Today, I want to talk to you about headphones.
When I first started podcasting all the way back
in 2012, headphones were absolutely a requirement,
also a requirement, having all of your guests
record their audio separately or using an app
like Ecamm Call Recorder on Skype, which was
not great. It definitely led to low quality shows,
which is why I feel at least my show that I launched
in 2016 took off because I was a stickler for
quality. Now in 2025, I've been getting more
pushback from podcasters and guests about wearing
headphones. And I will tell you straight up,
I'm not burying the lead here. If a guest is
not wearing headphones, I will not record with
them. I don't care that Riverside or Squadcast
or whatever has the echo cancellation. I don't
care if we're recording on Zoom, which I don't
record on Zoom, but that they do the echo cancellation
thing. Headphones are still a requirement for
me. And I think if you care about quality, which
you should, especially now, then headphones should
be your requirement. So first of all, why should
you care about quality now? We have Riverside,
we have Descript, we have apps like Adobe Podcasts
and Descript that can make crappy microphones
sound like good studio microphones. But here's
the thing. Fixing audio and software is not as
good as getting the cleanest audio. possible.
And I know this because I've gone on podcasts
as a guest where we've recorded with Riverside
and you hear how I sound right now. Not to toot
my own horn or anything, but my audio is amazing.
I have a great microphone going into a great
interface. I have a great recording environment.
I always wear headphones. But the end result
for some of these podcasts is me sounding worse.
And the New Yorker in me, who always assumes
malice, figures, oh, well, they just want the
guest to sound worse than the host, which is
insane. That's too much effort, right? What's
actually happening is they're running it through
Descript or whatever magic editing thing they
do. the effects that they apply actually make
my audio worse, not better, because they're not
giving it to an audio engineer. They're just
throwing it through some app, right? Or just
combining and cleaning up, quote unquote. And
so you'll have like dropped sounds or you'll
have like this weird artifact that shows up sometimes
because they didn't properly do noise removal.
or they did noise removal on noise that wasn't
actually there. So why am I telling you all of
this? Because when you use something like echo
cancellation, and that's the other thing that
they could have done, right? They could have
been using echo cancellation in Riverside even
though I'm wearing headphones. So the echo cancellation
was not necessary. The software is then looking
for stuff to remove And when it can't find anything,
it does non -deterministic things. Non -deterministic
is a programming term for you can't predict what
it does. Large language models are non -deterministic.
I don't care what the AI quote unquote experts
will tell you. You cannot predict how an AI will
respond to you. Just go ask Elon Musk and Grok.
So when you apply those filters, If they are
not necessary, they will make the audio worse.
If they are necessary, they're going to do things
to the audio that you may not predict or want.
And so when you record your podcast, you should
always wear headphones because you don't want
the guest's audio creeping into your microphone
and vice versa. Right? You want your guests to
wear headphones even if you're recording over
Riverside or whatever. and it has that echo cancellation
because nothing is better than the raw unaffected
analog sound. You can take that and you can fix
it in an app like Logic Pro or you can give it
to an editor or an audio engineer and they can
pull all the right levers, the correct levers
to actually fix the thing that you're trying
to fix. But if you're just kind of wholesale
applying You know, it's like it's like if you
decide oh we're going to Paint the entire house
gray even if like the Sunroom should be light
blue or we're just going to We're gonna make
a bunch of different lunches for all the kids,
but we're gonna spray ketchup on all of it Right
like great ketchup on hamburgers is fine Ketchup
on pizza is an nomination. Don't at me on that
So like you're you're You're doing with a sledgehammer
what you should do with something more surgical,
right? I think that you're using a You're using
a hacksaw when you should be using a surgical
knife or whatever So headphones prevent that
headphones will ensure that you get the best
possible quality from your audio that is not
affected by Any software that you don't have
a direct hand in fixing. And I'm not saying don't
apply fixes, right? I'm recording this in Logic
Pro and I do have a compressor, but it's a hardware
based compressor, right? And which is like a
noise gate. It's like the opposite of a noise
gate. I'm not an audio engineer, so I'm not going
to be able to tactfully describe this, but it's
basically like. If there is a sound below a certain
decibel, it's going to ignore it, essentially.
And I am doing that in hardware. I'm not doing
it in software where you can get false positives.
What I'm doing in software is I'm using audio
effects from iZotope. I'll link it in the description.
For breath control and mouth sounds. Because
I can't stand mouth sounds. So I don't like listening
back to my audio with mouth sounds and so, you
know, I have like a de -clicking filter on there.
But again, I'm very surgical about how it's applied
and it's only applied to my audio. When I have
a guest, I don't touch that. I give my editor
both and he handles it because he knows what
is a light touch and what's too heavy -handed.
The point is in 2025, this is not an editing
episode because I, you know, I hate editing.
I don't do a lot of editing myself. I do what
I have to, but I don't like doing a lot of editing
myself. This is about headphones. And so should
you as a podcaster use headphones in 2025? Yes.
Should your guests? Yes. That is going to ensure
that you get the most clear, unopinionated audio
you can possibly get. Because then Riverside
or Descript or Zoom or whatever is not applying
their filters, which have been applied for a
very specific reason. Right? They have made assumptions
about how people are using their software. and
their filters are going to execute those assumptions.
Whereas if you're not, if you're using headphones
and you turn off echo cancellation or whatever
audio filters are in Zoom, there are no assumptions.
So you can understand the environment the person
is recording in. You can hear the issues and
you can fix them later. But also headphones ensure
that you don't have to fix as much, right? When
I recorded in person, this was a problem. Obviously,
we had two microphones, but we were too close
to each other. And we weren't using student like
headphone monitors. So. I could hear myself on
my guest's microphone and vice versa. That's
just the name of the game when you're recording
in person, I assume. I don't I don't have well,
I shouldn't say I assume I don't record in person
that often, but we were using kit studios, which
was great. But like I didn't understand any of
that going in. And so we did just use the combined
audio there. But again, we were in person. It
was the same environment. We were using the same.
We were each using the same microphone. Like
separate microphones, but they were the same.
And so, you know, there are the environment's
going to matter. And getting the most unopinionated
audio is going to ensure that you can get the
best edit possible. Alright, that's it for this
episode of Streamlined Podcaster. Let me know
right over at StreamlinedFeedback .com if you
use headphones or have strong opinions about
not using headphones. I will tell you, like somebody,
there was, this happened one time, a dude got
onto Riverside, was not using, he was using the
built -in microphone, he was not wearing headphones,
and I said you need headphones, and he said I
don't have headphones. And I said, I find that
hard to believe, but if that is true, we cannot
record because on the form that you filled out
to come on this show, you said you were going
to record in a quiet place, use the best microphone
you can and wear headphones. And he was floored
that I said this interview wasn't happening.
But it's that important to me. So let me know.
Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm right. Streamlinedfeedback
.com. Thanks so much for listening. And until
next time, I hope you find some space in your
week.