Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast, answering
any podcasting questions along the way. That's right. Today, we are talking about a topic
that is fun. It's something that I think people forget about a lot. And so, we're going to
be talking about tech checks.
What does it mean to have a tech check and why you should have one and all of that good,
good stuff. So welcome back, guys. If you've never joined me again, I just try to answer
podcasting questions and help people grow and start their podcast.
And so this day is no different. And it's been a while, guys, since I've done this.
I've been... Summers are really, really busy. And so one of the things that I do preach
is to try and stay on a schedule with your podcast, which means you should be out there
and you should be doing the thing.
We can week out, we can week out. So that way people know when to expect your shows.
People build you into their lives. And I've not done a great job at that. I have really
not done a great job at that. I have. Yeah, the last couple of weeks have just been interesting
for me. I've been out and about and not being able to get into the studio.
But if you... The last episode we did was on... It was with Laura from Sure, talking
about different mics that you can use for your podcast. And so that's a great episode.
If you've not had a chance to check that out, go ahead and check it out. Today, though,
we were talking about... We're talking about all things tech check. So essentially, what
is a tech check?
Right? Well, and I do want to say this before we actually start. So I've been doing something
called Summer of Live, and I've been doing it on the podcast answers YouTube channel,
as well as my own personal YouTube channel. And essentially, I'm just going live. I'm
trying to go a lot live a lot. It's not every day of the summer, but it is trying to be
as much as I can.
And I did actually cover this topic yesterday on that show, but I wanted to get it out to
you because I know not everybody who listen to this podcast also checks out the YouTube
channel, which if you've not go ahead and go over to our YouTube channel because we
do have a YouTube channel and that's at podcastanswers.com/youtube. And you can see that and you can go ahead
and see our YouTube channel there.
And all of the things that we produce at the YouTube channel is over at podcastanswers.com/youtube.
But the Summer of Live is essentially just me going live with different topics and different
subjects of live streaming. And so I talked about this a little bit yesterday on the show,
but I want to talk about it here on this podcast because again, I know that not everybody that
listens to this podcast is on our YouTube channel.
So the thing what so what is a tech check? First off, what is the tech tech check check?
Just like it sounds it's a time that you check your technology. And this really is two different
topics, really. Because if you're a solopreneur, a solo podcaster, like I am, for the most
of the time, it's going to mean one thing.
But if you have guests on or a remote host, it's going to mean something different. And
so I'm going to talk about both of those things today and, and the differences between them
and what you can expect with a tech check. So realistically, what a check check is, is
it is just that you're checking your technology. And if you're a solo podcaster, what that
means is having a rundown, a pre show rundown.
And really, this applies to both things, you'd probably want to do this, even if you were
had a guest, you'd want to do your own tech check, as well as your guest tech check. And
so if you've ever flown with a pilot, and I'm not talking about commercially, you know,
like, United or American or whatever, I mean, they do this too. But you don't get to see
it. If you've ever flown with a pilot, you've ever had a friend that's a pilot, and you've
flown with them, they have a rundown check sheet, they pre flight check sheet that they
run down, they check their engines, they check their whatever, I don't know, I'm not a pilot,
but I know that they've they I've seen it, I have friends who are pilots, and they have
a check sheet that they run down. And they basically say, Okay, this is good, this is
good, this is good, this is good. Now we can fly. Now that we've done all of the checks,
and all of the things, we know that we're going to be good. And we know that we're going
to be able to not crash, because we've done all of these pre flight check things. Now
we can go. And so those are the same things that you're going to do here. So for me, and
this may look differently, depending on what kind of hardware you have. But the first thing
that I would say is, make sure your mic is not muted. Right? I mean, when you go to start
your recording, make sure that you're actually recording, not just talking to yourself, because
there's nothing worse. Okay, there's a few things worse, but nothing worse than finishing
your recording, and realizing that your mic was actually muted. Or you go to hit the stop
buttons for the stop recording. And it turns red. And to indicate, hey, I'm now recording,
because you didn't actually hit the record button. So you've talked for 10 1520 minutes
an hour, whatever it is, and you don't actually have the recording. Because you failed to
unmute yourself, or you failed to press the record button. So that's something you want
to check. Now, again, if you're, you check your levels. So if you're if you want your
soundboard, make sure that your levels are all hidden in the right spot. Before you go
live or hit the record button. You're going to want to make sure that when you're looking
at your meters, you're hitting the right spot. Those are all the same, that your music is
good, that all of your stuff is good. If you're live streaming it, make sure that you're going
to be live streaming, make sure everything is scheduled. I'm live streaming and video
and audio at the same time on this show. So on this show, I have audio and video both
streaming. And if you're in a new podcast app, you can listen to the show in one of
the new podcast apps as I'm recording, which is a lot of fun because I'm coming straight
to use to your podcast app. Or if you want to watch me on YouTube, I want YouTube, but
make sure all of those things are set up ready to go. Make sure that you're if you're doing
video to your scenes are good, your camera's good, your cone of cleanliness is good. So
those of you who do video, you may have a really messy room. But the cone of cleanliness
is that area that your camera sees, make sure that the area that your camera sees is clean,
make sure that it is not going to look messy. And so those are the type of things that you're
going to tech check, right, you're going to go ahead and you're going to say, Okay, I'm,
I'm got all these things good to go. And I'm ready to go. Now, what you what you can do,
and what I would definitely recommend doing is, if you're using, like I said, you can
use anything really, you can use a note, like in, you can use a note on Evernote, or the
notes app on your phone or your computer or whatever you want to do, you can use those
things as you go live. Or you can use that as a as a check to make sure that you're actually
checking those things right and you're getting all of it and you're ready to go. You can
you can use a note like that. But you can also if you're live streaming use something
what I call a mechanicals or, or something along the lines of that. So a scene essentially
in your in your profile for your streaming software. And again, I use E cam. But I have
something called infos. I have profile infos. And then I also have a checklist. So I have
this checklist that says, Okay, here's what I want to I want to hide my menu bar, I want
to set to the streaming profile, I want to turn my pro mouse on, I want to do mic check
input, I have a few things that I can go through and make sure that I actually have that ready
to go that I'm that I'm ready to go. So if you're watching on YouTube right now, this
is is part of my list, I'm still working on coming up with a better list for everything.
This is mostly just for streaming, but I'm coming up with a list to everything. But I
keep that as a just as an extra scene in my live streaming software. And so that way I
have it ready to go. And I'm ready to, I'm ready to actually do the thing I'm ready to
actually stream. So now the next thing is okay, so you've checked yourself, which is
great. Now you want to check your guests too, because you if you have guests coming on,
whether that be through zoom or through E cam interview mode, or through stream yard
or through Riverside, or any number of things that you can live stream on, you're going
to want to check check your guests too. And so tech checking your guests means coming
in before the time. So if you're going to go live, and this is really important for
those things, if you're going to go live, right, so those of us who live stream your
audio or video or both, it's important to make sure that we're that we're, if we go
live when we say we're gonna go live, but we want to have our guests there beforehand.
So if you go live at 830, you want to make sure that your guests are going to come on
at 815 and tell them this, tell them that you're not going, you're not going live right
away that you're going to do a check. So we're going to show it for tech check. And this
can be right before the show, or it can be a day before or whatever I recommend before
the show right before the show, because something may have changed. They may be in a different
spot, the lighting may have changed, the mic may come unplugged, you want to, I suggest
doing it right away, like right before the show. And so tell them, hey, come on 15 minutes
beforehand or whatever you decide is the appropriate amount of time for you. But for me, I say
15 minutes. And then what I do is I say, okay, we're gonna check and make sure that your
audio sounds good. We're gonna make sure that you are coming in loud that we're matching
levels that are levels are close to the same on the mixer board. So if you have a mixer
board that has a couple different channels on it, you want to see that you're actually
hitting about the same spot on those mixer boards so that the sound levels are close
to the same when you're done. And then you want to also make sure that they're, that
they fit into your scene. Well, if you're doing video, so make sure that they're centered,
you know, because if you, if they're coming in centered in their camera or off to the
side on their camera, but then you crop their camera down, they're not going to be in the
frame. So there are some things that you can do, you can ask them to adjust or whatever,
but you want to make sure that their levels sound good, that they're not using a wireless
headphones there, that they're gonna be good to go. So anything that you need to make sure
is good to go for your guests, you want to make sure it's good to go for your guests,
right? And so that would be, yeah, making sure that they, they sound good, that they
look good, that everything is good. But then also making sure that they know what, how
the format of your show is going to be. If you're going to talk for 10 or 15 minutes
before you bring them on, let them know that, let them know that they are going to be waiting
10 or 15 minutes, five minutes or whatever. Or if you're going to get right to the interview,
then you get right to the interview. That's, that's more of a flow thing as opposed to
a tech check, but you're going to want to do a tech tech, tech check every time tech
check your equipment, check their equipment every time. And so what that really means
is yeah, making sure that you're good to go, right? I mean, you want to make sure that
you guys are sound the best, your guests sounds the best and knows what to expect. And then
if there's not, you have that time built in there that you can make adjustments. So if
their levels aren't good, you can recommend that they do something else. You can recommend
that they get a different mic or if it's noisy in the environment that they're at, you can
say, Hey, maybe can you like go away from this coffee shop that you're sitting in? Or
can you go away from the area that you are? Can you do this? Can you take the dog out
so that they don't interrupt us or whatever? You're the host. You can tell them how you
want them to sound, right? This is your show. This is your podcast. This is your YouTube
stream. Make sure that they sound good and look the best because really that comes back
on you. That comes back on you to have a great looking show and a great sounding show. So
make sure that they know that and can do that. And then again, I realized that everybody
has different technology. Now they may not have a professional video camera. Heck, in
fact, I don't right now. It's one of the things that I would like to get eventually, but I
don't, I don't have it. But they may not have a professional camera and it may not look
great. So you may want to give them suggestions on how to make their their show look better.
So those are the things that you can do for tech checks. And I recommend you do this every
single episode before you go live because they are gonna they may not be right. They
may not come in good and you want to sound the best for your show. So guys, I can help
you become a better podcaster. I can help you start your podcast. I can help you learn
Ecamm. Ecamm is a software that I use to stream. And right now they're actually having a sale.
And if you want to check it out, you can go to podcastanswers.com/ecamm. That's E-C-A-M-M.
Through the end of July, you get 30% off if you are a first time customer. And so again,
podcastanswers.com/ecamm. That link is also in the show notes to this episode. But you
can get 30% off of an annual or monthly subscription to that. And it is really the best streaming
software. But if you want help learning Ecamm, or learning how to podcast or making your
podcast sound better, you can also hire me to do one on one consulting. And you can find
that over at podcastanswers.com/contact. And that'll get you in contact with me and we
can set up a time to do a one on one zoom call so that I can help get your podcast set
up.
Great, because I love helping people do their podcasts. So guys, if you have any questions,
feel free to hit me up. I love to help people get their podcasts going. And again, this
is why I do this show. Because I've been podcasting since 2007. And I love it. And I think everyone
should be doing a podcast. And so if you want to get your podcast started, contact me again.
You can contact me at podcastanswers.com/contact. And that'll get you in contact with me and
we can set up a one on one consulting.
So guys, I just really encourage you to go out there and see what you can do this week
to make your podcast better. And then doing a tech check will help that. And so go ahead
and do your tech check. Have a great week. Keep podcasting.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
(upbeat music)