1
00:00:02,260 --> 00:00:05,740
Jamie:
All right, so imagine this. You're really getting into a podcast, right?

2
00:00:05,980 --> 00:00:09,540
Jamie:
Like maybe it's some crazy true crime thing or you're finally hearing about

3
00:00:09,540 --> 00:00:11,820
Jamie:
that cool new tech everyone's talking about.

4
00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:17,540
Jamie:
And then, bam, something just yanks you right out of it.

5
00:00:17,620 --> 00:00:18,920
Jaayne:
Yeah, I know that feeling.

6
00:00:19,260 --> 00:00:22,040
Jamie:
And it's not even the ads or anything like that. It's the editing.

7
00:00:22,220 --> 00:00:24,400
Jamie:
Oh, yeah. Or like the over-editing.

8
00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:26,300
Jaayne:
It's like they're afraid of any silence or something.

9
00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:28,080
Jamie:
It's like listening to a robot,

10
00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:29,520
Jaayne:
You know? Yeah, totally.

11
00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:34,020
Jamie:
And that's actually what we're diving into today, giving podcasts some room to breathe,

12
00:00:34,260 --> 00:00:35,720
Jaayne:
You know? Okay, I like that.

13
00:00:35,900 --> 00:00:39,240
Jamie:
We've got this article, Give Your Podcast Permission to Breathe.

14
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:44,820
Jamie:
Love the title. And it's all about finding that sweet spot with audio editing.

15
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:45,800
Jaayne:
I see, I see.

16
00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:50,400
Jamie:
And you don't have to be like a podcasting expert to get this, by the way.

17
00:00:50,460 --> 00:00:54,980
Jamie:
This is about those little things that make a huge difference in how you experience,

18
00:00:55,180 --> 00:00:56,860
Jamie:
well, anything you listen to.

19
00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:57,320
Jaayne:
Absolutely.

20
00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,860
Jamie:
So this author, he starts off talking about this poll he did on Twitter,

21
00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,060
Jamie:
asking people what their biggest podcast turnoffs are.

22
00:01:05,140 --> 00:01:09,960
Jamie:
All the usual stuff came up, right? Like too many ads, weird format changes.

23
00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:10,620
Jaayne:
Right, right.

24
00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,680
Jamie:
But a lot of people chose other. And when he looked into it,

25
00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:16,300
Jamie:
a bunch of them were saying editing was their big issue.

26
00:01:16,820 --> 00:01:19,360
Jaayne:
Interesting. It's so true, though. We think about the hosts,

27
00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:22,460
Jaayne:
the sound quality, but we don't always think about the editing.

28
00:01:22,660 --> 00:01:28,200
Jamie:
Yeah. And it makes sense because as a listener, you don't always notice every single edit. Right.

29
00:01:28,380 --> 00:01:32,060
Jamie:
But those little changes really affect how you experience the whole thing.

30
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:36,340
Jaayne:
Yeah, I'd say so. It's like you don't notice every brushstroke in a painting. Exactly.

31
00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:38,820
Jamie:
But they all add up to make the whole picture.

32
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,240
Jaayne:
And just like with too many brushstrokes, too much editing can kind of ruin the whole thing.

33
00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,280
Jamie:
Totally. And that's how you get that staccato voice thing that the article mentions.

34
00:01:47,660 --> 00:01:50,960
Jaayne:
Oh, yeah. The author had that great line. The human voice is not a staccato.

35
00:01:51,620 --> 00:01:57,200
Jaayne:
So true. Yes. When we try to make it this perfect rhythm, taking out every little

36
00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,240
Jaayne:
pause and breath, it just sounds...

37
00:02:00,700 --> 00:02:01,420
Jaayne:
wrong.

38
00:02:01,620 --> 00:02:06,640
Jamie:
It's true. And our brains can tell. We know how real speech is supposed to sound.

39
00:02:06,740 --> 00:02:11,040
Jamie:
Think about it. In a normal conversation, you wouldn't expect someone to never

40
00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:13,280
Jamie:
take a breath between sentences. No way.

41
00:02:13,820 --> 00:02:19,260
Jamie:
Exactly. And it's those little imperfections that make us sound, well, human. For sure.

42
00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:24,000
Jamie:
It's like we just instinctively know, you know, when someone's speech sounds too perfect.

43
00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:27,780
Jaayne:
Yeah. Too polished. It's like that uncanny valley thing, but for audio. Totally.

44
00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:33,980
Jaayne:
And speaking of uncanny valleys, one of my biggest pet peeves is when they edit out all the breaths.

45
00:02:34,460 --> 00:02:39,320
Jamie:
Ugh, yes. It's like they're scared of a little silence, so they just cram everything together. Right.

46
00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:41,600
Jaayne:
You get to the end and you're like gasping for air.

47
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,560
Jamie:
I know, right? So what's the solution then? Just got to let all the awkward

48
00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:46,840
Jamie:
pauses and stuff stay in.

49
00:02:47,220 --> 00:02:50,080
Jaayne:
Well, it's about finding that middle ground, right?

50
00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:56,060
Jaayne:
Not totally raw, but not robotic either. The article actually had some good tips for this. Okay.

51
00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:56,820
Jamie:
Yeah. What were those?

52
00:02:57,220 --> 00:03:00,000
Jaayne:
So the first one is actually to embrace the um.

53
00:03:00,340 --> 00:03:02,500
Jamie:
Really? I'm usually pretty quick to edit those out.

54
00:03:02,580 --> 00:03:07,980
Jaayne:
I know, right? But an um can actually make a conversation better sometimes. Hmm.

55
00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:10,120
Jamie:
Okay. When does that even work?

56
00:03:10,340 --> 00:03:13,700
Jaayne:
Think about someone like Ira Glass from This American Life. Oh, sure.

57
00:03:13,740 --> 00:03:13,900
Jamie:
Yeah.

58
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,720
Jaayne:
He's a great storyteller and he uses ums on purpose almost to give you a little pause.

59
00:03:19,860 --> 00:03:23,080
Jaayne:
You know, like those little pauses are part of how he tells a story.

60
00:03:23,260 --> 00:03:25,720
Jamie:
That's a really good point. I'm going to have to listen for that now.

61
00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,480
Jaayne:
Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing how much something that small can change things,

62
00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,240
Jaayne:
right? That's for sure. And that kind of leads into the next tip,

63
00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:33,800
Jaayne:
which is about breaths. Okay.

64
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,940
Jaayne:
Obviously, we don't need to hear every breath, but a few natural ones here and

65
00:03:38,940 --> 00:03:40,740
Jaayne:
there just make it sound more real.

66
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,140
Jaayne:
Less like you're reading a script, you know?

67
00:03:43,140 --> 00:03:46,540
Jamie:
Like that balance. Yeah. Right. Sounding natural, but not like you're out of breath.

68
00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:51,180
Jaayne:
Yeah, exactly. And they even suggested like instead of cutting breaths out completely,

69
00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:54,680
Jaayne:
just lowering the volume of the really loud ones.

70
00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:59,140
Jamie:
That's actually really smart. So, it's still there, it just doesn't like blow out your ears.

71
00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,000
Jaayne:
Right, it's like subtle editing, not trying to make it perfect.

72
00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,820
Jaayne:
Which actually, speaking of, that brings us to the last tip,

73
00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:08,540
Jaayne:
which is about all these AI editing tools. Yeah.

74
00:04:08,700 --> 00:04:12,640
Jamie:
Those are everywhere now. Yeah. So what's the AI editing warning?

75
00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:18,360
Jamie:
I feel like there's got to be one. Lay it on me. What's the catch with AI editing?

76
00:04:18,620 --> 00:04:22,380
Jaayne:
Well, it's not really a catch. More like a heads up, right? Those AI tools,

77
00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,440
Jaayne:
they can be amazing, but they can go a little overboard sometimes.

78
00:04:26,860 --> 00:04:27,420
Jamie:
Overboard how?

79
00:04:27,660 --> 00:04:30,400
Jaayne:
It's like they get a little too excited about cleaning things up.

80
00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,360
Jaayne:
and they might end up chopping out those breaths and pauses that actually make

81
00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:35,600
Jaayne:
the conversation sound natural.

82
00:04:35,860 --> 00:04:38,740
Jamie:
So it's like those grammar checkers, you know? Yeah. You just need a comma.

83
00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:40,180
Jamie:
They want to rewrite the whole sentence.

84
00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:42,880
Jaayne:
Totally. Like AI editing tools are great, but they're tools,

85
00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:46,860
Jaayne:
right? You still need a human to listen and make sure it flows right, you know?

86
00:04:47,460 --> 00:04:49,860
Jamie:
Yeah, make sure it doesn't sound like too processed.

87
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,020
Jaayne:
Right. It's like when you can tell someone's used those AI photo things to smooth

88
00:04:54,020 --> 00:04:55,880
Jaayne:
out every little wrinkle on their face.

89
00:04:56,180 --> 00:04:57,060
Jamie:
It's like too perfect.

90
00:04:57,280 --> 00:04:59,700
Jaayne:
Exactly. And that kind of takes away from it, you know?

91
00:04:59,700 --> 00:05:04,080
Jamie:
It's like we connect more with the real stuff, you know, like those little imperfections

92
00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:05,800
Jamie:
that remind us we're all just human.

93
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,420
Jaayne:
Yeah, absolutely. And that's a big part of why podcasts are so cool.

94
00:05:09,540 --> 00:05:11,740
Jaayne:
It's like you're just part of this conversation, right?

95
00:05:11,900 --> 00:05:14,800
Jaayne:
And that goes away when it's all edited to death. Right.

96
00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:19,440
Jamie:
Like we're programmed to think perfect is better, but sometimes those little

97
00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:21,600
Jamie:
imperfections actually make it more interesting.

98
00:05:21,860 --> 00:05:26,000
Jaayne:
Totally. So, like, next time you're listening to something, try to listen to the editing.

99
00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:26,720
Jamie:
Oh, that's a good point.

100
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:31,300
Jaayne:
Like, notice those little breaths, those pauses, even the ums and ahs.

101
00:05:32,180 --> 00:05:34,940
Jaayne:
Do they make it better or do they distract you?

102
00:05:35,140 --> 00:05:38,140
Jamie:
That's such a great point. It's like anything, the more you pay attention,

103
00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:40,040
Jamie:
the more you start to notice the little things.

104
00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:43,440
Jaayne:
Yeah, exactly. And who knows? You might even catch those over-edited podcasts

105
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:45,700
Jaayne:
and be like, man, this thing needs to chill out a bit.

106
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:50,380
Jamie:
Totally. Well, I think that's a perfect place to wrap up our deep dive into

107
00:05:50,380 --> 00:05:51,600
Jamie:
the world of podcast editing.

108
00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:52,220
Jaayne:
I agree.

109
00:05:53,220 --> 00:05:56,120
Jamie:
So, until next time, folks, remember...

110
00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:10,060
Music:
Music