Podcasting in our Production Room

Podcasting is very easy in our Production Room. This is a guide to using our setup for two people.

The secret to a great podcast experience is being prepared and having a comfortable recording experience.

First, book a training session with us:
https://www.chmafm.com/welcome/getinvolved/

Here’s a quick rundown on the equipment you’ll be using:
This is the audio interface you’ll be using. Here’s a manual if you’d like to dig deep.

Green into Yellow
Gain structure is a very important part of making your podcast sound great and it starts with you, the mic and the gain levels going into Garageband. Proper levels will make the process very easy. As a general rule of thumb: Green into Yellow, never into Red. This is applicable with this interface and with the meters that you’ll see in Garageband.

Gain
Channel 1 is for the boom mic. It will come up as SSL 1 in Garageband. Channel 2 is for the table stand mic. It will appear as SSL 2 in Garageband.

Monitor Level
Please keep this off (0, fully counter-clockiwise) while recording. Only using the headphones while recording.

Phones
Sadly we only have one pair of headphones, so use the headphones and Phones level to check levels before you begin. If you’re podcast is with one or more people, you should remove the headphones after the levels are set and record without them.

Monitor Mix
Keep this at 12:00 (straight up).

4K
NVM, this is a eq gimmicky thing. is adds some high-end eq to the channel.

Stay on the Mic
The mics and stands are purposely made to be able to move to where you need them. Make yourself comfortable and then adjust the mic to your position. Stay directly on the mic, about 1″ away from the grill. Position yourself so that you’re back is straight, you can see your partner and can access any material needed, and then bring the mic directly to you.

Garageband
We use Garageband.

There’s a few steps to making Garageband best for podcasting. Though it’s initially set up for making beats, we’re going to set up a template to podcast for you:

If you’ve set the levels on the SSL interface correctly, then you should also notice that the Track and Master Output levels on Garageband are also moving from green to yellow.

If you’re using two mics, be sure that each Garageband track is set to the correct mic: SSL 1 to Track 1, SSL 2 to Track 2.

Press the big red circle to start recording.

Here’s a helpful guide to further help with podcasting in Garageband: https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/garageband-podcast-tutorial

Using your own laptop
We strongly advise you to use your own laptop if you have one. Feel free to disconnect the USB-C cable from our computer and use it with your machine. Remember to set your audio to “SSL 2” in your system audio and within Garageband. It will probably do so automatically, but double-check, just in case.

Booking
The room you’ll want to book is the Production Room. Reach out to station@chmafm.com for the most recent password to the booking calendar.
Here’s the booking calendar:
https://www.chmafm.com/welcome/studios/

File Transfers
We suggest using Wetransfer for passing the files around and submitting to us.

Podcast Hosting
If you’d like us to host your podcast on our website and/or distribute to Spotify, then we just need a 1080 1080 image (Canva is great!) and a 120 word description of your podcast. We can set you up with our platform to upload subsequent episodes and manage your project as needed.

Visiting our Podcast page to see examples of projects we’ve helped with in the past.