Behind The Show: Gareth Davies

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Hello podcasting people and welcome

to Behind the Show where I chat to you

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podcasters to find out more about you and

what you're using to make your podcasts.

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I'm Gareth and this community is

something I've built for all of us.

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I'm not going to try and sell courses, I'm

not going to tell you what you should or

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shouldn't be doing with your own shows.

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To me the word community

is about all of us.

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As much as I want to get to know

you and your podcasts and hopefully

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give you some tips via my shows and

other posts, I want you to be there

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for each other because that is what

community means in my humble opinion.

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So here we are, on the

very first Behind the Show.

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I thought it would be a fun idea to do

a kind of show and tell podcast, the

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behind the scenes where we get to know

more about the people who make the shows,

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sharing what tools we're using to get

a podcast made and published, and the

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experiences guests have with these tools.

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Uh, and as this is the first episode,

I thought I would share my background

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with you and some of the hardware and

software I use to make podcasting people.

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This show, uh, a couple of other

shows, and other client podcasts

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I'm involved in helping out on.

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Whether it's fixing audio or

editing dialogue or other things.

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Right then, are we ready to get into it?

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Let's call this section.

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It's all about you.

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Hello, me again.

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So in this section of Behind the Show,

I'll usually have a guest to chat with.

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But like I say, as it's the

first one, I thought I'd properly

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introduce myself and what I do.

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After this, I won't be

talking much about me.

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In fact, that's my mantra in podcasting.

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It's not about me.

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And I reckon that's a good way to

think when devising guest interviews.

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So this feels a little

bit counter to that.

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Anyway, so, uh, I live in Shepperton

in the UK, which you may have heard

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of because of the famous studios,

uh, with my wife, Dani, and our

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little Jack Russell Flash Gordon,

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Who is happily snoozing under

my studio desk as I record this.

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Up until 2011, I was a primary

school teacher, which was pretty

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intense, but very rewarding.

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Um, I've been a musician and songwriter

all my life, and so, uh, coinciding with

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the house move, I took a leap of faith and

became a professional composer for media.

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I was lucky enough around a year later

to write the music for an animated

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series for TV which kick started

a career in writing music for TV.

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I'll pop a link in the show notes

to my composer page if you want

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to read and listen to more of my

work on the music side further.

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Uh, then in 2019, I started a

podcast with a friend and we wrote

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an imagined drama soundtrack and

podcasted along the way, which was

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really fun, but very, very terrifying.

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We had guests on from all sorts of

roles in TV and film production.

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And we ended up doing two

limited seasons of that show.

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And then in lockdown, I created and

produced a show called Creative Cuppa,

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which was, it was my window to the

outside world during the pandemic.

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And I loved chatting with people

doing creative jobs and finding the

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common threads in that creativity.

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Fast forward to 2022, and I

wanted to start a show about

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music, or more importantly about

the people who make the music.

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That's called The Music

Room, it's still going.

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And this continues to be a motivation

for me, the humanising of an industry.

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And the music industry, and indeed

the podcast industry, can feel a bit

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faceless and isolating, can't it?

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Especially for us creators.

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And I just love the idea that,

We can learn from each other

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and keep each other going.

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I started a Facebook group

for the Music Room listeners.

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And honestly, the magic I saw

and still see happening in that

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group, the support, the motivation,

the collaboration that happened.

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It's amazing to see it happen.

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And knowing I've facilitated people's

friendships and helped them in their

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careers is just the best feeling.

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I started the Podcasting People

podcast as a bite-size show featuring

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tips from podcast industry figures,

uh, in the autumn of last year,

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2023, for a couple of reasons.

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Firstly, I'd gained a couple of podcast

clients where I fix audio, edit dialogue,

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and in one client's case, repurpose

video audio for podcast, and

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by that I mean audio podcast.

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Oh That's a whole subject I'm

sure we'll get into at some point.

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Anyway, I felt like I was

now working in the podcast

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industry and knew no one in it.

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Plus, as you're probably aware, there

are roughly a hundred bazillion,

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that's a real number, self appointed

podcast gurus out there who believe

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if you buy their course, you'll be a

millionaire by the end of the week.

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So it's also a good marker of how not to

run a podcast community, so rest assured.

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so what better way to get to know

people in an industry than to start

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a podcast about that industry.

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And it's working.

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I've learned so much.

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And I guess by extension, this community

is doing the same thing for me personally.

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And I hope it does the same for you.

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So that's a bit about me.

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Let's get into my podcaster toolkit.

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So this part of the show is all about

peeking inside the toolkits of guests

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to see how they make their shows.

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In this episode, I'll be talking

a little bit about my setup, the

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hardware and software that I use, and

I'll add the list to the show notes.

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So don't worry about finding

a pen, it's all good.

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So I've been through some different

setups in the last few years.

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As a composer, I already had a lot of

equipment, but I found, as I spend more

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and more time podcasting, that I've

really refined what I use to work for me.

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And that's really the

most important thing here.

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What I'll share works for me, but might

not for you, but it might make you

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think about your setup and how you can

improve certain things for yourself.

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So I'm not saying these are the

best tools, just that they're not.

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They're the best for me, at the moment.

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Uh, maybe I should time stamp it.

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Captain's Log, April 2024.

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There you go.

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Right, I'll start with

the hardware, I think.

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I use a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro.

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I like being mobile.

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If I have to be somewhere and I'm

mid job, or something comes in, it's

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reassuring to have my computer to hand.

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In the home studio, I plug it

into a docking station that

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then goes into a monitor.

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The docking station is made by CalDigit,

and the audio goes through an audio

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interface, which means the audio is

hitting the in the best possible state.

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Mine's a Volt 2 by Universal

Audio and compared to previous

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interfaces I've had, it sounds great.

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Uh, and into that I plug my Shure

SM7B microphone via something called a

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cloud lifter, which boosts the signal.

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Uh, and you'll find that if

you have a dynamic mic, uh,

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and a dynamic mic is where

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it captures what's right in

front of it, not the whole room.

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So if you have one of those and it sounds

really quiet, get yourself a cloud lifter

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and it transforms the signal going in.

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It lifts it, funnily enough.

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One thing I like about the Shure

SM7B is that it has a built

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in pop shield, so that's nice.

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Holding the microphone in place

is the Rode PSA1 Swivel Mount

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Studio Microphone Boom Arm.

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It's a mouthful.

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And that's great for saving a bit of space

as it can clamp to just about anything.

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I mentioned about the

MacBook and being mobile.

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Uh, well, I have a Zoom H6,

my trusty field recorder.

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I use that for music as

well, which is fantastic.

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Um, and, but it's great for podcasting.

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If you have multiple people,

it's got lots of inputs.

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So that's really good as well.

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And a recent addition I've purchased

is a Rode Lavalier Go, which is a lapel

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mic that works with the H6, and pretty

much anything with phantom power.

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And I got that to hopefully

capture some conversations at the

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podcast show London next month.

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And incidentally, the RODE Lavalier

Go is the subject of my first

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review, which will be up next week.

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Or if it's after next week, it's

already up or something like that.

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So that's the hardware I use.

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Uh, I hope that's not too confusing.

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Um, on to software.

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Uh, so I thought I'd go through

as I would my production process.

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So hopefully this will make sense.

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First up, in order to book guests and

give them the smoothest onboarding I

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possibly can, I use something called

Calendly, which you may have heard of.

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Which is a scheduling software.

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And what's great about Calendly is

that you can set up bespoke emails to

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remind the guest, to thank the guest.

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You can include the link to your recording

software, and there's a lot more that

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I haven't used, but to me it's saved so

much time, it's well worth the money.

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For planning, scripting, and all

that jazz, I use something that

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was sitting under my nose for ages.

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Apple Notes is great and it's free.

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And I use that in conjunction

with the Apple Reminders app and

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Apple Calendar, and I'm covered.

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In fact, I pretty much run my

whole life with those three things.

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I've tried Trello, Notion.

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Uh, what are the others?

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ClickUp, Evernote.

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But honestly, on reflection,

even a spreadsheet is good.

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I guess the important thing is

to be organized, and those built

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in free Apple apps work for me.

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So once Calendly has automatically

added the meeting to my calendar,

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and yes it does that too, and

recording day appears, I meet the

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guests and record via Squadcast,

which is a remote recording tool.

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A while ago it was bought by

Descript, which I'll come on to.

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So there's a subscription saving there,

which is great, But I also like the

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fact it has what it calls progressive

upload, which means it's recording each

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person separately and at the source.

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So it usually ends up with

a top quality recording.

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I mentioned Descript there.

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Once I have the recording, I can

import into Descript, which is

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like a multi track audio editor.

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As easy as a doc, they claim.

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It does so much more than that.

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It does video as well.

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But I tend to stick to audio.

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Great face for radio, you see.

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Uh, so the time saver here for me

is that I can edit the transcribed

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text and it does the heavy lifting

of splicing the audio for me.

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Which is great.

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It's non destructive so you can

restore things easily and just edit

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the audio if you'd prefer that.

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Um, it has a studio sound feature

that can be a bit hit and miss but

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you know, if you're lucky, it will

make recording sound even better.

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But there are so many tools out there

to make your audio sound better, and

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actually that's a service I offer

as an audio professional as well.

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Some tools I use are EQs, compressors,

limiters, iZotope RX is great for sorting

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out background noise, um, and And,

you know, bumps and pops and things.

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Something called Clear I've been

using, uh, for really quick clear ups.

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It uses AI, I think, to

quickly remove ambience.

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Um, but usually it's a judgment

call for me about how to

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approach improving the audio.

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It's certainly not one

thing, one size fits all.

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Sometimes I bring the audio into Logic

Pro, if there's serious work to be done.

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But if you can get the recording sounding

good at the source, uh, on the day

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of recording, hopefully you won't get

caught out when you're trying to edit.

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And at the publishing end of things,

I've tried a few podcast hosts, and as

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I produce multiple podcasts, the most

cost effective for me has been Captivate.

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You can find them at Captivate.

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fm.

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A big plus for them is that they keep

adding useful features, which is very nice

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and their customer support is really good.

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So what's my star of the show?

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The one tool that stands out

to me as being the most useful.

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Well, I think for me it's Calendly.

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Calendly has saved me so much time.

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It's really paid for

itself multiple times over.

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It's not cheap at around £80 per year for

the basic tier, but it's really intuitive.

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It's not just a scheduler

that talks to your calendar.

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You can automate everything to do

with onboarding guests, avoiding going

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back and forth really, which, let's

face it, can be a real time suck.

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So when I send a message or an email

to a guest once they've agreed to

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appear, they'll see a calendar with

available dates and times, as well

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as all the information I want the

guest to see about the recording.

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The link to Squadcast, advice about

the recording, things to consider, etc.

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Once they've booked, it goes straight into

my calendar with a link, a confirmation

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is emailed to me and the guest, an

email I can tailor by the way, uh,

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and then I have an option to send out

a reminder, which can be an amount of

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time before, whether that's an hour or

a day, uh, an hour after the recording,

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a thank you email is sent out, with

links to the website, socials, etc.

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Plus, you can also tailor

what your working hours are.

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You can set up payments if you're

using it for something that requires

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payments like consultancy or coaching.

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And there's also a phone app

so I can use it on there too.

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Altogether, it's a wonderful

piece of software that can help

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make your onboarding a whole lot

easier for both you and the guest.

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And for me, making the guest as

comfortable as possible is the key

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to making a great interview possible.

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So there we go.

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I hope you found that useful.

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Do let me know in if you're curious about

any of the things I've talked about.

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And also, do you use any of those things?

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How are you getting on with them?

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Let me know.

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Thanks for joining me for this, the

first episode of Behind the Show.

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See you later.