitches, and more.

David's proven techniques teach people worldwide how to strategically plan their word choices, tackle quirky speaking habits, manage nerves, and improve intonation, pacing, spacing, and minimizing filler words. He also directs you to make more engaging presentations, openings and closing, conveying confidence, engage audience, enhance body language, and visual presence on how to strengthen online presence for podcasts and conferences. And his company has done some work for AT&T, Google, Microsoft, and celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Michael J. Fox, the cast of Broadway hits like Hamilton and The Lion King, and staffers for both Obama and Clinton.

And the reason that I'm reading this is we're planning on a five series on this with a lot of stuff. He brings fantastic experience to the stage, and I think you're going to benefit from it because I've had conversations when I realized that the knowledge he's got, so please welcome to the show, David. Right.

Hello. Thanks. Hey everyone.

So, I mean, like you've got an incredible, uh, work history, let the listeners know a little bit about you. How kind of your kind of career to date evolved? Yeah. Um, yeah, my career is pretty cool.

I am a musician and when I was very young, my mom used to complain that she would take piano lessons at home and she would struggle to learn a song. And then the piano teacher evidently would leave. And I just sit down and play the song.

I don't, I don't know why. I don't know how I never learned to read notes, never really took lessons on piano, but I just played and I played, uh, quite a bit, uh, some off Broadway shows and all sorts of things. And, uh, hopefully you remember the days of cassettes like, like I do in college.

I came across this four track cassette recorder. I don't know if all the listeners out there know what cassettes are. It's an old form of music storage.

And I found this four track cassette recorder. I had no idea what it was, but I bought it. It was like 50 bucks or 25 bucks or something, 20 us dollars.

It, in other words, it was very inexpensive. And I realized that you could actually track music with it. You could record yourself and overdub yourself.

And I realized, oh my goodness, because I'm also a drummer. I could lay down drums on one track and keyboards on another track and, and begin overdubbing and making real music. And within a month, I, I like exhausted that machine and moved to an eight track.

And soon I was up to a 16 track. And next thing I know I was recording a bigger bands and then bigger, bigger bands. And at some point I was recording national bands.

It was amazing. I worked with lots of major players, stuff I still hear on the radio. And I got to play with them too sometimes.

Not that much, but I would fill in drums or keyboards. So I'm on some, some major songs out there. Then one day I was driving home from a studio.

There have been so much, all kinds of crazy drugs at this particular studio. And by the way, I never did drugs. I never really fit in with everyone else, but the drugs were insane.

And I was driving home from a studio and I realized that I couldn't even see straight. I, from, from being in an enclosed soundproofed room for 14 or 16 hours with all the drugs in the room, I realized that I was impaired and I needed to pull to the side of the road and I said, you know what, I've got to stop being in rooms with drugs before I kill myself. So I became a drug free studio and I lost all my clients.

So, uh, so I didn't know what else to do. And I, I'd had all these microphones and acoustically treated rooms. And I thought, you know, what voice recording, maybe there's something there.

And so I called some nonprofits and said, do you need radio commercials? I don't know much about them, but I have microphones. I have a soundproofed room, whatever. And they said, yeah, we, we need radio commercials and TV commercials.

And next thing I know, the copywriters were sending other work to me that paid and then more work and the more work. And I think I just hit the voice over industry at the right time. Because that industry has exploded in the 20 years that I've been working in that industry.

And now we have five studios in Times Square in New York City. Oh, pardon me. And, uh, it's been great.

I, the, the voiceover industry has been huge for us. It's interesting that when recording voice, as opposed to music, there is, when you, when you record voice, there's nothing else to mask that sound. That the quality has to be absolutely perfect because a little mouth click, you hear it.

In a, in a song, when you, when you record a whole song, if the singer, if their mouth clicks or something, you don't hear it because there's guitars and their drums and so on, but with a voice recording, let's say, for example, an audio book, you hear every click, much less people listen on headphones. Like you are. So it was really early on into the voice recording that I realized like, oh my goodness, the sound quality is like super important.

And now we record all kinds of video, the soundtrack for, for video games and cartoons and documentaries and audio books, and also commercials, which do have music in the background and a whole lot of other, other things. And, uh, my ear was just so fine tuned between music and voiceover recording. That people started asking me to give them a, my, my two cents on their podcast.

And there was one podcaster who said, do you mind listening to my quality and giving me a review and making some suggestions and then a second and a third. And, and now, uh, I work with a lot of, of podcasters, which what's really fun is at our studio in New York, we have, I mentioned, we have five studios in our facility, two of those, we record podcasts, uh, but really high end ones. And it's really exciting to hear because we get to see like, or I can see personally that the range of podcasters, the range of budgets, the range of what goes into making these things.

And it's been fascinating over the years. We have podcasters who have enormous budgets who come into our big room, our studio, a room, and, uh, you know, they bring an entourage of people and videographers along and all sorts of the, the makeup artists come along with the, the, the, the guests and everything is, it's really cool. And lots of celebrities.

And, and, uh, at the end of the day, I love working on small podcasts, someone who puts out a podcast from their, their basement. I think it's really a challenge and exciting to get it to sound great. And so it's been a big part of my life now for five or so years or 10 years, just helping podcasters come across really well, you know, um, I'm talking so much, but I want to say one more thing.

All right. I'm sorry. Shut up here.

I have studied so much on the importance of sound quality. And I will tell you, if you are listening to this podcast and if you have a podcast, if you, if you record or in any way are associated with podcasts, you have to make sure your quality is stellar. I have an analogy I'll give you in a moment that kind of proves the point.

But first I will say study after study after study. And I've seen, I think at this point, 40 different studies that show how important good quality is. If you don't have good quality, you'll lose your listeners.

If you have really lousy quality, most people stop listening within three seconds, they don't even hear what you have to say. They don't even hear your content. They just hear bad quality and they tune out, they check out.

And it's not even worth running a podcast or putting it together unless you're going to do it right. So don't do it wrong. It's not worth it.

So here's an analogy. I've thought about this about a few months ago and I've been using it and it really resonates. So Roy, if you're if you're at home and you're watching TV and there's a low budget advertisement on TV, you know, right away.

I'm sure all the listeners out here, you know, a low budget ad on TV. So ask yourself for a second. What what indicates that it's low quality? Like, how do you know? How do you know it immediately? Right.

And it could be any of the production elements. It could be the lighting. It could be the acting.

It could be the words, the word choice. It could be the audio quality, the angles, any of the backgrounds. If any one of those things are not done really well, the ad comes across as low quality.

And study after study also shows that people don't purchase products from advertisements that look like they're low quality. So if you have a low quality looking advertisement on TV, you probably won't get customers. And likewise, if you have a low quality podcast, you won't have listeners.

So do it right or don't bother doing it. I've said my piece. No, perfect.

Excellent. And because I remember when when I did the first one, it was somebody had said it to me very early when I only two or three hours. It was a Tossmaster guy.

And he he said he was listening on very good quality earphones. He says you need to improve this. He says people will switch off.

And, you know, it's true. And the thing is, people don't realize within, as you said, a few seconds. And like, why do you want it? It could be the best quality.

It could be the best conversation. It could be incredible. And you're gone.

You're not. You're judged immediately. And what's interesting is when you were saying about when you were younger, you know, the piano.

My brother's like that. My brother's done piano lessons, but he plays every single instrument. He's a fantastic singer.

Plays guitar, modog and flute, everything. And I was doing I was taking guitar lessons when I was 16. And the guy used to look out the window waiting for the hour to end.

Unfortunately, I don't have the ability. What I appreciate, like I appreciate the skill set that you've got, which then you've kind of brought into the career that you're doing. So like I'm looking at the mic, so I suppose what mic are you using? I'll tell you what mic I'm on.

However, it's really important for everyone to know that my mic is not necessarily the mic you should have. But before I talk about the mic, a quick thing that's interesting. How you said something and it's funny, I lost my train of thought.

You mentioned something that I wanted. Oh, yeah. First impression.

I recently saw a study on what what goes on in someone's mind as a first impression. Evidently, this is on one study I saw. And I think they said something like within a fraction of a second.

Oh, yeah, I remember it now. When someone hears or see someone for the first time within a fraction of a second, they decide if they can trust that person, if they like that person, and if they want to do business with that person. That's all within a fraction of a second.

Something about our our instinct, our DNA, our gut, our hunches. We make up our minds within a fraction of a second, which really means that you have to make sure even the beginning of your podcast is smack on, your first words have to be great and clear and just do it right. OK, my microphone.

So please know that there are lots of different kinds of microphones for lots of different reasons. I'm going to throw you another analogy. If I needed to purchase a car, no one out there could tell me what car to purchase, because you don't know if I have 10 kids and need a minivan.

You don't know if I'm a landscaper. And on the weekends, I need a truck, like a pickup truck, so I can put the halls of trees and dirt in the back. Maybe I have maybe have a long drive to work and I need a gas efficient car.

Like there are so many elements about cars that are necessary that you couldn't. You couldn't tell me what kind of car would be right for me. And it really is the same with the microphone.

There are different kinds of microphones for different kinds of settings. You have to purchase a microphone based upon the quality of your voice. How you stand or sit relative to the microphone and the acoustics of your room.

So I will tell you what this microphone is, but it may not be right for you. Oh, this is an Audio Technica. Oh, I should get a shout out from Audio Technica for this one.

I've arrived at Audio Technica as well. Yeah. Oh, cool.

It's an AT20 and they 2020 and they now make a higher version of this. But this is interesting because at our studios in New York, I have tons of microphones. I have more microphones than most people.

I have five studios with microphones. Most studios have five or ten microphones, each one. I have a lot of mics and a lot of really expensive mics and which we need.

And when I set up the mic at home. Oh, by the way, I'm in my home right now. It's 630 in the morning for us.

I'm in a basement full of cement, cement walls, cement floor, cement ceiling. Not cement ceiling, sheetrock ceiling, but everything else is cement. I needed a microphone at home many years ago because my sons, when they were younger, began recording audio books.

It's good having a dad in that business. So I wanted I wanted a microphone. I needed a microphone that wasn't too expensive because I didn't want my young son to like go and grab the microphone and I don't get like chocolate on like a $3,000 microphone.

So I purchased this. It's a USB version of the the Audio Technica. It was $100 when I purchased it five years or ten years ago.

And actually eight years ago. And it's fantastic. It's great, but it's great in my in my setting.

Because I don't have I have I have zero echo where I am. I have foam on my ceiling, which I can show you here. In fact, if I aim up, I see it's all foam up there and I have foam on the back walls.

So everything is foamed. So I don't have any echo. And therefore, this microphone is really good.

This microphone in a room with lots of echo would not be a good choice. So we'll get into. So, OK, I know we're here to talk about different elements of quality.

So let me talk about microphones. Ultimately, when you're purchasing a microphone for yourself, you need to think about, as I mentioned, three elements, your voice, your how you stand or work relative to the microphone and the acoustics of your room. So with this mic, because I'm in a foamed room and there's no echo, I can use a microphone that has a bigger, a larger pickup pattern.

Like this microphone will pick up to the left, to the right. Now, I may sound a little bit off axis as I move farther away from the microphone, but it still gets my voice to a large degree. If I didn't have foam on my ceiling, this would be very echoey.

And therefore, it would be too echoey, way too echoey for this microphone. I would need to use something like a shotgun microphone. You probably have some laying around.

I would think shotgun microphones are long, skinny microphones that pick up just the sound source in front of them. They're really good at rejecting sound behind them into the top and the bottom and the sides. And so a shotgun microphone is great sometimes for some people.

But because a shotgun microphone is so direct, if you move even like an inch or two to the side, it doesn't really pick up your voice. Now, I like to stand as I'm at a standing desk. So it's great for me to have a microphone that's a larger diaphragm so I can move around a little bit because I am on my feet.

So I tend to move a bit. But I can only do that because I'm in this foamed room. If you are recording somewhere where there's echo, you probably want a more direct microphone.

So this microphone would not be good for you. This is also a side address microphone, meaning it's picking up on the side, just like the long side of the microphone. Some microphones pick up at the front.

Like if I can spin this, I'll show you. It'd be more like this, like talking into the microphone. But I kind of like just for the way I stand, I like this microphone.

Rather, the shape microphone at this angle. Just remember, like, think about the acoustics. Think about your voice.

Think about your room. Make sure that your sound is good when you purchase a microphone. This is a really inexpensive microphone.

It's a USB microphone, as I mentioned. It works great. It doesn't work great for everyone.

And because, like, I have this for eight years now, I think. And I even have a spare one because I thought if it ever breaks. But one thing I do, I don't know what you call them.

We call them like a nose or something. I think I put that on it because they said dust. Because what can happen is dust can actually create the connection.

So I don't know, do you do that? Or in this, you just put the dust protection. But the other thing is, I've got the curved acoustics because I have the acoustics on the wall that I'm here, but I didn't feel it was working. And then I got the acoustics that wrap around the mic.

And just what's your thoughts on them? OK, so to your first point, that foam thing that goes over the microphone, I call them windscreens. Most of us call them windscreens, at least in the States. Or I've heard people call them foam screens.

They were made originally not to stop dust from getting onto the microphone, but rather to stop noise, excess air. So microphones have a limit to how much air can get into them. If a microphone has too much air coming at it, it sort of explodes inside.

It overloads and you get a very big popping sound. Maybe for people, sometimes if they say like popcorn, the P kind of like pops the microphone. The microphone just it overloads and distorts for just a moment.

And so those windscreens cut down on the wind. They cut down on the amount of air coming at the microphone. Lots of news reporters use those foam screens when they are outside interviewing someone on the streets, for example, because all the wind from outside can pop the microphone.

And some people also make their P sounds are very loud. We call them plosives. And those P's are so loud, they pop the microphone.

So that is a great thing to have, Roy. Awesome thing to have. If you don't use a foam screen, what we use in our studios are windscreens that are like a big round disc the size of a dinner plate with netting inside.

I know, I don't. I used to have it up there. But yeah, I know.

And that's mainly for the P's as well. That stops that kind of ring. Exactly.

Yeah. And they tend to, they let more clarity in. The foam can cut down on the clarity a little bit, we find.

It's a minimal amount. But so we don't use the foam. We use the round discs, the windscreens.

And you had a second question. And I don't remember what it was. Well, what I was saying about that is like with the dust does like, are you covering it to stop like when it's just laying around? Because that's what I felt.

It worked because I'm not outside. I always take it off. So it works grand.

But I always felt that by protecting it. And that's why I'm thinking it's lasting so long. Maybe they're just a very good mic.

Yeah, it could be. We put these away. Ideally, we put, especially our good microphones, we put into little boxes that they come in when we're not using them.

So I guess, yeah, dust can probably get into them. We've had some old microphones cleaned at times. So I think what you're doing is great.

I don't know. And it would be very interesting to check into this. If those foam screens drop little bits of foam into the microphone.

Every time you put it on or off, it's possible that the foam is breaking down just, you know, like microscopically, which is the size of dust anyway. So I don't know if it is better or not. Not an interesting one, exactly.

And just because like you showed the wall there, and you can online, there's all different kind of foams. Like, should you get a certain thickness? Is there different quality? Because nearly everything you see looks the same, but it's not technically the same. One could be 10 times better.

It's like insulation on a house, you know, depending on the thickness, but not necessarily the thickest one is the best one for insulation. Is it the same? Is there different types that you should get when you're trying to get a good to make a room like you have there? Yeah, there are a couple of things about that. And that reminded me of your other question.

You asked about the curved foam around your microphone, and those are good. So here's the goal, everyone. Ideally, you record in a room that has zero echo.

And there's something very interesting about echo. First, let me say that what you get in a room is not truly echo. A lot of us call it echo, but it's not really echo.

It's really reverberation. And when it's reverberation, most people in our industry in the podcasting world and end of recording world, short in the word reverberation, we call it reverb. So I'm sure many listeners out there have heard of the word reverb.

Reverb is very fast echo. So here's what happens when you have echo. For example, if you go up to if you talk in a New York City, if I scream, hello, Roy, my voice travels down the road, hits a big building and bounces back.

That is an echo. It's a repeat. And as I get closer and closer to that building, the repeat comes sooner and sooner or faster and faster, right? Because my voice travels less distance.

It takes less time. It bounces back even sooner. And as you get really close to that building, at some point, the echo is so fast that you can't distinguish between the repeats.

It's like, and when you can no longer distinguish between the repeats, we call it reverberation or reverb. And that's what you get inside a room. And that's what you're trying to prevent.

So an important thing to know with reverb is that the reverb you hear in your room is always amplified by the time it gets to the listener's ears. If you are in your room and you think, yeah, there's just a little bit of reverb, a trace amount. Well, to the listeners, it's going to sound worse.

Think about this. It's like when you are, when you call someone on the phone, sometimes on speakerphone, for example, and you say to them, man, it sounds like you're in an echo chamber. And they say, I don't know, sounds fine to me.

It does sound fine to them because there's not that much echo where they are. But to you, you hear more echo. For technical reasons, that echo is amplified.

And maybe some people know why. It's because of all the compression. All that compression that happens amplifies or raises the level of the reverb.

So the smallest amount of reverb in your recording space will sound pretty bad to the listeners. Ideally, you want to have no echo. So to get rid of the echo, you need something in your room, in your recording area, that soaks up the reverb, that soaks up the sound waves so they don't bounce around.

And so a rule of thumb is that 80% of your area should be covered with something that soaks up sound, the sound waves. And that's typically foam. But if you are recording a podcast and you don't have video, then you can go into a closet with clothing and maybe it looks really weird, but no one will see you anyway.

And that sounds great. Walking into a closet is lined with sweaters on the shelves and extra pillows and old sleeping bags and blankets and all the clothes hanging on the walls and on hangers. Hopefully there's carpeting in that little closet.

That's sometimes the best sounding area, the best sounding room you could possibly record in. But if you're on video, it might look a little weird. So then when you're on video, you need to worry about, okay, well, I can't have clothes hanging everywhere.

So that's when you get foam. Foam acts as a great substitute for clothing and blankets. If you are hanging blankets and stuff in your area or foam, the thicker you go, the better you are.

And the more air gaps you have, the better you are. So let me talk about those two things. Thickness matters.

If you have a piece of foam on the ceiling, let's say that is paper thin, it's so thin, it doesn't really observe the sound waves from bouncing around. The sound will go right through that little thin piece of foam. So you need at least something in the States, say one inch of foam.

I'm not sure what that translates to in metric, but let's say like this much foam, about one inch. Two and a half centimeters. Okay, you need at least that much foam to stop sound from really bouncing around.

I have three times that. I bought three inch foam, three inch thick foam. I bought the best of the best of the best that I could find on Amazon.

And Amazon sells all kinds of foam. And it was 40 U.S. dollars. It's so inexpensive, even for the best stuff.

It cost me like 10 U.S. dollars more to go from one inch to three inch. For $10 more, I really suggest you go all the way. And that's what's on my ceiling.

They come with stickers and you stick them on the ceiling. However, the stickers did not stick. So I used tiny little nails and I nailed them into the ceiling.

If I ever move from this house, I'll just have to put something on the ceiling to cover up all the hundreds of little holes, but that's fine. And on the wall and the back, my walls behind me, I bought walls of foam. They go from the ceiling to the floor.

And that's two inches thick. So it sounds great. And just when, because sometimes, you know, like you'd have a guest on and obviously they wouldn't have any acoustics or anything like that.

When, if their laptop, they're listening to the sound from their laptop, are you getting feedback that you don't even hear? Because, I mean, because sometimes you can hear yourself and you adjust things and everything like that. But is it affecting the sound that you're not even really conscious of? It can, yeah. It is so important.

Anyone out there who has guests and those guests are not in your location, if they are somewhere else, get them on the phone with you a week or two weeks earlier before you record and tell them what to do to their home or their office where wherever they will be to make sure that they treat their audio. Because if they don't treat their audio well, if they sound echoey, if they have too much reverb in the background of their recording, it looks badly upon you. Like I said earlier, as soon as there is a poor audio quality, people stop listening.

That poor audio quality can be from you or your guest. You could spend all the money, 50 bucks, a hundred bucks on foam and buy a hundred dollar microphone and do a good job on your own, on your end, on your own end rather. But if your guest doesn't sound good, well, then people stop listening as well.

So talk with them a week or two weeks before, tell them to get all the old blankets they have in their home and hang them from like in front of themselves. So maybe they're not shown on video, but in front of them, there'll be blankets hanging from the walls, have them bring an extra cushy chairs, stack the cushy chairs to the ceiling, whatever they have to do, make sure that they get all that echo out or the reverb out of their recording room. That's really important.

When you're using the likes of say, Adobe for podcasters, where you're enhancing the sound and just say you have that situation, does it really make, I mean, I have, I've had, we've done lives where somebody, we had about six people on it and it was a really good conversation. But one of them, he was like talking into his laptop, you know, and I thought I can never put this out. But when I put it through, the quality sounded good.

But is it really doing that or is it just, I mean, obviously it's improving it a bit, but has the technology for doing that, is it good enough to, people would still not realize that this was done from a crappy laptop. Yes, I know. Sometimes you can take, we do this in our studio all the time.

Sometimes the technology works amazingly well, but it doesn't work 100% of the time. You can't count on it. That's what we found.

Now, if you watch this podcast, like the day after we record it, maybe the technology has improved so much that what I'm saying is old news. I don't, I don't know. As of this day, December 8th, is it December 8th, 2025? The technology that can enhance the recordings sometimes work amazingly well and sometimes not that great or not great enough.

So we can't rely on it right now. So I would still make sure that anyone, either you, my alarm, either you or your guests have to make sure that they are in a room that sounds good because you can't count on it, that you can fix it later on. So if someone is recording from their laptop and the laptop is two feet ahead of them, it's not going to sound that good.

They should, they should get a microphone. You know what you get, right? You can get pretty inexpensive lapel microphones right now for like 25 or 50 US dollars. It's really inexpensive.

A lapel microphone is a microphone that clips to your shirt. Actually, I have to talk about that in a moment. It's a good and bad thing about that.

But you know, for like 25 or 50 bucks, I would, if I was a podcaster, I would buy a decent lapel microphone and ship it out to your guests and just have them send it back to you if you have to, or have them buy it for themselves or ship it to them as a gift, as a thank you, you know, for being on your show. Earlier, I talked about different kinds of microphones and let me add lapel microphones to that list because as I mentioned before, there are different kinds of microphones. Lapel microphones, which are also known as lavalier microphones, also known as clip on microphones and some people call them tie clip microphones.

All those microphones that clip to your shirt, they can be really good except when someone is not trained, they're not experienced at recording. When they don't see that microphone, they forget that it's there. They forget that it's working and they tend to get louder and louder and louder and louder because they don't see it.

I have this monstrous microphone right in front of me. I like this microphone, obviously. And it reminds me the microphone is right here.

And, you know, I'm talking into your ear, right? Because I'm two inches from my microphone and you have your headphones on. I'm like two inches from your ear. If I get loud, it's going to sound really bad.

If you have a lapel microphone and you forget that the microphone is there and you get loud, it sounds really bad. So having a lapel microphone can be really good because it doesn't take up space. There's nothing clunky in front.

It's easy to use. And because it's so close to your mouth, you don't get as much echo because it's against your body. Your body acts as it absorbs some of the echo.

So there's a lot of good things about it, but it can also backfire. Also, if you have clothing, which is loud, like a shirt that is starched, that's really loud. The lapel microphone can pick it up.

Like this shirt is kind of like stretchy. I don't know if you can hear this through the microphone, but it makes a whooshing noise. And that would be super loud on a lapel microphone.

So like I said earlier, you have to think about the microphones that you purchase and purchase the right kind. And I've seen people as well, like if they have the long earrings, just the noise of the earrings can be loud. But people as well that are kind of using their hands too much, sometimes they're brushing by it.

And it just ruins a conversation, unfortunately. So you have to be conscious. And yeah, you can tell somebody.

But you know, yeah. And what I've heard as well is that, because sometimes, you know, people, if they're on video, they want to look good, that now they're using magnet ones as well for them. So you no longer have to clip it in, that you can have a magnet, so it doesn't really affect your clothing, which is a good improvement.

Very true. And you know, and you bring up a great point about video. So if you are on video, you need to make sure you look good.

It is just as important as sounding good. Everyone who is listening, remember that your show represents you. It's your quality.

And I really believe that for success, in fact, I know this for success, you have to come across looking on top of your game. You have to. If you don't show the attention to detail, people stop listening.

They don't take you as seriously. If everything you do comes across really well, people rely on you. They know that you have your act together.

They see you as on top of your game. And that's when you build listeners and subscribers, and that's all good. So I would think about all of the elements, just like the low budget advertisement on TV.

Think about your camera. Get a camera that has decent quality and make sure that the quality is getting you like eye height. Like my camera lens is the height of my eyebrows, which is where a camera lens should be, just slightly above your eyes.

That's ideal. I've seen podcasts where people have the camera set up like on almost like on the table, but they're standing. So it's a kind of looking up their nose.

I've seen podcasts, yeah, looking down. Yeah, I've been on podcasts where people have it angled. So you only see the top of their head.

Like I fill up my whole screen here, but I get on the podcast and I see like this. And it diminishes you. It's a bad look.

Make sure that you should be the center of attention. Likewise, you should have a background that looks good. I wanted this at home.

I wanted the background that looks like it's inside one of our studios. So I have like just black. What you have right is great.

Like yours represents your business. That's great. However, some people have backgrounds that are full of clutter.

And this is another thing I've seen. Lots of studies on cluttered backgrounds. How important your background is.

If your background looks cluttered, you instantly, you weaken your credibility. People think you're unorganized. They think less of you.

Wrong. Wrong or right? Say what you want. But studies show that studies prove this.

That a bad background works against you. It erodes your professional image. I've been, I've reviewed podcasters who have big windows behind them.

Beautiful outside. And it's nice to look outside, except every time someone walks by, it grabs my attention. I start like watching people walk by.

And then you think, well, do you want people to be distracted when they're listening to you? You're probably saying there on the screen is another one that happens when they have the window. Yeah. Yeah.

I have a window just that way. And have a big, I can, I can show you. So I'll, I'll spin my camera that direction a little bit.

You'll see the cinder block basement. And you'll see a window and have a big, it's, it's ugly, but it's off screen. It's a big piece of black felt that hangs in front of the window because it is so sunny.

When the sun comes up in this window, it is so bright that it throws off the lighting. Because remember cameras adjust to the lightest source, the lightest part of your room. So that is so bright over there that it will put a glare, like on my side.

Like I'd look like a, like there's a sun, like a big light right on my side and it will darken the rest of me. And you need to look well lit. Like I have two ring lights.

We can talk about ring lights in a moment. So let me spin my camera and show you. So I have this, this black piece of fabric that hangs in front of a window because it is really, really bright.

And yeah, I have my two ring lights. If you are going to be on video, make sure you have good lighting. It is crucial.

Two lights are great. And ideally you make a triangle with two lights. So one is that one light that way, one light this way and me, we form a nearly a perfect triangle.

I have lights that are adjustable so I can turn up how intense the light is. And I can also change the color of the light. It's called Kelvins.

The degrees are the kind of lighting that's coming in. I play with them all the time. Do I look too dark? Do I look too light? I have lights that I can put on in the background that kind of make the background look kind of cool, but then it distracts, then it takes away from me.

You know, I've met other people who kind of go through the same thing that I do. Always trying to figure out what is going to be the best look. And you should put that pride into your own video cast.

So again, if you are, if you have, if you're on video, think about your camera, the camera angle, think about your background, and think about your lighting. Think about in terms of acoustics, think about your acoustics, making sure there's no echo in your recording area. Get the right kind of microphone.

That is all necessary. And if you do all that well, then you will look like a high-quality ad on TV, not a low-quality ad. And that's what you want to, that's what you need to achieve.

Regarding the lighting, because I've got the ring, I've got a few different things. I've got this Dayz, the Aziz. It's kind of one of the ones you said now you can change on the colors.

But what I've noticed is if somebody's got glasses, you can see the ring light and it's a distraction. And is there ways of stopping that or you just don't use the ring light Yeah, like this. Yeah, yeah.

There's no way around it, really. You just have, like, I think this one is better, the square one instead of the ring when you have filtration. I've tried.

I've, I just bought a new pair of glasses, reading glasses that have the anti-blue light for like sleeping and things or working at a computer. And it gets rid of a little bit of the glare, but not all of it. I've tried, I've tried filters that go on the glasses themselves.

It didn't quite do it. Yeah, I've really investigated that for quite a bit. I've never found anything that works really well.

Maybe one day, but yeah, and I know lots of people who talk about it. Like I'm not the only one searching for it. If you are out there and you have a product, please like if you email me, then I'll probably purchase your product because if it works, it would be great.

Sometimes when I'm on a podcast, I'm on video like all day long and I don't like to wear my glasses because I don't want that glare. But then if I have to read something off screen, I'm struggling and it's a pain in the rear end. So yeah, I would love to find something.

All of this stuff, everyone is really important. And by the way, I talked a bit about backgrounds before. One thing to know also is that fake backgrounds are a turnoff.

Here's another study I've seen, and I've seen a number of studies on this particular one. When you have the fake background of like a tropical beach or a big bridge, which tends to be very common. I see a lot of people with the same background.

Evidently, the theory is that it makes the guests think, well, why do you have a fake background? What's going on in your background? Is there something weird going on? It really can work against you. I recognize that if you're at home and you're recording and you have a, there's no way around it. You just can't have a good background.

It's either a fake background or your bathroom. Sure, then do the fake background. But it's optimal to have a real background.

You can purchase a big cloth with your logo on it. It'll hold a step and a repeat. So your logo is printed on the fabric multiple times and hang that behind you.

They're very inexpensive these days. You can find them online and it makes a great background. So I feel like there's no excuse to not, in all of this stuff, there's no excuse to not do a good job these days.

And if you don't do a good job, you will lose listeners. When you do a good job, then you will gain listeners. And I'll tell you something else about all of this technology stuff.

When you, to really come across well, don't ask your guests and your listeners if they can hear you or if they can see you. Because I feel like that shows like, like you don't trust your technology. Like you haven't tested it.

It shows a lack of attention to detail. If I got on here and the first thing I said, Roy was, oh, testing, testing. Can you hear me? Roy, is this working? Then the only thing it can make you think is, does David not know his microphone is working? Did he not test his microphone? Make sure your stuff works.

And don't ask people if it works because it should work. And if you were doing a live, they'll write you anyway. I can't hear you.

So they'll- Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It works 99% of the time.

And the 1% it doesn't work, then let them say something. But it's better than you always saying to everyone, I don't trust myself. I don't trust my technology.

So let me ask everyone if you can hear me. It's a, it's just not a good look. Just assume it works.

You know what? Along that line, I Zoom without exaggeration, at least seven or eight times a day. Probably even 10 or 12 times a day. And I check my mic.

I do a quick audio check every single time. You'd never know if, you know, some weird thing happens. If there's update to the software, things happen.

If I have to reboot my computer sometimes, I check it every single time. Don't count on it working. Every once in a while, I check it and I realize, oh, good thing I checked it because something was weird.

And so it's always good to do that. I do the exact same. Even prior to this recording, I go in and I do a test.

And I know that from years ago, what happened is, because sometimes Zoom does an update or you're hopping from like restream, stream yard. There's so many different podcasters use different systems. And you have to just, it's not as if it remembers what you were previously.

And like one time it took the microphone from the camera without me even realizing it. And it's afterwards then. And it's like never, they always, I just don't, you know, it's like, yes, it's a fast thing to check.

And it's a lot better to do that than realize after an hour. Oh my God. I've just recorded on the thing.

Regarding, because we were talking about the screens and different things like that. Two things on that. One time I had my, because this is my bookshelf here, but there was a time that I actually had the screen was a bookshelf.

And the books that I had was a nine people. Because there was a certain, let's call him a president. And I mean, I had bought that book 20 years ago or whatever.

But even if you're having something like that, people are looking at everything and they're judging you based on what they see there, whether it's good or not. They might connect with you because you've got it, but they might start hating you because you've got it. Because they assume whatever they make, they make the assumptions in their head.

So that's one of the things. The other is I'd love to know your thoughts on, because I don't like when people blur the screen, because sometimes it's because they have so much behind them. Don't blur.

It looks so bad. It's terrible. If don't blur your background.

Yeah. It's terrible. It does weird things.

And I know you've all seen it. People's heads. Part of their head disappears and comes back.

Someone will put their hand out and like half their hand disappears. It's weird. Very, very weird things happen.

Pardon me. Yeah. It's not a good thing to blur.

It's distracting. And it weakens your professional image. Don't do that to yourself.

You need to do everything you can. So you look on top of your game. And that is your video, your camera, your camera angle, your background, your blur, your lighting, your acoustics, your microphone, your equipment.

Everything should be done just right. And the good thing is these days, it is so inexpensive to do it right. From the old days, when I had my first studio, boy, it was really expensive back then.

Everything was super expensive. 20 times, 30 times what we pay now. A hundred dollar microphone, I could never buy that back then.

And this stuff is so easy to plug in these days. There's no reason not to do it right. So with the studios, and you've studios set up for podcasting as well, you're using, I'm assuming, a mixer then.

And I'm not sure do they have two, but just assume that there could be four. First, people that maybe have something that's what they're aspiring to actually do. What's the best kind of system when you're getting into something like that? That depends on placement.

When we work with podcasters, the first thing we do is ask them how they want to be set up. It depends on if it's a one camera recording, a multiple camera recording. It might just be audio only.

Sometimes people really want to be face-to-face as we are right now through Zoom. Sometimes people want more like a stage setup where there's a guest and then maybe a multiple panelists. As you said, four, maybe four panelists.

And it all depends on what makes someone feel comfortable. I feel that feeling comfortable, being comfortable is one of the most important things. Because if you are comfortable, then usually you do a better job.

You speak more comfortably. And we can always find a microphone and a camera angle and a light that will work to the person. So we get someone comfortable in their own position, standing, sitting, on a couch, on a chair, side-by-side, back-to-back, front-to-front.

And then we kind of work around them. So our rooms are very flexible. Our rooms are large.

So we can hold our studio A room that I mentioned before can hold 20 people. So we can have full casts of Broadway shows that will come in for a podcast. And they might bring like five or 10 leads, plus the writers.

And there could be a lot of people on a podcast sometimes. And those are fun. And we have lots of microphones.

Then with a lot of people, we typically rely on shotgun microphones. That's the microphone I mentioned earlier. That's a long, skinny microphone that's made to really pick up the sound source at the end of the microphone.

So we aim it at one person and it picks up that one person and not much of the other people. And that way in our mixers, we have good control over each person's sound. So if one person is louder or softer, we can adjust their microphone so everyone matches.

Oh, that's a great thing to talk about. One thing, okay. So I'm getting off track here for a little bit.

I review so many podcasts and help podcasters sound better. And I think you do this also. And one thing that is really bothersome to listeners is when different people speaking are at different volumes.

Earlier we talked about making sure that your guests sound good. The sound quality is good. But also think a lot about the level of them.

If one person is very low in level, in volume, and then someone else is very loud in volume, it's a pain for the listener because you have to keep adjusting. You know, like one person's low, you have to kind of turn the volume up. But then if you turn your volume up, then the next person is too loud.

So now they're too loud. You need to turn the volume down and that's not good. So make sure that the volumes or the levels of all speakers are consistent.

We can also talk about music because this is where almost everyone goes wrong in podcasting. A lot of people have introductions and they have a little, like a musical introduction. If you have music at the beginning of your podcast, really think about your music.

From the perspective of the listener, I review podcasts sometimes. And after about three or four seconds of the musical introduction, I said, I'm already bored. It's like this goofy music.

It goes and goes and goes and goes. And sometimes like the podcasters happen to like that little song. But does everyone else? Unless you have the exact same musical taste, then you probably won't like it.

And if you have a long musical intro, and you have it at the beginning of every episode, that means that your listeners have to listen to it every single episode. If you want people to listen to you every single episode, make sure your musical introduction is good and short, super short. And even beyond that, my suggestion is to have the musical introduction after the beginning of the show, like first have some of the show and then have the musical introduction.

It might be five or 10 seconds or maybe even one minute of the show. Something catchy, something that engages your audience, something that's interesting. And then have the introduction.

In fact, Roy, that's what's done on most TV shows these days. So if you go back like 30, 40 years ago, and a lot of shows on TV had long introductions, full theme songs, jingles. You could sing along with the jingles.

They were like, they were mini songs. And I still remember a bunch of those things. Every once in a while, I walk around the house singing, something pops in my head from like 30 years ago.

But people don't have time for that anymore. And over the years, the introductions on TV shows have gotten shorter and shorter and shorter. And then going back as much as maybe five or 10 years ago, I started seeing TV shows not have the jingle upfront.

Instead, they would have a bit of the show that catches your attention. One scene of the TV show that's really grabbing and then you're hooked. And then they have the show the little jingle and then it's like 10 seconds long.

Think about your listeners. Have music that is good. Have it EQ'd well.

Have it at the right time. Have it at the right level. Sometimes the music is so loud, it's too loud compared to the voices.

Sometimes it's so low, you can barely hear it. Some people keep the music playing in the background, but it becomes very distracting after a while. Think about this stuff from the listener's perspective.

Also, if you fade music up or down around voices, around people speaking, make it a smooth fade up and a smooth fade down. I hear podcasts where the music just like suddenly drops like 20 decibels or 30 decibels. It sounds terrible.

It sounds unprofessional. And the public may not be able to know what sounds bad, but they know something sounds bad. Just like the low quality TV ad I talked about earlier.

I think if you ask most people to watch a low quality ad on TV, if you say to them, what is off, why do you know it's low quality? I'm not sure if they can necessarily pinpoint it. They'll say, yeah, something's just not right. People know.

We're used to hearing good quality because there is good quality out there. We can compare it. So if you don't have good quality, people know it consciously or subconsciously.

So if you mix in music, give a smooth fade up and a smooth fade down, do it right. Yeah, I've evolved over the years with music. I started to watch all the analytics and I was like, you see people are skipping and I made the mistake at one stage.

I had a guy that done a beatbox from a Polish one and I just thought it was cool. Like, you know, he was 16. He was on the speaking podcast and I just thought, yeah, this is good.

And eventually I thought, nah, I don't really like this. And that was that for a few years. And I took it out.

There was about 20 people wrote to me. Thanks for removing that. You know.

Wow. Yeah. So, and what I've noticed is what you've mentioned there is very important.

It's people are taking a snippet and putting it at the start and then they might have the jig or then they just go into their usual kind of routine. But the people that I've had on that do that, they've said that they've got an improvement in their listeners and everything. Because it is, because obviously when you've got followers that are coming back, but when you've new people, you were judged, like you said it earlier, a few seconds and you're judged.

And it's like, so if someone comes in and you just talk about something, grabs their attention, and then that could be enough that they'll listen and then become a fan. So with the, you know, the studio, like I listen to, well, not as much now, but Joe Rogan and Patrick, but David is one that I think is very good. I listen to him a lot.

They all wear the earphones and the thing, but Diary of the CEO doesn't. And the one that, if I'm not sure if you're a fan of Patrick Bidet, but he done one, I think it's in Italy, he was talking to two mafia guys and they didn't have the, and you could hear the difference in the sound quality. It was like, dropped a lot.

With, you know, you mentioned you can have up to 20 people. Do people wear the earphones? And what's the difference? Yeah, we, well, it depends. Some people like headphones, some don't.

Some people like to wear headphones, like you have on with one ear on and one ear off, so they can hear their own voice. It depends on the person. I'm not wearing headphones right now.

I've spent a long time making sure that there's no feedback where I am. My microphone is smack centered between my speakers that are right in front of me. It's like we are, sorry, I hit the mic.

I hope that wasn't loud. There's like a, this triangular shape from my mic to the speaker. So I don't have any phasing issues, but that took a while to figure out.

If you, if you don't wear headphones, you can get that sound coming back onto the microphone. And that sometimes works against you. Yeah, I just, you have to figure this stuff out on your own.

It depends on listening preferences. A lot of people, oh, a lot of people like earbuds now. Like it's, they're in your ear.

And so no one sees them. And it looks like you're more free and you're not clumped up on headphones. But headphones have a certain prestige about them.

Like your headphones, like it looks official because you have headphones on. So there's a good look to the headphones, but some people, oh, it depends on the length of the podcast. Also, if you can wear headphones all day long or for an hour at a time, it's a personal preference.

It really is. But figure out what works best for you or work with someone like a coach, like myself or you, right? Work with someone who knows and can guide you. It makes a big difference.

If you are going to invest in a podcast and try to promote yourself, if you're not 100% sure you're doing it right, get like quality judgment. That's super important. Like you mentioned the duration for wearing.

I know there's some things we've done lives that lasted over two hours and then you could be chatting to like eight hearts after a while and you'd even see some gamers, they've been intent in their head because they're wearing things for like, you know, probably 10 hours a day. Regarding the earbuds, there's two things on that. One, I've seen situations where they didn't charge them, which isn't great because you're halfway through and there's like, oh, it's not working.

I have to change. And it kind of is the more editing and everything. But the other thing is they're not healthy either because the frequency, it goes from one ear to the other.

So maybe if you wear one, it might be all right, but people aren't aware of that as well. So you have to kind of look at your health as well with this, hence why I always have a lead. And even if I'm at the gym or whatever, I always have a lead with the things that I don't use the buds.

And I did buy them, but when I found out about the dangers of them, I didn't, I stopped using them. Yep. And if you wear the buds, don't use the microphone that is built into them.

It doesn't sound as good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Get a real microphone, everyone. Like I said earlier, they're so inexpensive and easy.

And the USB is great. You know, USB doesn't sound as good as a non-USB microphone. They really don't.

I feel like this is 90 or 95% as good. It's not 100% the same quality, but it's so close that it totally works for me. It's like, you don't have to drive a Ferrari everywhere you go.

You could be okay in a Honda or a Toyota. You don't always need that ultimate quality. If we are recording a national commercial, yeah, we won't necessarily use this microphone, but for podcasts and for tutorials on video and things like that, this is great.

Absolutely great. Like my son's on audiobooks, I mentioned earlier. Totally fine.

I've done one video with a guy that we used to show us together. So he done one on the mixer in explaining how to use the mixer and the connections and everything. But even when I'm kind of talking to people starting everything, it's like, if they're not technical, it's an easy way of just plugging this in.

Because I've had a few cases where people had all the bells and whistles and something goes wrong and they're just like, I don't know. It's like, you know, it's an extra lead and an extra connection and there's some digits. And sometimes the child might just come in and start playing, turning the digits and they haven't a clue, because if they don't understand how to use it.

So there's times that... So like with the mixers then, because obviously it's like mics, there's a lot of them. Is there a way that for those that are considering getting a mixer, how they could actually decide which is a better one rather than getting caught? Because sometimes people are buying on stuff on Timu or Alibaba, AliExpress kind of thing. And then they get something and it's complete crap.

So how do they navigate that? Yeah, well, so when you talk about a mixer, do you mean a physical mixer or software? Software. You know, yeah, the box for liquid. Okay.

I would try them out. You try to download a free version and maybe you get a free week or something and test them out. This is what I've told people over the years.

They all, for the most part, they all do the same thing. But just sometimes one feels more comfortable. It is like driving a car.

You could test drive 10 cars and they all do the same thing, but one just feels better. I mean, certainly some cars go faster and some get better mileage, but the way they feel inside, sometimes the car just feels good to you. And sometimes it's like that with a mixer.

It just, it's intuitive for you. The way things are set up. There are, I don't know, these days there are so many programs out there for recording podcasts.

If you purchase a software, if you download something, get something that is popular because then there are probably user groups out there who can answer questions and there are probably YouTube videos on how to figure it out. If I record at home for my sons, their audio books, I use Audacity. Okay.

Now in our studios, we're all Pro Tools. Actually, one room is Logic, four rooms are Pro Tools. At home, I use Audacity.

It's a free program. It's great for my kids. It's great for at home.

And it's super popular. Every once in a while, someone asks me a question like, can I do something on Audacity? I don't know everything about Audacity. I mean, I certainly know a lot, but I'll just look it up and there's a YouTube video on it, a thousand YouTube videos on it.

So when you go with something that's popular, it's easy to figure out what you don't know. It's easy to... Someone out there probably has recorded and talks about it on YouTube. So go with something popular.

That's, I think, the most important thing. And with hardware again, and even, you know, when you've got the ones with all the buttons, because sometimes people, whether they're doing it live or recording and they've got the clapping sound and just all bells and whistles kind of thing. Does that work or is it actually hard? You know, sometimes people, they're pressing all these different buttons, but if you're listening on good quality mics, how does that affect your listeners? I didn't understand the question asked again.

And it also reminded me to talk about mouth clicks, which I want to talk about. You know, the way sometimes people, they've got the device and they press all the different buttons and, you know, sometimes like the clapping sound or the cheering sound and all this. And sometimes they're doing live and I just curious, like, because sometimes they'll do it live, but then later they'll upload it to their podcasting platform.

And I'm just wondering, like, does that actually help? Are you talking about sound effects, like adding sound effects? Yeah, yeah. I think it depends on your demographic. Certainly, I think there's a place for them.

I think if they're overused, they probably become annoying to your listeners. You know, there's, yeah, the clapping is a big one. There's a horn sound that's used very often.

It goes like a, it's kind of, I hear a lot of podcasters use that. I don't think I'm doing a good job imitating it, but it's very popular. And yeah, I don't know.

It adds, what I would say is this, for a moment, it alerts the listener. It wakes them up. It's something different.

So it may be from an energy standpoint, it's good. But if you overuse something, it probably is too much for the listener. But like I said, ultimately, it depends on the demographic.

I think it depends on your energy also. You know, what works for you? What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next person. And I do want to talk about mouth clicks also.

Mouth noise in general, if you don't know what I'm talking about. I mean, clicks you get from your mouth that you probably aren't aware of, but you probably have them. Almost everyone has mouth clicks when they speak, just from their mouth opening.

You and I are talking through Zoom, and Zoom does a good job of eliminating the mouth clicks. So I can try to demonstrate it, but you may not hear it, but they sound like a click sound. Can you hear that? I heard the first one, but then it obviously... It cut it out, yeah.

So then it looks funny with my mouth going like that, and you don't hear any noise. The mouth clicks can be really annoying. And Zoom gets rid of them, but the recording programs don't, unless you turn on the processor that gets rid of them.

Some people have really clicky mouths, from dentures, from dry mouth, from wet mouth, all different kinds of things. And the clicks, you may not be aware of, you may not notice them because they're part of your voice, you're used to hearing them. But when you have a very clicky mouth, it is disgusting to the listener.

Because you have these clicks from your mouth being too wet, for example, and then someone has their headphones on, you are two inches from their mouth, it's like you're clicking in their ears. It's nasty. So there are programs that get rid of clicks.

They're called declickers, and it's software you can get. It's not expensive, and the software works pretty well. However, I would first try to eliminate the clicks on your own, because you can't always rely on the software.

More on that in a moment. Try to get rid of the clicks on your own, meaning go to your local pharmacy and buy a product that gets rid of clicks. There are products sold typically in the same aisle that sells dentures and things.

There are different kinds of sprays you can purchase. Some sprays are there to lubricate your mouth, because some people have a very dry mouth, so they get clicks. And then some people have very wet mouths, extra saliva.

It gets nasty, but it's the truth. So there are these products you can buy that help dry out the mouth. I've heard over the years, all different kinds of people talk about all different remedies for getting rid of clicks.

Some people say eat bread before recording, because bread soaks up all the extra saliva in your mouth. I've heard people say eat green apples. Evidently, there's some type of acid in green apples that helps dry out the mouth.

If you have dry mouth, there's a product called bottled spit, which is really disgusting sounding. It's sold for people with dentures who need extra lubrication in their mouth. Whatever it is, you should listen very carefully to your recording on headphones, on good quality headphones, with noise cancellation off.

So you hear the raw audio and see if you have mouth clicks, lots of mouth clicks. And if you do, do something about it. So sometimes people have like a very dry throat and their throat hurts.

So they take a cough drop before they go onto a podcast. A really good cough drop does a very good job of coating your throat. And that sounds like it'd be a good thing.

But then when it coats your throat, you get more clicks because your throat is all clammy. So if you need a cough drop before recording, sometimes a cheap cough drop that doesn't work as well is the better remedy. You should experiment with all of this stuff and listen back very carefully to your track and see if you have mouth clicks or not.

If you still have mouth clicks, I mentioned there is software that you can get. You can't rely on the software because it doesn't always work. It usually works pretty well.

Sometimes it works amazingly well. Sometimes it turns off or remove sounds that you want to keep. So for example, a word that has a T in it, the letter T, the T can be seen as a click from the... Or a CK sound can be seen as a click from the de-clicking software.

So when you apply the de-clicking software, sometimes it gets rid of sounds you want. So listen back carefully, make sure that it's okay before you run with it. With the Zoom again, all the enhancements that stop a lot of these different things, because I'm in a business group and the guy has created a soundtrack and then he was trying to play it and it was blocking it out and everything.

What are the disadvantages of having something like that? What are you losing out on when Zoom is using their technology to so-called improve the sound? Yeah, well, I'm on a version... There's a... There's a... Let me think of the word. A setting in Zoom in everyone's Zoom software that is for... It's called for musicians and I have that turned on. That means that it lets audio come through without the cancellation... Without the cancellation of noise.

I will hear your noise. It doesn't stop it from going your direction, but it stops. But rather, it allows me to hear your noise.

So I hear your raw audio and I like to hear raw audio. I don't want anything to be canceled out from what I hear. So what's the problems? Yeah, like you said, it stops noise or sound from coming through.

It's good sometimes because I might be Zooming with someone and there's a fire truck outside and I hear it going down the street and it's really loud. And I want to say to people, oh, let me... Should I stop while that siren is going by? You know, it's really loud and they say they don't hear it. And I think it's amazing.

Like it's so loud where I am, yet they don't hear it. It's amazing. Zoom does a really good job of being able to cut out the noise.

So that's a good thing. So it gives a cleaner recording. At the same time, yeah, if you're in a group and they want to play music, it may not work.

So that's when the person should use the Zoom setting to share audio. You can share screens in Zoom. You can share sound on Zoom.

You can share both on Zoom and you get to pick which, you know, if you want both or just one. So let that person know that he or she can go to Zoom settings and share sound. And then the sound that they play will come through.

If it's from their computer, it will come through. If it's not from their computer, then everyone needs to turn on that music, that music setting. Let me see what it's called.

While we're speaking, I can look it up. It's in your audio controls. I've just gone to audio settings.

It's in audio profile. There's a button called original sound for musicians. Now, Zoom changes the name of these things sometimes.

So by next month, maybe it's called something else. But it's in a section of your Zoom settings called audio profile. And I have selected original sound for musicians.

And when you click that, you have three separate options. I have the one set for high fidelity. It's high fidelity music mode.

So it's letting everything come through. Oh, there's a description here. It says, optimize Zoom audio for highest quality music.

It can, oh, it can increase your CPU utilization for, and consume, see, this is where I need my glasses. Hang on, now you get the glare. It can increase CPU utilization and consume greater network bandwidth for best results.

An Ethernet connection, not Wi-Fi is strongly recommended. So it's the best audio, but it uses more bandwidth. But that's fine for where I am.

I have good, I have good, very good bandwidth. So that's part of your audio profile. Yeah, I've a fire station near me.

And what happens is they have like for people that are volunteers, they have a siren. And it sounds like something you'd hear during the war and all war kind. And I was always, because you just never know when it's going on.

And one day prior to recording, I go, oh, that's going on. And they were like, I can't hear it. And I was like, I was convinced that they hear.

And then I was like, I just left it in one day. And like, not when I listened back, because I knew where it was, nothing. It's incredible that I can do that.

Yeah, yeah, it really is. It's remarkable. The software is, all the technology is fascinating.

It really is. I started when I began recording music. We didn't even have a button that said undo.

Like that's the best thing in technology ever. The undo button. We used to work.

OK, so I'd be working on major bands, like I mentioned, top bands, things I still hear on the radio, on the radio and bands. We'd spend six months, eight months on on a recording. And it'd be on these massive tapes.

There were these like 20 pound reels of tape. They're like two inches thick and they're really big. And and all that work went into this one reel of tape.

And I used to carry it from one like one song to another song and which which song we were working on. And I would think, my goodness, if I drop this tape. Six months of work is gone.

It's not only six months of work. It's six months of work from a whole group of people who would be really, really mad. Like if I ruined it.

And it was nerve wracking. It was it was so scary changing reels of tape that it made me more nervous. And I shook more because I was even more nervous, which made me more likely to drop it, honestly.

And I never did. However, the day that digital recording came out and we had the undo button, it was like the best thing ever. Oh, my goodness.

I should have had a heart attack back then. Now I will never have a heart attack. It's it's great.

The technology is really outstanding. To be able to make backups and try things. And if it doesn't work, you try it again and try it differently.

And now it's really fun. We could take a voice and turn it inside out, make a man sound like a woman, whatever. I mean, it's amazing how we can manipulate audio.

What Zoom does is fascinating by getting rid of background noise. It's all cool stuff. And there's a lot of different platforms that people are using.

You know, some people are using the Google Meet for podcasting. Then the streamer does. There's so many different rates on this.

What have you noticed? Kind of sound ways, which ones kind of aren't great or have you seen pros and cons with different ones? Yeah, I have my own personal feelings on some of them. I don't know if I want to share them publicly because some of them are my clients. But there are certain platforms that for me were great.

And there's a couple of programs that I just I hate working on. I won't say hate. It's not a nice word to say, but I just if I'm called into a podcast or a Zoom meeting or something, but it was not a Zoom meeting, but it's like another platform.

There are a couple that I think. There's one program that I've learned that if I have been on a Zoom call and then I switch over to this other platform, I have to go back into Zoom a second time and sign out. I have to sign out twice.

For my microphone to work on the other platform, I don't understand it. I don't know if I ever will understand it. But after so many times, I realized that common denominator, like I have to like double sign out.

It's like something happens the second time I sign out of Zoom that really disconnects my microphone and then I can use the microphone. Then my microphone is free for the other application. I don't know.

I say we can't. I've had that with cameras unless your camera is in use. And I'm like, yeah, but it's not.

Exactly. Then I'm thinking, is there someone scamming me that they have to tap it into my thing and you're doing all the software checks and security and everything. But yeah, I think it's, yeah.

But it's frustrating actually when you have to make all these different things and some of them you have to kind of upload them. You know, it's currently uploading and when they're doing that, then like you could freeze. And then I don't know how you're reacting because there's times that somebody might just be inquisitive looking or something and, you know, you just have to clarify it or something.

And you don't see it because it's blur. And other times people say, don't close it now when we're finished because it has to upload it. Sometimes it's straight away.

There's other times it's like an hour and it's still uploading. You're going, what's going on here? So I don't like software like that. And I know a lot of people are saying, oh, this way, you know, it has so many bells and whistles and it does all the like similar to Opus Clips and things like that included in it.

But what I have found is that the Zoom has never let me down. StreamYard has let me down a few times and other things, but this hasn't. So that's why I tend to stick with that one.

Yeah. Yeah, we in our office, we use Zoom a lot. We even have a cool business thing of Zoom.

The Zoom, I guess to say it this way, Zoom has like at least two different applications. They have the Zoom that everyone uses in the world, I feel like, for connecting through a meeting like we are. And they also have this, I think they call it the workplace or the workspace kind of business meeting or business.

It's like a, how do I explain it? It simulates an office, really. It's all of our phones are through Zoom. We have inner or texting our inner office, inter-office texting is through Zoom.

It's like a separate Zoom platform that we use in our office that I think I found out that lots of companies use. And it's great for us. So and it can connect into our regular meeting Zoom like that you and I are on right now.

So yeah, Zoom has been good for us. And I know people knock Zoom all the time because they update their software sometimes. And sometimes I go to hit a button that used to be there, but now it's over there and stuff.

You know, I have to find things, but you know, I don't know. Hopefully it always gets better. All this stuff.

I think most platforms do that. They just, you know, the developer has to justify his job. So sometimes they do things like that.

Yeah, I've been on calls sometimes like where I'm on Zoom at one meeting and then I switch over to another meeting. And all of a sudden the controls are in different places. And I realized, oh, I guess there was just an update or something.

Like while I was on Zoom, there was an update is funny. The key thing I just want to reiterate for people. If you are out there and you are putting out your podcasts or for that matter, YouTube videos, social media videos, tutorials, seminars, anything you're doing with sound or audio, a sound or a video, make sure you do it really well.

Don't do a lousy job. It is not worth it. It's so inexpensive and so easy to do a good job these days.

There's no, I truly believe there's no excuse to not do it right. And studies prove that people don't follow you if you don't do it right. So do it right or don't do it.

No, excellent, no. Listen, David, thoroughly enjoyed this. You might let, and we're, this is one of five that we're going to do.

We might do some more later on. So you might let the listeners know where they can find you. Oh yeah, you could, I'll give you my email address.

And I did not mean to close up the conversation there, by the way. I realized we came across that way. It just, it's just, I wanted to reiterate.

It's so important because we're talking about all of the software and it's fun to experiment with different software, but make sure whatever you stick with, you know it inside and out and make sure it works for you, for your application. My email address is David at EdgeStudio.com. Again, David at EdgeStudio.com. And I am super responsive on email. So if you email me, reference this, and I'll get right back to you.

As well as the website in the show notes below. I look forward to our next conversation, David, thank you very much. Yeah, my pleasure.

So our conversations upcoming are on, one is on speaking for podcasts, like different ways to use your voice on podcasts. We have one on setting up, how to set up your guests for podcasts, like how to coach, one of the topics I want to talk about, I think is how to set up your, how to make sure your guests will support your show in the best way possible. Like how to basically train your guests so they don't ruin your podcast.

You never want your guests to weaken your podcast. You want them to enhance it. So that's one of the upcoming episodes.

So yeah, I look forward to them. All right, thanks. And thank you so much for having me on.

No problem, thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, so did I, thank you. Well, that's all for the Podfather.

You'll find other episodes on the Podfather, not me. Then you'll find everything about me. Scan the QR code, go to rygon.com. If you're looking for virtual assistants, go to va.org. Until next week, take care.