Many subscribers to my show are either themselves podcasters or interested in starting a podcast. I often speak on the topic of audio production when I am an invited participant at the conferences and conventions I attend throughout the year. I have also received questions about how I produce the show’s audio from folks with no interest otherwise in audio engineering or recording a podcast. If you are interested in the audio work behind the show, here’s some information that may help answer any questions you have.
My production work evolves slowly over time as I change bits of the show’s sound and upgrade my home studio. I’ll do my best to keep this page up to date with how the show is currently being produced.
Bed Music
I created all of the background music currently used in the podcast, except the new music for The Inner Chapters. I used the stock loops that came with Apple’s GarageBand plus some loops from the free sample Jam Packs (which are no longer available). You can download an archive of the raw music files and use them under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US license.
The music for The Inner Chapters is Mo Shang’s Asian Space remix of Tafubar’s “The Wicked Thoughts of You” from Mo Shang’s remix album, “Asian Variations“. The track is used under the terms of the Creative Commons’ Music Sharing License.
Gear
My studio computer is a Mac Pro, the last model running the Intel Harpertown, or 5400, CPUs. It is an eight-core system that I loaded out with 10GB of RAM. The multiple cores and generous memory make short work of mixing audio, a chore that used to take the longest out of all my production work other than recording.
I use an Alesis Multimix 8 FireWire mixer and dearly love it. I was saddened to learn that Alesis has stopped production on the FireWire version of this mixer in favor of the USB model. I have never had any audio quality issues with this mixer, it is a real performer with no latency and great preamps. I drive a single Audio Technica AT-3035 mic for in studio recording. I’ve had that mic for most of the show’s history it being one of my earliest upgrades. In researching for this page, it looks like the AT-3035 has been discontinued, not sure what the current model replacement would be.
For in studio guests I have a second AT-3035 and a pair of M-Audio Aries mics. I also use the Aries mics for field recording as although they are also powered mics, they have internal shock mounts that help cut down handling noise. My mixer maxes out at four powered XLR connectors so currently my mic collection and mixer are well matched.
In studio, I wear a pair of Sennheiser HD-280 monitors. I have a PreSonus HP4 headphone amplifier which I use to support my monitors and up to three cheap Sony monitors the model of which I do not recall. I also have an M-Audio iControl, a midi controller that mimics the look of GarageBand and matches its control layout. The iControl is also no longer being made, there isn’t event a product page for it at M-Audio/Avid.
Field Recording
My portable recorder is an M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96. This is the first generation recorder that has since been replaced. The MicroTrack puts out non-standard power hence my use of the Aries mics which are fully compatible with it and the standard phantom power put out by my mixer. I also have a powered, boundary mic I keep in my gear bag and a pair of Shure MS58s that I also sometimes lug around depending on what my mic needs are.
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