(upbeat music) - So it is super fun to produce a podcast, (bright upbeat music) but there are a seemingly
unlimited number of options when it comes to
determining your workflow. My name is Tom, this is
the Enthusiasm Project, and today I wanna share
with you my workflow for recording and
distributing my podcasts, using the RODECaster pro and Anchor. There are an unlimited number
of workflows out there. Mine is based on speed and simplicity. So that is what I'm going for, and if you don't already know why I love the RODECaster pro so much, I have a feeling you'll
definitely understand after this video. So to make this simple, I'm gonna walk you
through the entire process from setting up the RODECaster all the way to clicking
the upload button on Anchor and obviously setting up the
RODECaster is the first step. So whenever I'm ready to record a podcast, I just use this space. I don't have everything
permanently set up. I just set up the RODECaster, plug in the power, turn it on. And then I use the Rode
PodMic, as you probably know. I've talked about these stands before, but since I get a lot
of questions about them, I use these tabletop stands
that I found on Amazon and I have two varieties. I have a shorter stand from Samson, I'll put links to all
this stuff down below. And I also have a taller
stand from Onstage and this one can telescope up, which is actually really cool. So this is great, the shorter stand. If you're trying to talk to someone, you don't want a microphone
blocking your view. This stand is better, if you wanna be able to position the mic closer to your mouth,
exactly where you need it. Usually it's just me doing my podcast, so I only need one mic, but every once in a
while, I'll have a guest. So that means I would set up two mics connect my XLR cables. We'll pretend I'm gonna
have a friend today, but I don't have a friend today. So that we have to mix, yay. And really this is all that I need, so what I've done is in the RODECaster, when I got it ages ago is I preloaded my podcast
intro and outro song. So I can play that straight
from the sound pads. I have all the mic settings
in here that I need, and this is really all that's required to record the podcast. I do usually have my computer
as part of the process because I like to have my
notes here if I need them. So that way I can refer to them. I also connect it to the RODECaster, this is the actual RODE TRRS
cable, which works really well for connecting phones and computers. And the reason I use my computer
is because I have my notes up here, so I do keep a running document in the notes app on my Mac book. And I just might make any
bullet points that I wanna hit or outline anything that I need
before starting an episode. And then also this is where I
will sometimes play interview clips from if I haven't already preloaded them into the RODECaster beforehand, but sometimes I might
reference like a video or an interview or something real quick, and it's easy to just sort of
pull it up here and play it and just run that
through this TRRS channel right here on the RODECaster. And then also at the end of my show, I have a segment called "Gear of The Week" where I talk about a piece of equipment that I've been really liking that week or getting a lot of value and use out of. And I like to play music
during that segment just to differentiate it
from the rest of the show. And so to do that, I actually just have Epidemic
Sound app on the computer and I just play those
songs in the background. So that way it's almost like
a running playlist right here, and I can just have it
going the entire time. And then I should mention,
I do usually have headphones cause it's a good idea
to monitor your podcast. These are kind of my newer ish headphones. They're the Sony something
or other, the Sony WHCH 700. I got them during like the
Christmas season last year cause they were on sale for like $90. They're awesome, they're
Bluetooth headphones, but they also have the
option to use a cable. So I plugged those in. If I have a guest, of course, I always give them the
option to connect headphones to the RODECaster as well so that we can all hear each other. And I should mention
my settings real quick. So I'm not doing anything too
crazy when it comes to the settings for my microphones. Using the pod mix, I
just go into each channel and I do use the pod mic default setting, but I make a few adjustments. This is the 2.1 firmware. So I go into audio processing. I do like to use the big bottom, which makes me laugh every time I say it, just to add in a little bit of base, I keep the level at about
34, 35, the gain level and that sounds pretty good. And of course the pod
mic itself works better if you talk closer to it. So the, if you kinda put it
to the side of your mouth, it'll miss the breath and you won't get those
sounds, explosive sounds. This is everything I do to
prepare for my podcasts. I usually mute my microphone
first and then literally all I do when I'm ready
to record is I sit down, I press record, I play my intro song. (upbeat music) And while this is
playing, my mic is muted. (upbeat music) And then I wait, (upbeat music) unmute my mic. (upbeat music) Hello and welcome to
the Enthusiasm Project. My name is Tom, and this
is not a real episode because it is a test
episode that I'm doing for a video that I'm making. And look at me talking as I'm also, fading out the intro song, see all that drum practice really paid off for that limb independence taking place. And now I'm jumping
straight into the podcast, if I had a guest here,
which I don't (chuckles), I would put them on channel
two and talk to them. If I need to play something
from the computer, that's when I can bring
up the TRRS channel, the smartphone channel. And then when it's time for me to play some background music, I just play it off my computer. You can hear it on this
channel and I can kinda keep it in the background
as a music bed as I talk. So you can mix in all
kinds of different sounds. Of course you could load in more songs to your sound effects pads. I just have all my dumb like jokey sounds. For example, do you know
where audio equipment likes to go to socialize and
network and meet each other, to the mixer. (upbeat music) But obviously you could
add in more useful things than that if you want
it to your RODECaster. And then I just have the music
playing in the background (soft music) when I'm ready to end my show, I just fade that out and
that's usually when I say, "okay, cool, I've been talking "and you've been listening
and it's just been terrific." And then I play the outro
song and slowly faded it in and go like, "cool what an
amazing episode, I love you. "It's great, thank you so much." And then I turn off my mic, (upbeat music) and wait for the song to stop. And as soon as that song ends, all I do is press record. I should mention though,
while I am recording, if I need to take a break, I just hold down the record
button for a second or two and it puts it in record pause mode, and then I can take a drink of water and then press record and jump right back into where I left off. And it's a seamless cut that you don't even
notice in the final version. So I sometimes I will do that once or twice throughout an episode, and that's it. So now I have a fully finished
podcast episode in here and I just need to put it here, so I can upload it to there. And now with RODE's new firmware update, the easiest way to do that is just to connect the
RODECaster to the computer, using a USBC cable. And then all I need to do is
open up the RODE Companion app, click on podcasts, and I can just enter a
podcast transfer mode, which if you saw my firmware update video, you kinda know all this. But I can select the podcast
I just recorded right now, I can give it a name. Always important to give you
your podcast and actual title. So this is, this is a test Yay. I'm gonna do my export options for Anchor cause that is where I upload my podcast. And I save it as an MP3 to my desktop. Now how long this takes will depend on how long your podcast is. It's usually relatively quick, but remember you're not
only transferring it from here to your computer, the computer's, and also
converting it to an MP3 and then saving it to your desktop. So if it does take a minute or two, just let it do its thing. And now I've got a two
minute 37 second podcast. I don't delete the podcast
from the RODECaster until it's uploaded to Anchor and
saved to my backup drive. So just pro tip, keep it on the SD card. From there It is just jump over to Anchor, click on new episode, and this is where I can
just drag my file over while it's uploading, this is where I go back into my notes app and I update my description. This is a description for the podcast. I'll add in any relevant links. I'll add in the gear of the week. I have all of the contact
info down at the bottom. It's sort of just a
template and then I just copy and paste it Once I'm all done uploading, I just click on save episode, paste that description, Anchor does a weird thing where it always adds in
a lot of extra spaces. So I do go down to like the
signature part of the show notes and get rid of all those spaces
and then give it a title, "This is a test" I usually do put the episode number there. I don't know people like that,
or if you need to do that, but it helps me to keep things organized. And that's really important
cause as you start getting into different seasons
and lots of episodes, keeping things organized, gets a little trickier than you'd expect. I always schedule my podcasts. So I just schedule them
for Mondays at midnight, confirm, and then I add the episode, the season number, season
two for me and episode 20. And then I click on
schedule and that's it. The beauty of it and you saw
this basically in real time, from the time I press this
button to stop recording to the time the podcast is uploaded and scheduled and ready to go on Anchor is about five to 10 minutes. So really if I'm doing
an hour long podcast, you saw it only takes
me about five minutes, maybe to set up for the podcast, an hour to record the podcast five or 10 minutes to
transfer and upload it. And that's it and I am done. I have my full time job, my
YouTube channel and my podcast. And I'd love to spend
all the hours in the day on all of those things. I just don't have that much time. So the podcast something
I really wanna do, but just don't have the time for needs to fit in, with taking
up as little time as possible. I can usually find an hour
and 10 minutes throughout the week to get an episode
out and ready to go. And that makes it a really
stress-free really fun project, and making it stress-free and
fun also makes it sustainable. If you make anything to go online, you know the importance of sustainability, sometimes it's tied very
closely to consistency. You don't wanna just
make one or two episodes and then drop off for a few months and then come back for a few. You want it to be a
regular consistent thing. And if you miss one or two here or there, it's not the end of the world, but you want your audience
to know they're gonna get another installment of
the thing that you create when they expect to get that. That was a weird sentence. And that is pretty much
my entire workflow. It's really simple. It's really fast. It's really effective. It's allowed me to do upwards
of now 40 something episodes of my podcast over the
past year and a half. And I'm sure now you understand
one of the reasons why I really love the RODECaster Pro so, so much and why I think it works so well, definitely worth the price. I know I sound like an ad
every time I say this stuff, but it's pretty terrific. I've got all kinds of videos and reviews about the RODECaster, and microphones, and podcasting gear ,and firmware updates and all that really exciting stuff. But remember, the best thing to do is just start your podcast. Don't wait, get started
with what you have, upgrade as your needs become apparent and just go make the thing, The best advice I can give
and just make the thing. (upbeat music)
