What Style Of Podcast Editing Do You Need?

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When you're getting ready to hire a podcast editor, it's really important to be

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clear on what style of editing you're looking for.

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Not sure what I'm talking about after listening today, you'll have what you need in order to

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understand and communicate what you're looking for.

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And to start to assess whether or not the editors you might be talking with are a potential fit or.

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Welcome to Hiring A Podcast Editor.

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My name is Bryan Entzminger.

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I'm a podcast, editor and manager at TopTierAudio.com.

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This show is intended to help you be able to find the right podcast editor for you.

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Whether you're looking for your first editor.

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Or your next editor in season one, we're going to help you get clarity on what you really want before you

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start connecting with editors and then provide you with the tools to make the right decision for yourself.

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This show is sponsored by TopTierAudio.com.com, where we provide podcast production services for

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multi-passionate coaches, trainers, and consultants.

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Be sure to stick around to the end, and I'll tell you how you can get a free tool to help you organize

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your thoughts and make sure you don't miss anything.

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So what style of podcast editing do you need?

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Talk about a big and maybe even seemingly ambiguous topic.

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Here's the thing, though.

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It's really important that you, when you're looking for an editor are able to be clear.

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On the kind of editing that you're looking for.

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And when I say kind, we're going to talk about that a little bit more, but that's only part of the style piece.

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There's also another bit, which is way more art than science.

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And that's the perspective.

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Editor's overarching philosophy of editing.

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The way that they approach trade off decisions, that kind of thing.

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And both of these are really important topics to talk about.

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Here's the rub though.

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Not only do you need to be able to understand what you're looking for and communicate that, but you also need to be

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able to understand what a prospective editor is telling you and whether or not you think that they can deliver.

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On what they've shared, because , it's one thing to say something.

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Sometimes it's another thing to be able to actually do that.

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That's where this episode comes in now.

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I don't have the Rosetta stone of translation and I don't have a magic eight ball to help you understand whether or not what an

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editor is telling you is actually what they're capable of doing.

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But I can help you start to get your thoughts together.

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And maybe help you think through a few things that you might want to ask an editor as you start talking with them.

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So we're going to start with the art piece and this is the overarching philosophy or style of editing.

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And when I say style in this sense, I'm meaning.

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How they make trade off decisions.

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A great example might be if you're to watch a documentary and you've seen a Ken burns produced documentary before

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it has a very specific style, a very specific approach.

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And.

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Editors have this as well.

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And some of them are able to communicate it.

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Well, some of them are not, but it's important to understand the way they approach editing

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and specifically what you're looking for.

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So I'm not going to ask you right now to spend so much time thinking about what an editor

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might be telling you as what you're looking for.

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So when I think about this, the first question is really around editorial decisions and some of this will play

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into the next section as well, but what liberties.

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Do you want a prospective editor to take?

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Are there any liberties at all?

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For example, do you want an editor?

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That's going to make decisions about the content to help you along.

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Now.

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We we'll get into this again later, but think about what liberties do you want them to take?

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For example, Do you want them to cut entire sentences that sound redundant, or do you only want them to remove

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filler words or do you want them to leave it essentially as is because you really want it to be as recorded?

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All of these are potentially valid for you.

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I have an opinion.

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My opinion doesn't matter right now because I'm not talking about me.

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What's the most important to you because you're going to want to know how your editor is going to take these trade off decisions.

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For example.

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If there's something where there's some background noise or some wind or something like that, do you want

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it to remain natural and as recorded or do you want it to end up clean and easier to understand, or do you

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want it to be somewhere in between if there's something that needs to happen to make it more understandable,

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but that starts to affect the quality of the voice.

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How do you want them to approach that?

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Do you want them to leave as few of their smudges behind to help try and clean up some of the issues?

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Or do you want them to clean it up as best they can?

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And it's okay if it leaves a little bit of a residue behind, because in the end it's still more understandable

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by the same token, there are generally accepted publishing.

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Standards for loudness.

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Do you want your podcast to be that louder?

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Do you want it to have a little bit more dynamic range?

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The trade off here is between whether or not somebody can hear it when they're driving in the car or whether

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or not it sounds like they're just sitting in an easy chair, listening to a couple of friends, converse.

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These are stylistic questions that you need to think about.

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Now.

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Your editor will have an opinion and.

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After you talk to the editor that you might be hiring, you may change your mind, but that's okay.

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But you need to go into this, having some thoughts around how you want them to do that kind of thing.

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And then as they think about these judgment calls, how do you want them to approach them?

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Do you want, 'em have them make the call and just continue processing.

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Do you want 'em to check with you or do you want them to make the call and say, this is what I did.

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Let me know if you want me to change it.

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And my approach is generally within the bounds of how I've agreed with my clients I'll make the change.

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And if it's something that I think they might have an opinion on, that's different than mine, I'll just let 'em know.

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But that's something that you wanted to think about in terms of the art piece and then how they interact with you.

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And I'd really appreciate it.

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Captivate is what I recommend for the serious independent creator.

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So we talked about the art bit.

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Now let's talk a little bit more about editing style as it comes to not so much their philosophical

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approach, but the kind of editing they offer.

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And I'm going to break this into a couple of different categories.

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I know that I've broken content into different categories.

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And so this will kind of align with the idea of a narrative show versus a talk show.

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When I think of a talk show, generally, this is going to be something where we're talking about, how cleaned

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up do we want the audio to be generally, you're not going to be having people moving huge sections

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of audio around and rearranging the conversation.

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This is really just, do you want something where all they do?

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And all you want them to do is add the beginning of the show and the end of the show, and

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maybe any ads or breaks be clear about that.

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That's what I'm looking for, because if somebody offers more than that, that might not be the person for you.

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And that's fine.

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Next on the scale, I'd think in terms of, do they want what I would call a detailed technical edit?

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So this is where they would actually go through and probably listen to every minute of the audio.

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And likely start removing filler words and things like that.

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Or do you want to take it even a step further?

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Which would, is what I would call an edit for clarity where they're not only doing

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that, but they're also listening and going.

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Are there distractions that are actually part of the dialogue?

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Right?

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So is it something that somebody said that is actually distracting from.

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Where this story is headed.

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And if I cut that, does it change the meaning or does it just make it more clear and that I would call an edit for clarity.

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So is that something that you want or, or not along the same lines as we think about the audio

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production, are you looking for somebody who can do.

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Audio repair.

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Do you want somebody who can help remove room reverb, right?

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The echo from the room when you're recording, or do you want somebody who can maybe remove

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or reduce wind noise or the popping P sounds?

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I think I made one just a little bit ago, but you probably won't hear it because I try to take those out as best I can.

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Are you looking for somebody who can do that at a really high level?

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Are you looking for somebody that can do that?

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Basic level, or do you want somebody who does not do any of that?

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And that's perfectly valid, right?

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You might want it to be, as it was recorded.

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It's your show along the same lines and this kind of plays into that whole loud thing.

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How do you want them to approach the mix and master?

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Do you want them to be very technical and very precise, making sure that all the voices

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are balanced against each other, that it's.

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As loud as apple or Spotify or whomever wants it to be, or do you want somebody who's going to be a little bit more free

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form with it again, it's okay for you to have an opinion.

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My opinion is I always want somebody who's driving down the road at 60 miles an hour to be able to hear my show.

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And so I want a very consistent, very loud with.

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Type process and I want clean audio and that's how I approach my show.

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That's how I approach my client's show.

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That's what they want.

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So think about those things.

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Now, as we start thinking about going from cleaned up to what I would call polished or crafted shows, there

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is a little bit of a bridge and this is what I call.

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Edit down to create.

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So you might take, or your editor might take an hour long interview.

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And the end result is you want a 15 minute show out of that and you want them to make all of the

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editorial decisions, but nothing gets rearranged.

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All they're doing is choosing the parts that they want to include.

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If that's what you want, you need to be clear about that.

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And part of the reason I bring this up is because a lot of times, In Facebook groups or wherever online, I will see

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somebody ask, how much does it cost to edit an episode?

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Well, the reality is it's going to cost a significantly different amount of money for somebody who is doing what

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I would call that detailed technical edit, where they're going to go through and they're going to clean stuff up.

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They're going to remove the ums, all that stuff versus somebody who's going to take an hour of content

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and figure out how to get it down to 15 minutes.

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That is a different mindset.

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It's a different workflow and transparently.

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It's a significantly different investment in time for that editor to do that for you.

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So that's going to, in fact, not only what you're asking for and whether or not they're even qualified to do that.

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And also how much it's going to cost you as we continue down that spectrum more toward crafted shows or Polish shows.

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These are the things where we're talking about storytelling or narrative or documentary or reporting.

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Right.

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And I view this as kind of a couple of different approaches.

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One would be what I call crafting from notes.

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So maybe you have an interview, maybe you've got, uh, performance, something like that, where you're

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able to provide production notes and say, I want this to happen here and this to happen here and this

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to happen here, and you can provide that to them.

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And then their job within the scope of the instructions is to do what you've said that I would

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call crafting from notes, as opposed to what I would call creating from a plan or creating from a script.

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A great example would be like an old radio drama being made.

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A podcast where there is a script and there are voice actors or actors of some kind who read the script.

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And now it's the job of that editor to put all those pieces together.

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And it may or may not include sound design.

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It may or may not include a lot of different things, but you need to be clear on that because when we start

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talking about crafting from notes or crafting from a plan or a script, it starts becoming something.

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They might have to go back and forth with you multiple times in order to deliver exactly what you're looking

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for in terms of the performance, in terms of which takes are selected to be included, that kind of thing.

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Now, the reason I bring this all up is because while it might seem that the only editors out there are the

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ones that add the top and the tail, and maybe the ads in the middle, the reality is there are editors who.

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Every bit of this and probably some things that I haven't talked about as an example, I typically do something in the

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area between detailed technical edit and the detailed edit for clarity, where I do make some editorial decisions in terms of

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whether or not maybe part of a sentence needs to be coming out.

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But I don't necessarily remove entire questions.

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My friend, Carrie, over at Yaya podcasting actually offer.

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This kind of creating from a script thing where she actually works on some pretty high name, audio dramas, and she will

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take the script and all of the voiceover that's been provided.

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And even in some instances provide some sound design.

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And so it's important that you're clear on that because that will shape.

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Not only what you're looking for and how you communicate it, but also maybe where you look, if you're looking

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for an editor that offers that kind of high level, really story crafting type thing, maybe asking 300

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friends in a Facebook group, isn't the place to do that.

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So you need to be clear on these things now being clear on these kinds of things, even if it's just a 32nd exercise on your part

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to just write it down, we'll help you in the long run to make sure that you're looking for and looking in the right places.

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And then also being able to discern whether or not the person you're talking to might be the right fit for you.

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So I do hope this was helpful for you.

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If you have any questions or anything, please feel free to reach out to me.

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My email is Bryan TopTierAudio.com.com.

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I would love to hear from you next time.

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We're going to be talking about some other elements.

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We're getting really close to the end of the things to think through.

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Before you talk to an editor, we've got a couple more things after this, but we're going to think about

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some other elements that you might want to consider in terms of services that your editor might provide.

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And then we're going to start heading down the path of starting to.

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Trim down this list.

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We're going to start editing down this large brainstorming list that we've been working on for

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the past few episodes into something that's useful.

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So you'll want to make sure you do that.

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If you want to follow the show, you can find it at hire a podcast, editor.com/listen.

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That'll give you the, the major apps to select from, or just search in your favorite podcast app.

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Thanks so much for being here.

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If you'd like to be able to get the clarity you need in order to avoid making a hiring mistake, be sure to download our

Bryan Entzminger: 00:14:22

guide 15 questions to ask before hiring a podcast editor, you can find it at HireAPodcastEditor.com/15questions,

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and it'll be linked up in the show notes.

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It's totally free.

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We don't require an email address or anything like that.

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We just want to make sure that you have the tools that you need to make the right decision for you.

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That guide has the questions we'll talk about on this show.

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Some instructions and suggestions.

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Even a place to take notes.

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If you want to get even more out of a dough, be sure to subscribe to this show at HireAPodcastEditor.com/listen

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and share it with the rest of your team.

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Your work is important.

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Now.

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Go out there and make a great podcast.

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Not sure what I'm uh, stinks when you're getting ready to hire a podcast editor.

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It's really important after listening today, you'll have what you need in order to have your screen disappear while you're talking.