I mention in the episode that there are some courses already out there that cover audio recording at home in general - music AND spoken word stuff for podcasts, audiobooks, and video narrations. You can find the current Courses link here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/landers/courses/ 

In this episode, I play excerpts from 4 of our songs:

• "Son of the Sea" from the album, "Human History" by Ken Theriot - https://music.apple.com/us/album/human-history/276862031 
• "The Jew's Daughter" from the album "The Keys of Canterbury" by Lisa Theriot - https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-keys-of-canterbury/313634032 
• "Fifty Miles Into The Main" from the album "Human History" by Ken Theriot - https://music.apple.com/us/album/human-history/276862031 
• "The Harvest" from the album "A Turning of Seasons" by Lisa Theriot - https://music.apple.com/us/album/a-turning-of-seasons/351581099 

You can hear full versions of these songs on YouTube. And you can buy the albums on Apple Music/iTunes. 

And the online courses I mentioned in the episode can be found on the Home Brew Audio site. 

The Limiter tool changed in recent version of Audacity and it looks totally different from the video. So much so that you cannot follow the video's instructions.

Fear not though! You can still find the old Limiter in newer versions of Audacity by picking "Legacy Limiter" instead of just "Limiter.

Home Brew Audio website: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/27097/acx-audio-submission-requirements-what-the-heck-do-they-mean/

Home Brew Audio YouTube video: https://youtu.be/kYkbArXHKCE?si=kaPOR4SsGz3UeRPg 

I mention in the episode that this comes from a new mini-course called Pro Podcast Recording Kickstarter. You can find that at https://www.homebrewaudio.com at the top of the page. Normally you can just go to the Courses link up at the top menu. But for now (and a few more weeks at least) there is a link at the very tippy top of the page where you can get a free pdf and the option to get the mini-course for $7 (normally $49).

Anyway, that is my excuse as to where I've been. And since I'm in this new house and have not been able to get the studio set up yet, I had to record this episode with bare walls. I know!! But rather than try to fix the room reverb issue that resulted, I left it in the recording and made the topic of room sound (room reverb/echo) the topic of this episode.

And while you can do this like right now - no mater what microphone you have - doing this solves one large problem (audio quality) while creating a few new MINOR issues. 

Also, doing this is free! Or at least it CAN be. Especially for short recordings. But if you plan to regularly record like this, you'll want to make some changes. And I lay out the recommended "things" in the episode. 

You'll need to learn SOME editing. But you can likely do it with whatever audio recording program you already use. If you DON'T already use recording software (some podcasters record only on web applications), you can do the things I talk about in Audacity, which is free and easy to use.

The purpose of this mic is not to record yourself (typically), but rather to record what YOU are hearing. It records your surroundings in sometimes startlingly accurate surround sound type audio. 

The idea is that you would go out to an event, a party, a pub with live music, or just outside in nature. And whoever listens to the audio you recorded will hear what you heard in the way that you heard it.

I have several examples in this episode for you to listen to. But make sure you use headphones! If you don't, it might sort of be like trying to watch a 3D movie without the special 3D glasses.

I recorded my trip to a pub with live music and lots of people having a good time. I also tested how well the SP15 would pick up stereo music versus mono with a test in my studio with mono and stereo acoustic guitar. And finally, I used it for a selfie video and compared that to the audio quality with just an iPhone and also with a RODE Wireless Go II mic, which is designed for that purpose. I think the SP15 sounded the best of all of those. But you can listen and be the judge.

If you want to find out more or buy one from B&H, here are a couple of links (they are affiliate links to help fund this podcast):

For the SP15C - for mobile devices - https://homerecording.click/sp15c

For the SP15V - for DSLR type cameras or camcorders - https://homerecording.click/sp15v  

Unlike previous versions of the well-known NT1, the 5th generation is a "hybrid" mic. That means it is BOTH/EITHER a standard XLR mic OR a USB mic! 

Pretty much every quibble I had was with the USB mode, like not having a headphone jack on the mic, and having issues getting Windows 11 to recognize it while also being able to use the RODE Connect software.

This podcast episode was primarily about the highlights - how it sounds, and my personal favorite thing about it - 32-Bit Float! 

But I do go into more details about my quibbles, plus the use of the on-board effects that you can use in USB mode, controlled by RODE Connect software (free) in the YouTube video I did on the mic, which you can find here: https://youtu.be/tn0IxGA1-XI 

There are some audio samples in this episode. And it would be best to listen at least to that part with headphones to get the detail.

Bottom line - this mic sounds really close to the same quality as mics costing 3 times more. The NT-USB+ goes for $169, BTW. 

I use Reaper, which makes it easy to use a click track and to toggle the metronome off and on. 

Reaper also has MIDI capability, so it's easy to just put a basic drum pattern on a track instead of using the official "click track." The result will be the same in that the beats will all fall onto the project tempo grid lines. But it can be easier to feel the rhythm of a song with drums instead of clicky-clacky sounds inherent to a default metronome sound in recording programs.

Also, I use single-hit drum samples in this episode. I didn't mention where I got those. I have a virtual instrument (VSTi) called Storm Drum that I bought from Native Instruments years ago. I just loaded that up on a track and used the MIDI editor to trigger those drum sounds.

HOWEVER, the tool is not called Noise Reduction. Oddly that function is part of a tool/effect called ReaFir.

The links I mention in the episode are:

For the blog post: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/9603/reafir-madness-hidden-noise-reduction-tool-in-reaper/

For the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/HEY9XIYJtGg 

This time I took 5 segments from last episode and played them first as they were - no edits. Then I edited them so you could hear the before-and-after.

But all that stuff was left in on my recording in this episode because I thought it would help illuminate what editing is by hearing when something isn't. I hope that made sense :-P.

Daniel is wealth of information on all things audio recording and has some amazing information to share. And LANDR (landr.com) is a service you WILL want to use, not matter what kind of recording you do - music, voiceovers, podcasts - anything. Get your projects mastered by their AI. But then have it distributed to the major streaming platforms. And check out must-have DAW plugins and royalty-free sample packs.

If you don't learn something helpful in this episode, it's probably because you didn't listen to it ;-).

Bryan is a pocast editor and an expert on the audio recording and editing software called Hindenburg.

You can find Bryan's contact info and links to his course and social media profiles here: https://toptieraudio.com/ 

Also, the voice recording course - Professional Talkers: How To Record High Quality Audio For VoiceOvers, Podcasts & More - is finally done and ready!

I have a definite opinion on this. But you'll have to listen to this VERY short episode to find out what that is :-).

This episode has audio samples from using the Go II on a Panasonic Lumix G7 camera, an iPhone 11, and a Zoom call. That's the cool thing about this system. It can be used on pretty much any device - computer, mobile device and of course, a camera. 

I used only wired lavs for this episode because it turns out wireless is hard :-). I'll do a wireless lav test for the next episode.

For this test, I used the MOVO M1 and the Sennheiser XS USB-C. Both are super inexpensive.

Take a listen to the result here in the episode, along with my recommendation.