Why Audio Tutorials Are Never One Size Fits All

How’s it going, everyone? And welcome to the very first episode of the Post Audio or Media podcast. My name is Sean and I’ll be the host of this podcast throughout the foreseeable future. Hopefully one day, I’d like to maybe find a co-host, find some more voices for you to hear instead of just my own. Definitely going to have some interviews in the very near future.

But really this this first episode, I kind of want to dedicate it to just explaining my ideas for this podcast, why this podcast exists, why I’m super excited to share this with you, and what I hope this will eventually grow to become. So Post Audio for Media podcast. The explanations is kind of in the title. My brand is also called Post Audio for Media and in simpler terms

Post audio for Media is basically a post-production post audio production for all sorts of media, whether that’s films, TV shows, commercials, social media, anything that has to deal with post audio production and a media format. That’s kind of the topic of my entire brand and of course, this podcast. Now, with the rise of social media, digital content creators, especially since the COVID era, there is a lot of misunderstanding about audio production, how to capture clean audio, how to edit audio, especially for the digital content creator who’s kind of just one man banding this and or one man woman in this and wanting to improve their audio for their projects.

This brand, this podcast is really catered towards them as well as the independent filmmaker who’s just starting in their career, right, who understands a lot about videography, different lenses, lighting, but may not really understand the intricacies or the background of audio production. I just am working on graduating this semester, actually from college myself, so I completely understand the that schools don’t really teach a lot about audio production, even if the program is marketed in the school and the degree as a videography class or a filmmaking class.

What I found from my own college experience, right, and talking with other videographers and content creators and social media marketers is that the program may talk a lot about the video side, but when it comes to the audio side, they hardly mention anything at all. And it’s it’s really heartbreaking when you have these seniors who are graduating expecting and wanting to break into the industry, who then come up to me and ask, hey, so, you know, I just graduated as a videographer or as a content creator, but I really don’t understand the difference between a lot of my kind of shotgun or how to hide a lot of mike on talent, or why we are asked to target audio levels to a minus six, -12 when we’re recording. Right. And for me, my background will come in episode two or kind of who I am, how I got to where I am, but just kind of barebones. I’ve been working as an audio engineer for close to a decade now. Half of that has been professionally and a half of that is just me kind of learning the ropes and trying to piecemeal all this information together.

So for me, all that information is basic knowledge, right? I know what to use a lot of. I know when to use a boom. I know all about proper audio levels, how to edit that. Not to boast, but to to just kind of kind of show that for me, that’s basic knowledge. And I would expect that if someone is graduating from a film course, hopefully that would be basic knowledge too.

But as I’m talking with these people who are just starting out in their field or just graduating or kind of also working to piecemeal this information together, that that’s just simply not the case. The information is out there. It’s definitely out there, but it’s so hard to find. And unfortunately, with the rise of content creation, there’s a lot of information that’s just flat out wrong.

It’s let me rephrase. It may not be wrong, but it’s wrong in the context that they say it is is used for. And it’s not there. There’s no context behind what they’re teaching. Right. You can go on YouTube and find an IQ tutorial instantly. But what people don’t understand is that audio engineering has tons of different niches, right?

I mean, there is live audio engineering, there’s monitor engineering, which is a branch off of live audio. There’s system engineering which takes care of all the equipment, the technology. There is, of course, post audio engineer such as myself. But then within that post audio field, which this podcast will talk about, hopefully we’ll have some interviews with other people, but there there’s dialog editing, there’s ADR engineers, there’s Foley, there’s walkers, which are the Foley performers, right?

There is rerecording engineering. Then when we get to the music side of things, right, there’s mixing and mastering, but within that there’s all sorts of different issues. There’s heavy metal, there’s rock, there’s Screamo I when I first started as an audio engineer, I wanted to become a trailer music composer. So that’s kind of where I got my start from.

And so there’s there’s composers, there’s trailer music, there’s orchestral, orchestral. There is the heck, I guess ethnic can be considered a niche nowadays. So what I’m getting at is that there’s so many different niches. And getting back to the example that if you go on YouTube and just search up a random IQ tutorial, what they say may be right, but you have to think about the context that they’re teaching it in, right?

So for life, for example, you can say, Oh yeah, just take your IQ and high pass, which is if you don’t know, it’s a if you look at an IQ filter, first off, this podcast is going to be both audio and visual based. So if you’re on YouTube, I’m going to put this up for you. If you’re on Spotify or just listening to it and you want to see this graph, you can actually see it in the show notes that all in kind of, I guess, upsell, quote unquote.

Towards the end of this podcast. But if you go on my website, post audio for media dot com slash podcast, you can get show notes for every single episode and this graph will be there. But if you look at any cue and you look at the left side of that IQ graph, you can do what’s called a shelf, which is kind of like a downwards curve and basically cut out certain frequencies below that shelf.

So in live you can say, Oh yeah, do a high pass filter all the way up to one 5181 9200. It’s okay. And studio work. However, if you try to do that, especially on voices, if you’re working with dialog, it’s going to be very thin dialog sound. So you kind of have to understand that the context of these tutorials as you either piecemeal this together or you’re interested in the stuff and you’re just kind of saying, okay, well what other creators are out there talking about this?

What can we learn from them? And that’s something that people don’t really think about because to them, and I completely understand why audio is audio, it’s just one blanket field, it’s audio engineering. But you have to understand that there’s different niches in there. And if you want to be a digital creator who does it all right. And there’s no shame in that, especially for short form content like Real’s, tick tock, tick tock, Instagram, Facebook, whatever.

I totally understand, especially if you’re starting new and you can’t afford to outsource your audio. You need to do this yourself and you have you. And people like that need to understand that when you go online and you type in how to use an IQ, one, most of the content out there is made by other content creators, other filmmakers, not necessarily audio engineers.

And one of the big things that I’ve been noticing lately as I’m starting my own brand and creating my content, is that a lot of this content is made by filmmakers and content creators. A lot of it is not made by audio engineers. And even if it is, remember, there’s so many different niches out there, they could be a live audio engineer or mixing mastering for heavy metal, right?

Maybe they’re probably not working. Post audio for Media brand and basically in the niche that you are expecting these tips and tutorials to help you learn. So that’s really kind of a long winded explanation of what my brand is about, what this podcast is going to be about. If you are a digital content creator, a independent filmmaker, if you just are interested in this crap and I say crap lovingly, you’re going to get used to my terminology.

If you are wanting to become an audio engineer yourself and are wanting to start to learn, okay, I want to do audio for movies. How do I start? Do I just go online and look up any random compressor tutorial you could? You can learn the basics that way for sure, but contextually and how to apply that in the specific niche for film or for, you know, marketing, social media marketing.

That’s something that you have to keep in mind about. And that’s one thing that this brand is is built on, is to help people understand that audio engineering is not just a blanket field, it’s not just a one size fits all situation. So with that goal in mind, I have mentioned that I do want to have, you know, maybe a co-host in the far future.

But for now, interviews are definitely going to be a thing. On this podcast. I have a couple lined up right now, but my goal is hopefully to interview filmmakers, interview digital content creators, and then, of course, audio engineers who are currently working in this field so that we can kind of peel the curtain back with this industry so that others can get a more in-depth, personal view of what it is audio engineering is all about, especially in the context of post audio or media.

Right? And it’s really unfortunate that we’re kind of put in this position because, you know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, audio engineering has had a long history of gatekeeping, quote unquote. I some people will argue and say what it was wasn’t really geeky, whatever. And that’s true with most creative jobs. Right. It’s only been in recent years that a lot of these trades and professions have been more accessible to the public.

Now, you don’t have to spend like half of your life saving up for your first camera. You can easily save up for a cheapo DSLR camera and just start learning the basics. You don’t have to work your way up in a studio, starting in the mailroom and then working your way up to the floor mapper and then, you know, a coffee, errand boy or girl just to be able to touch a console.

You can now go online, get a Beringer ex, touch yourself, download free version of Pro Tools, and then just start learning. And with that, an unfortunate downside is that there have been a lot of people who say, okay, well I’ve worked with ProTools for two months now, three months, four months, six months. I kind of understand what an IQ does.

So I’m going to post that online as a tutorial and then other people will come and say, okay, well he does like a this is never do this. Bob. I shouldn’t say never. I hardly ever. Let’s just say for the context of this example, right. Joe Schmo out there says, okay, we’ll take your high shelf at the right side of the ego and raise it up 20 DB and you’re going to get the Christmas cleanest vocals you’ve ever heard in your life.

And then 500 people see that video and say, okay, well, he seems to know what he’s doing. She seems to know what she’s doing. So I’m just going to do that. And then you start having this unfortunate effect where they start to see that as the norm, and that’s one that’s not normal. That is not normal for audio.

Please do not do that. But the lesson there is that just because someone seems credible and that they post something online about it doesn’t mean that it’s accurate. And this is something that other niches have started to kind of self filter out. Audio is one of those things that it’s important and there’s a lot of people out there who want to work in it, but their target audience doesn’t understand that, that the content they create may not be best for them.

They see it as audio and I understand 100% why, but there are so many different branches nieces to audio. So if anyone’s confused up until this point, this podcast, this brand is all about post audio production. I will touch on preproduction, audio, location, audio here and there. I have extensive knowledge and experience with those two sides of things, but my personal specialty is in post audio production.

It’s not how to compose music, it’s not how to make up a drumset. It’s not how to mix guitars for metal. It is post audio production that is dialog editing, that is sound effects at a sound design, which we’ll talk about the difference in future episodes that is Foley. And then that is my personal specialty rerecording engineering. I do not do any sort of music.

I mean, I do it on the side. You can actually see those on YouTube. You can see like a piano behind me, but that’s more of a hobby. I have no intention of teaching any of that because I’m not experienced enough. And like I said throughout this whole episode, I do not want to teach people wrong information that they will then take into their own different niches or specialties later down the road and mistakenly apply it thinking that that’s normal or that’s correct.

So if you’re any sort of person interested in audio engineering at all, if you are a filmmaker and wanting to know more about post audio production, how you can prepare your films better in pre-production, how you can work with your teams better during production to get the best post-production possible for your audio. If you are a digital content creator, one man banning this one woman in banning one woman banning.

Is that how I would say that one woman abandoning this whatever. If you are a solo digital content creator, if you are a social media marketer and you want to start offering better audio services for your people, then this podcast, this brand, this is all for you, man. Like this will have everything that you need to either get started to improve if you already have started, or if you just want to nerd out and learn more about the industry.

Heck, I’m all for nerding out. I love being a nerd. Then yeah, this is right up your alley. If you are more of a composer or a mixing mastering engineer for music, unfortunately this probably won’t be for you. I will be discussing like film scores and music or in movies or, you know, like music licensing for social media.

So you may be interested in that, but for the most part, this content probably won’t be up your alley. And there are definitely better people out there that you can watch like I know from back in my composing days, there’s Daniel James, there’s Alex Pfeiffer, the two names that just popped in my head. They offer a lot of content online that you can check out.

I’m back. I’ll even put their links in the show notes down below. And for you YouTube guys in the description down below. But the point is, and the main point of this first episode here is to help you guys start to understand that the content you consume matters if you’re wanting to go into a very specific needs. So of course this clan that I’m starting to build up here is all about post audio production.

If that doesn’t fit your vibe, if that’s not your niche, then move on to a different content creator like they like they’re out there. You just got to look for it. I know. Oh man. What are their names? Chris Graham and Brian Hood. Some of you avid podcast listeners for this type of content may recognize their names. They created the six Figure Home Studio podcast that have then evolved into the six Figure creative podcast because, yeah, they started focusing on home studios and like studio engineers.

But but the audience that came to them was also other creatives wanting to learn how to build a business so that that’s the case of like their audience kind of helping their brand evolve. But the point is that those people, even though they weren’t studio engineers, found parts of the content that they vied with that they could utilize correctly, correctly in their application for whatever it is that they wanted to do.

But like you, you still have to kind of be careful and look at the direction that the company that you’re focusing on that you’re following is going. If they’re not going to post content, that will be correct for your goals, then it’s kind of a waste of your time to give them your time, right? Because, I mean, let’s be real here.

A lot of content creators want to market what they do. And if I want to say this delicately, but you’re going to be wasting both yours and there’s time if you just stick around and you’re not going to get any value from them. Right? You had to do what’s best for you and really focus on what you can learn and apply to help improve your own craft.

So wrapping up here pretty short first episode, this was just a introductory type thing. I kind of started rambling on about some things that I’m thinking about lately there, but just for future episodes here again, Reiteration. This is a podcast that will be on Spotify, um, YouTube as a video, it will be on Apple and Google, hopefully if all things work out and the bus route is nice to me, then hopefully it’ll be on all those platforms.

So if you prefer podcasts and just listening, you can check it out on any of those platforms. But if you are more of a visual learner and you also like to watch video podcast, this will also be on YouTube. And occasionally I’ll have like visual diagrams, maybe explaining some of these concepts. And then when I do interviews, hopefully I can work it out that we can also record the other interviewee and we will just bounce back and forth.

This is all new. I’m still kind of learning all of this, so it may change the format. The format may change in the future, but we’ll see how it runs for the first few weeks and we’ll kind of just go with the flow on that one posting schedule for this podcast. I’m hoping and working towards uploading one episode a week every Tuesday 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

It’s pretty early upload, but it’s all automatic so I can still sleep in and this episode will automatically publish. But that’s the schedule every Tuesday 5 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. And I do want to remind everyone that there will be show notes, so that will have a full transcript of every episode. So you kind of read along if you want, and it’ll also have links to any products that I talk about or such as this case.

I’ll have links for Daniel James and Alex Pfeiffer down below for any composers who stumbled upon this and maybe want to check out their channel. So I’ll have links in the show notes there. So. So that will be post audio for media dot com slash podcast and then you can just find the episode that you’re looking for and it’ll take you right to the show.

Note information there. One last plug before I wrap this episode up. I’m also building a Discord community for any content creators, filmmakers, audio engineers, game developers, any any creatives who kind of want to learn from each other Network. Learn more about audio, of course, but also just kind of vibe with other creators and see what they’re doing. Maybe learn from each other just to help build a community and start better communication between all of these different creative niches moving forward.

So if that interests you at all, that link to the server will also be in the show notes. Again, post audio from Ecom slash podcast and you can check it out. Join any time, leave any time. Totally your call. No sweat off my back. So yeah, I mean this podcast is and brand is very chill. It’s very laid back.

So take what you want from it if like check it out. If it doesn’t vibe with you, honestly use time that’s best for you. Find other creators out there, check out other brands, check out other podcasts. Like really focus on what will help you improve the best. That’s really the goal here is to give information about post audio production, but also help you understand that you’ve got to do what’s best for you and maybe you get something out of this, maybe you don’t.

That’s perfectly okay. It’s your call and you’ve just got to run with what helps you out the best. So that’s it. For this first episode next week, I’ll be talking more about my own background. Who exactly This big old nerd is where I came from, kind of my work, the start of how I got started into audio engineering, how I got to where I am now and kind of just more information about what you can expect from this brand moving forward.

So that’s it. Thank you so much for you. The watching the listening to this first episode and I hope you have a fantastic day.