Sober Steve, the Podcast Guy, goes over four simple tricks to make your editing a breeze using Descript
Four Signs You Are a Badass Podcaster
1. Transcrition 2. Studio Sound and Ducking 3. Eye Contact Fixes for Video! 4. AI to help make it easier!
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Steve:
Hey there podcasting a bad ass is it's your host sober Steve, the podcast sky. Here with a, another solo episode to give you some ideas about the magic and wonder is that editing your podcast can do for you. When I talk with new podcasters, especially about the editing process of their episodes. They got very overwhelmed at the idea that they might have to become an audio engineer and even some very successful podcasts. As I talked to that, pride themselves in doing most of their podcasts by themselves, have confided in secret that the one bit that they often times leave out is editing their episodes and they pass it out or they outsource it or they pay someone else to do it because the idea, the feeling, the programs all look feels scary and they have mental. Or obstacles over really mastering it. And so what I'm going to show today or display is a couple of my favorite features from the descriptor, which is my favorite editing software. It is also what I'm recording into right now, directly as we speak. So I love that it is not only great for recording my episodes, but the moment that I hit stop on my recording, it brings in my very first favorite part, which has the transcriptions. Transcriptions are huge for podcasting, not only with the search engine optimization on the back end of things, but also for accessibility. Not only do people who are hard of hearing. Oftentimes re transcripts, but it's also something that I've talked to, people who listen, like don't listen to podcasts, but they read podcast transcripts because that's the type of beautiful mind that they have. They can read faster than they can listen to us talk. And so if they're looking to learn something, they'll find transcripts and just read through, and if podcasts don't have transcripts, a lot of times the podcasting apps that you can upload your things into will have auto transcribers. But I love having my episode transcribed. The moment that I hit stop recording, because at that point, When I do start the editing process, I'm not editing audio files. I'm editing a word document. That's the great thing about descript and I recognize other audio. Engineering podcasting services this year in 2024. It's something that many platforms have. I just got descript when it was one of the very first ones to do it and they continue to be ahead of all of these trends. And so I love that. For years I've been editing my episodes. Like they were word documents rather than having to worry about necessarily that they were audio. So I love being able to edit my episodes, like word documents, because I remember back when I first started podcasting and I thought I'd save a couple dollars by doing a free audio editing software. It was a nightmare. It caused so many more gray hairs and so much stress. And so anxiety, so much anxiety. I'm pretty sure I was. Yeah, I was drinking back then. So I definitely got drunk over at a handful of times. Editing with audio was not my thing, but I put it into descript and it's easy for me. It's beautiful. And then from there it brings me to some other great features that they have in love. And I even have some examples that I'll show you. The first big thing is that I was at diverse, fast a couple of weeks ago. And it was a huge community festival is basically a vendor fair for queer local vendors to be able to talk about the amazing work that we're doing for our community. So they had a lot of nonprofits and organizations just kind of telling you what they do. And they're in the corner was sober. Steve, the podcast guy talking about podcasting bad-ass and talking about gay, the super sober hero show. And interviewing people about what diversity means to them. And I got the experience of being able to bring my mobile recording studio with me. And it was a lot of technology and I was able to record in what looked like and felt like a studio. But at the end of the day, when you are recording audio interviews in a large auditorium with four to 500 people at a time, at least all talking and doing their own things. While, oftentimes for a lot of these audio clips, there was also performances going on in the background, which is also bonkers. The beauty of descript is that with a couple of clicks of the button, I was able to get rid of 90 to 95% of the background noise while also making sure that the person's voice still sounds mostly. Intacct and natural in the way that they naturally sound. And so to give you an example of the magic that can happen when you upload your audio files into descript and then just apply their studio sound filter. Here is pastor Dan from my church, the harvest. Giving his answer to what diversity means to him without any sort of filter. And then again, with the studio sound filter applied.
Dan:
Diversity is the most divine, godly idea. For me, diversity means that no one will ever be other as we celebrate and make diversity the most important part of the fabric of our communities and nation. It means that none of us will be ever be othered again. And even if you're a white, straight male like me, every single one of us at one point or another in our life. Has felt other whether in middle school or elementary school. We've been the kid on the playground. Nobody wanted to play with at least once. Well, for some people, every day feels like that. Why can't we come together and celebrate diversity so no one will ever feel other again? Diversity is the most divine, godly idea. For me, diversity means that no one will ever be other as we celebrate and make diversity the most important part of the fabric of our communities and nation. It means that none of us will be ever be othered again. And even if you're a white, straight male like me, every single one of us at one point or another in our life. Has felt other whether in middle school or elementary school. We've been the kid on the playground. Nobody wanted to play with at least once. Well, for some people, every day feels like that. Why can't we come together and celebrate diversity so no one will ever feel other again?
Now bad-ass is I have to warn you because you might have heard that back to back and been like, wow, it sounds so much better. Now there isn't a limit to the mat amount of magic. That these filters can have. And just show you an example of what happens when, even on top of like the noise that was already there when pastor Dan was talking and you could see most of it come out when there's something like the live music that came later during one of my other friend, essences recordings. You'll see how a can only cut out so much before things start to bleed together or distort the way you sound. So again, huge boon to something that everyone, when they're recording should be applying studio sound, unless they're in a place where it's something like this, which is a very, very, very unique podcasting situation. I've been podcasting for four years. It's the first time I recorded. A major episode in a large convention center while someone was singing in the background, not ideal circumstances we normally make at work. But just to see what happens when you try and push any, if you want to hear what it sounds like to push the limits of these filters. Here is essence. Giving what diversity means to her without any filters. And then what happens when the filters are applied and it's just a little bit too much to make it sound the best that it possibly could be.
Essence:
Hi, my name is Dr. Essentier. As a psychologist, that is biracial, chronically male, has ADHD, and is part of the LGBTQ plus community. For me, diversity means that I don't have to choose which identity I want to share with people or pilot it, but that I can show it with my full self, with all of my identities, and that I still matter, and that I don't need to be ashamed but that I can really celebrate the parts of me that make me different. And now I get to take joy in helping other people do that as well, through ADHD coaching and mentoring. So, diversity is important for me to get to know people, and to love people. for their cool sounds, but also to experience it as a live song. Hi, my name is Dr. Essentier. As a psychologist, that is biracial, chronically male, has ADHD, and is part of the LGBTQ plus community. For me, diversity means that I don't have to choose which identity I want to share with people or pilot it, but that I can show it with my full self, with all of my identities, and that I still matter, and that I don't need to be ashamed but that I can really celebrate the parts of me that make me different. And now I get to take joy in helping other people do that as well, through ADHD coaching and mentoring. So, diversity is important for me to get to know people, and to love people. for their cool sounds, but also to experience it as a live song.
So with the effects, you can see what it can do and what it can't do, but either way, there is no wrong answer when it comes to whether or not you should be using an program like descript to be able to edit your podcasts. They make so many of the new features, easy. I would say, thank you for listening through some rough at times, audio and soda rewards, you will end with two other things that I love about descript that are taking the best of the AI that is coming out. The first of which is the eye correction. I don't know what kind of magic that they do, but when you are doing videos, If you are looking away from the screen, you can need to use the new little button clicky thing. When you have your different filters to be able to produce the eye corrective effect to where you're just. Once they apply it, it looks like you're looking straight at the camera the entire time. It is wonderful and beauty full for anyone who is doing any sort of video podcasting or live streaming or anything like that, being able to make it look like you're looking directly at the camera at all times is just. Chef's kiss. As is their ability on the backend to help with things like show notes by summarizing the episode or finding clips that are more likely to go viral. All of those tools are embedded in with their new ask AI features. So. Every time that descript has a new update. It's another new feature. And I have never, ever in my entire adult life or childhood ever used a program that has so many updates. At times it can almost feel silly, but I love it because every update is to make our experience better. So why would you roll your eyes of every day? When you load up descript, there's another update. Because they're always quick. It's always easy and painless, but they are always on top of it. Like any other program I've ever seen, they're always making updates, adding new features, changing what we can do with the power of podcasting. And so if you haven't checked out descript yet, so use for your editing, I definitely recommend checking it out. And that is my advice for today. So thank you very much for tuning into another episode of service. Steve, the podcast guy, hopefully knowing that a program like descript has these features where most of these are clicks of the button that require a little to no audio or video editing skills has made the concept of editing your own episodes a little less scary and intimidating for you. If you haven't started your podcast yet, and today's the day, make sure you head on over to sober steve.com to schedule a brainstorm session so I can help talk it through and help you bring it to life. And if you are already podcasting and ready to level it up, make sure you also visit the website and apply for a tune-up. Until next time. Remember. You are a bad-ass.