SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Hello folks. Welcome to Creator News Live. I’m Jeff c and you’re not.

[00:00:04] Conor Brown: And I’m Connor Brown, and this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the creator economy and more.

[00:00:10] Jeff Sieh: You ever figured out what kind of gear you really need to sound professional? Maybe you’ve wondered how creators make their audio so clear, consistent, and effortless. Or maybe you’ve been thinking about, starting your own podcast but aren’t really sure where to begin. If any of that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.

[00:00:25] Jeff Sieh: ’cause this week we’re joined by someone who knows Audio Inside and out. Laura Davison has built her career at the intersection of music, tech and content, working with creators, consulting with brands and hosting, not one, but we’re, we’re gonna talk about it, two podcasts today. She’s pulling back the curtain on what actually matters when it comes to great sounds.

[00:00:44] Jeff Sieh: So sit back, clear schedule, clear mind to get ready for this week’s episode of Creator News Live. Laura, how are you doing today?

[00:00:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: Doing wonderful. Thank you. Wonderfully, whatever

[00:00:56] Jeff Sieh: It’s, it’s good. It’s Friday. We don’t, we’re, we’re pretty, you know, easy [00:01:00] here. But I wanna do a shout out to our friends over at Ecamm who helped sponsor the show. You find out more about them at Ecamm dot com slash jeff. Such a great community, not just a great piece of software that lets us do this but they are awesome.

[00:01:13] Jeff Sieh: A bunch of ’em are in the comments. I miss Jill’s there. She’s doing some fabulous things in the community. So if you haven’t checked them out over on, uh, Facebook in their community, make sure you do that. But go to Ecamm dot com slash Jeff if you’ve never tried it and, uh, let me know what you think. But let’s get started because we’re gonna be talking about audio myths.

[00:01:30] Jeff Sieh: But I wanna know you guys in the comments, like, what’s the biggest audio challenge you’ve faced in your content? Like, if it’s for your live Restream, if your podcasts video calls, you name it. Let us know. Drop it in the comments. What are you struggling with audio-wise? Amy already said like, she needs to know what to buy for like Friday.

[00:01:48] Jeff Sieh: what, what are you guys looking for? What are you trying to do? Level up your, your mic. Just let us know and we will try to help out. But we’re gonna be talking about how to make creators sound better. But before we get on that, I’m gonna do like [00:02:00] we always do, we’re gonna play a little, opener that we’ve created for Laura.

[00:02:04] Jeff Sieh: So here we, you go.

[00:02:06] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yes.

[00:02:09] Jeff Sieh: always nervous having somebody who is like a professional singer and you know, and I throw AI music at ’em and I’m like, okay, what’s gonna happen? So anyway,

[00:02:18] Laura Clapp Davidson: That was good.

[00:02:19] Jeff Sieh: I just wanna say I am not gonna pay to sit down and listen to an AI concert, but I would sit and pay to listen to Laura Davidson ’cause I got a hear at

[00:02:27] Laura Clapp Davidson: Oh, thanks Jeff. That Yeah,

[00:02:30] Conor Brown: it And it’s so awesome. I’m just so impressed that that was your voice again, Jeff singing that song. It’s unbelievable. It’s so

[00:02:38] Laura Clapp Davidson: really versatile. He’s

[00:02:39] Conor Brown: no idea you could get that high note. yes, we are so excited to have Laura back. We’re gonna talk all things, audio, But if you don’t know who Laura Davidson is, you should.

[00:02:49] Conor Brown: She’s a versatile musician, singer, songwriter, and technology specialist known for her contributions to the music and audio industries. Her work with top audio [00:03:00] companies like Shure Boss and TC Helicon showcase her skills in demonstrating and promoting high quality audio equipment. She helps to bridge the gap between creators and technology.

[00:03:14] Conor Brown: Laura’s passion for music and gear is evident whether she’s performing her original songs or providing expert audio advice at industry events. Welcome back to the show,

[00:03:25] Conor Brown: Laura.

[00:03:25] Laura Clapp Davidson: Thank you so much. Thank you.

[00:03:27] Jeff Sieh: I do wanna say, ’cause there’s been some, uh, like Paul brought up in the comments, he said, uh. Laura Rocked karaoke at Creator Camp. Lou was making a joke that he says like, you’re like Clark Kent and Superman. Like you took off your glasses and you basically turned into Michelle Pfeiffer on the fabulous Baker Boys on top of the piano.

[00:03:45] Jeff Sieh: Like it was, it was amazing. Like, if you haven’t heard Laura sing, I was so impressed. It was awesome.

[00:03:50] Laura Clapp Davidson: Oh, thank you.

[00:03:52] Jeff Sieh: you missed out. Yeah, it was

[00:03:53] Jeff Sieh: awesome. But let’s jump into helping creators sound better. And I wanna talk about like, what do [00:04:00] you do, like, what is your work as an audio consultant and like market developer, what does that involve when you’re helping these creators you know, create and improve their sound?

[00:04:08] Jeff Sieh: So like, how do you, you know, assist people in crafting a better audio strategy for their project?

[00:04:14] Laura Clapp Davidson: Well,

[00:04:14] Laura Clapp Davidson: it usually starts with a question of where are you at in your journey right now? What are you using? What have you been using, and what are the challenges that you’re facing? Because a lot of times I think we just kind of jump in or we’re the opposite, we’re like paralyzed and we can’t make a move without having the tech knowledge.

[00:04:33] Laura Clapp Davidson: So I often start by asking a lot of questions and then that helps guide the conversation of which product might be the best fit or which, you know, kind of scenario. Like right now I’m using something called the MV7 Plus, which is my be all, end all, because I’ve got it plugged in USBC into my MacBook and I have headphones plugged in directly to the back.

[00:04:55] Laura Clapp Davidson: So that’s it. I take it on the road. It’s portable, it’s easy, it [00:05:00] cuts out background noise and my less than perfect space. If you want something that’s even more portable, you know, then we start a different conversation. So I guess it’s kind of, it kind of starts by asking questions, but I’m out in the field all the time meeting people like you and, and getting to hear your stories and, you know, help, help spread some audio knowledge.

[00:05:19] Jeff Sieh: Cool.

[00:05:19] Conor Brown: We love that and we understand the importance of, of good audio, right? But we’re always looking to level up our game, of course. And Kira asks a great question, so many great questions already. Keep ’em coming, everyone she wants to know. about any tips can we give our guests who’re interviewing on our shows, our podcasts, what have you, who might not have a microphone at.

[00:05:42] Conor Brown: So Laura, before we even dive into, you know, how are we gonna set up our microphones, what tips can we give guests who might not be as savvy, who might not have the equipment that we have, they’re still gonna give us really great content. How do we make them sound better?

[00:05:56] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah, that’s a really good question. And I’d say the [00:06:00] first piece of advice is find some headphones. You know, whether they’re earphones, I’m using earphones right now, or earbuds or whatever, so that you can make sure that they’re not gonna be monitoring your audio and themselves through their speakers on the computer, because that’s gonna cause echo.

[00:06:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: That’s gonna cause delay. So making sure they can hear themselves as their recording is gonna be important, even if they’re just using the onboard mic of their, you know, their computer camera or on their actual computer. Those have come a long way. So it’s, it’s getting in the quietest space they can get in and making sure that they’re not trying to listen back to you as you’re interviewing them through the speakers on

[00:06:40] Laura Clapp Davidson: their computer.

[00:06:41] Jeff Sieh: So I see a lot of people who don’t, so I’m using these. Conor, are you using headphones? I can’t but I guess your mic’s off. See, we’re at an audio show and we, we we’re muted.

[00:06:51] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yep. We’re pros. We’re total pros.

[00:06:54] Jeff Sieh: I see a lot of people, that’s one of the things and they say, I don’t need ’em ’cause it doesn’t work.

[00:06:57] Jeff Sieh: But you never know because it seems like it’s, it [00:07:00] doesn’t depend it, like if you’re doing a guest show, it depends on who comes in, what they’re doing. It’s just kind of random. So I always like, use these and, and get ones that plug in. Don’t use your AirPods because I have been in situations where it’s just gone.

[00:07:15] Jeff Sieh: Like, it’s just like, it

[00:07:15] Jeff Sieh: just

[00:07:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah. And there is no way to monitor with Bluetooth without a little bit of latency or delay. So you’re gonna hear yourself in your head and hear back and it’ll have that slight little slap back and it’s really distracting and you’re not gonna be able to focus on the sound. And so, yes, that’s a great point.

[00:07:33] Laura Clapp Davidson: You definitely wanna make sure you have wired headphones or earphones, or

[00:07:37] Laura Clapp Davidson: earbuds.

[00:07:38] Jeff Sieh: And just because I know there’s some newbies in here. You, you know, you say, okay, I have these, but they’re, they have really short little, like, it only goes to your phone. You can get extenders. In fact, what I have is

[00:07:47] Jeff Sieh: a, a thing, a cheap little cable from Amazon that I can just plug in and I have a lot of room to roll over it with my chair, so

[00:07:54] Laura Clapp Davidson: know I do have, I have quite a bit of, you know, I feel like it’s going, you know, [00:08:00] up my back and around. ’cause I can’t do headphones with these curls. It’s just, you don’t wanna crush these bad boys. So, um, yeah,

[00:08:07] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah. Same. same, you

[00:08:10] Laura Clapp Davidson: know.

[00:08:10] Jeff Sieh: yeah. So we’ve got some great, uh, another great question, and this is a, since we’re kind of doing guest questions right now, in the chat, Zach Brown says, this is pretty basic, but we’re here for the basic questions too. But I always need help with room noise. Like, what can you do?

[00:08:25] Jeff Sieh: let’s say you have an air conditioner. I’m not talking from experience, but,air conditioner, you have to blast when it’s hot outside or you’re just, you’re just getting started and you just have a little, spot in your bedroom. Like, what can you do to help your room sound good? And get the best audio from your mic.

[00:08:41] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah,

[00:08:41] Laura Clapp Davidson: the most basic fix you can do is get as close to the microphone as you possibly can. If you’re listening with headphones right now, you’re gonna hear that you can’t hear the echoes that you can. When I scooch off just a couple inches, you can hear the reflections in my room. But yeah, microphones, they tend to pick up what’s [00:09:00] exactly in front of them.

[00:09:00] Laura Clapp Davidson: So if you have a really bouncy active room, you really wanna use a dynamic mic, which I’m sure we’ll get into when we get into the nitty gritties. that will help reject the sounds just naturally and how the mic is built. But then, yeah, get as close as you can and, if nothing else, I mean, if you’re in someplace hot, you have to have your AC going.

[00:09:22] Laura Clapp Davidson: If you’re Streaming, that’s gonna be a particular challenge ’cause you can’t edit it in post. If you are able to edit and post, there are some denoisers that you can run. The isotope one is fantastic. It’s a little pricey. I’ve used Hush before, which takes forever to process, but it’s still a really good one. I mean, I feel like every app I’ve used recently has some form of denoising in it.

[00:09:43] Laura Clapp Davidson: and that will take away some of those reflections and not what’s called gait your voice too heavily. so that’s, yeah, that’s it. Get close. Get close

[00:09:50] Laura Clapp Davidson: to your microphone.

[00:09:51] Jeff Sieh: So on that note, I know, has a studio sound, which is okay. It depends on the room and the voice and the [00:10:00] person. And then Adobe has their podcast one you can run through. And then I even use Auphonic sometimes. So it just, it depending, it depends on the room. It depends on if you’re taking a guest in, like what their situation is, what their voice is.

[00:10:13] Jeff Sieh: So, you know, for me, I, it depends on the, the person, what tool I use. If they’re being a tool. Yeah,

[00:10:20] Conor Brown: If being a tool, that’s a great, great.

[00:10:22] Laura Clapp Davidson: I can’t really alleviate that, but Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:26] Conor Brown: a lot of it has to deal with, like those tools are great to use after, but it’s just a bandaid, right? It’s not a fix. So the more you can get set up in place to start and have your audio sound good at the get, that’s where you’re gonna have the best at the very end. And then you can still run it through those, those tools and things to help it out,in the end.

[00:10:46] Conor Brown: Laura, you’ve worked with so many creators to level up their audio and, and help them. we’ve kind of talked a little bit about an audio setup and, and strategy and, and why that’s super, super important. But do you have any examples you [00:11:00] can share of, you know, when you helped a creator or a company just really level up their audio strategy and, and if not, what are some kind of basic things that you always tell people that they’re facing these challenges, how they can get better audio

[00:11:14] Conor Brown: with everything.

[00:11:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah, I’m trying to think of a specific example. It’s just, it’s more broad than that. I think it’s, anytime you help people learn why a microphone alleviates things or why doing something alleviates this problem, that’s when you have those light bulb moments. And I think audio and technology can be really daunting to people.

[00:11:35] Laura Clapp Davidson: But now we’re in this really cool time where if you have a question and you’re embarrassed to ask it, you can go to the YouTubes, you know, you can go to the internet and really search and find things. But in terms of what I’ve done, I, I try to make it approachable. You know, how does this gonna relate to you?

[00:11:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: Tell me about, about your challenges. Tell me about your show. Tell me about your band, whatever it is, and really [00:12:00] listen. And then tailor it to that because there isn’t really like a, a turnkey solution for all. Especially when you start looking at, microphones for performers. That’s when it gets like a really personal choice.

[00:12:11] Laura Clapp Davidson: Whereas podcasting, we’ve, we’ve dialed it in pretty well. You know, Conor, you’re using the SM7B, Jeff, I can’t. You’re using one as well. It looks like, um, the DB perfect. And so, you know, that’s gonna sound great on pretty much all the voices, but when you start working with vocalists, that’s when it gets really fun and you can really dive into trying them out.

[00:12:33] Laura Clapp Davidson: Just like a guitarist would pick up several different guitars and play them vocalists need to do the same thing. So that was kind of a long-winded answer to that, sorry.

[00:12:41] Jeff Sieh: No, that’s great. So I, I’m just curious, like, so, ’cause I mean, I went to your website and looked at all the things, Laura, and you’ve got some gigs, gigs coming up, uh, singing. You had some around Christmas I saw. But do you, do you take your own mic? Like when you’re a performer, you like, okay, this is my mic.

[00:12:56] Jeff Sieh: You guys use this and you, I, I [00:13:00] don’t know, like, is that what performers do? I know speakers have, you know, they’ll bring their, your countrymen or whatever or their Shure Mic around with them.

[00:13:07] Laura Clapp Davidson: I

[00:13:07] Laura Clapp Davidson: wish, I wish that more of us did, but a lot of us don’t. and so yes, I bring my microphone. I use something called a nexadine, which sounds like a drug that you shouldn’t take if you’re allergic to nide, but it’s the great microphone. and I use the SuperCard version, which just means that’s how the microphone physically picks up the sounds coming in.

[00:13:29] Laura Clapp Davidson: SuperCard is a tighter polar pattern. So if you have really good mic technique or if you know that you have a lot of potential bleed from instruments coming in around you, it can be a lot better for that. So yeah, I bring that, especially post COVID. ’cause it was like, you don’t wanna go into a and just use a mic.

[00:13:45] Laura Clapp Davidson: There’s a lot of things happening

[00:13:47] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. I know Billy Joel says the microphone smells like a beer, but if you smell your microphone, it smells off. You’re like, that’s not good.

[00:13:53] Laura Clapp Davidson: It’s so gross. It’s such a turnoff now. Like I’m just like, why didn’t I do this my whole life? So when we go in [00:14:00] and we interview or we interview, we give workshops to college students, we really lean into that message. You know, bring your own mic, be responsible for your own sound. And I also tell them, you know, you don’t have to spend a thousand dollars on a mic.

[00:14:14] Laura Clapp Davidson: You could sound great through an SM57. Do I? No, I just found out Cyndi Lauper insists on singing through an SM57. We traditionally say that’s for men for their vocals. It’s actually really for instruments. But yeah, so anyway, you gotta try the mics and then it’ll make all the

[00:14:31] Laura Clapp Davidson: difference in the world.

[00:14:32] Jeff Sieh: So Chris from Casta Ahead says,disclaimer, using the Shure Nexion will cause you to sound better and want more of them. It’s, yeah.

[00:14:42] Laura Clapp Davidson: true.

[00:14:43] Jeff Sieh: Nex n Toine does sound like a, something like the, the, the corporation that started Skynet. It just does

[00:14:49] Laura Clapp Davidson: I know, I know it’s a, it’s an interesting name, which I’ve come to love. But yeah, it was kind of like, that’s an interesting choice. and the technology that’s in it also sounds [00:15:00] interesting. It’s called it’s so cool. So just to geek out for a minute, sorry. Everybody stay with So microphones have traditionally one diaphragm.

[00:15:11] Laura Clapp Davidson: The diaphragm is what vibrates and responds to the sounds going into it. And it’s usually, on a cardio or on a dynamic microphone. It’s attached to a magnetic coil. It surrounds a magnet. It moves, it generates signal. That’s how you get sound. condensers are a little bit different. It’s thinner. There is no magnet.

[00:15:28] Laura Clapp Davidson: There’s a electrically charged back plate, which is why you need phantom power for a condenser mic. It’s more sensitive. But then Revonik is two motors, two transducers. It’s a dynamic microphone, so it has the magnet and everything that are perfectly matched. And when you have that perfectly matched two motors, it cancels out all the stuff you don’t wanna hear and enhances all the things you do.

[00:15:53] Laura Clapp Davidson: So it’s really, it helps knock down handling noise on the microphone. Now, this is more for live application, and it focuses [00:16:00] on the sweet spot, the frequencies that you would normally as a live sound engineer have to notch out or boost. It’s just, it’s magical, but we’ve been around for a hundred years, so that’s why we kind of have some skills in that regard.

[00:16:12] Laura Clapp Davidson: Ask

[00:16:12] Laura Clapp Davidson: your

[00:16:13] Laura Clapp Davidson: doctor if next time right for Sorry.

[00:16:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: That was great.

[00:16:16] Jeff Sieh: that’s a great tagline. that’s, that’s, uh, rich. Yeah. Uh, so, one of the questions I have is, have you always been an audio nerd or like, I, I’m figured you’d been singing since you were a kid, but then did you, like, when did you start like, getting into like. Super nerdy, like Chris Stone level audio stuff.

[00:16:32] Laura Clapp Davidson: not until 2006. So I got asked to demonstrate, this really complicated piece of gear called The Voice Live, which is made by a company that’s no longer but TC Helicon. And I had to learn it in two weeks and then go demonstrate at something called the Nam Show. That’s NAMM, not as in Vietnam.

[00:16:53] Laura Clapp Davidson: Uh, and it is our largest show of the year for musicians. It’s a really cool trade show. And so I got into this piece of gear, [00:17:00] which I had never been a gear tech person. I was always kind of like stumbling my way through and I was like, this is really cool what it does for the voice. And then when I started demonstrating it and people were having these light bulb moments of, I can do that, or this can help me create more, it was such a drug that I was like, I wanna learn all the things about gear.

[00:17:20] Laura Clapp Davidson: And so it kind of yes, spiraled from there. And that was. That was almost 20 years ago, so that’s how that addiction started.

[00:17:29] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And, and, and the thing is, is Laura does a really great job. I saw her present in a couple sessions at, podcast movement and she does a great job of explaining kind of in normal people’s terms how things work. So if you have a chance to hear her speak, it’s really, really good. So, listening to Laura, that’s a our great next segue ’cause we’re gonna be talking about her new podcast and building a podcast and, and how to do that.

[00:17:51] Jeff Sieh: So, here’s a question I want to ask you guys in the audience. Like, do you listen to short form podcasts? ’cause your, your podcast you have now is kind of, is pretty short. It’s like 10

[00:17:59] Laura Clapp Davidson: Mm-hmm. [00:18:00] 15 minutes.

[00:18:01] Jeff Sieh: fifth, yeah. And, do you guys like short ones or do you like the longer episodes? Like what’s your favorite podcast?

[00:18:06] Jeff Sieh: Like, do you have a long form? Favorite podcast? A short form. I’m trying to think of what mine is. I’ve been really binging as I’ve been driving lately is Malcolm Gladwell’s revisionist history. I just like that

[00:18:16] Laura Clapp Davidson: Oh, very cool.

[00:18:17] Jeff Sieh: it’s really cool. Yeah, he’s got one on Hitler’s Olympics. It’s like a nine episode arc and it’s like, it’s really fascinating.

[00:18:24] Jeff Sieh: Anyway, enough about me, but I wanna know what you guys want like to listen to down below. Connor, what’s your favorite one?

[00:18:29] Conor Brown: I love podcast, the Ride. It’s a podcast all for theme park nerds and stuff like that. three comedians just talk about that. They bring on guests and the guests kind of share what theme parks they grew up going to, This month it’s, it’s all about haunts, so Halloween haunts that they go to, it’s awesome.

[00:18:47] Conor Brown: I, love it.

[00:18:48] Jeff Sieh: Laura, what’s your favorite one?

[00:18:50] Laura Clapp Davidson: I mean, I don’t listen to a ton of podcasts because I live in a small town and my drive is like 10 minutes anywhere, which is why I made my first [00:19:00] podcast 10 to 15 minutes long because I knew my audience was gonna be my immediate circle, and that was their drive time. Right? Like, we don’t have a lot of commutes.

[00:19:09] Laura Clapp Davidson: but I did, oh my gosh, what is it called? I found this one. I was driving back from the airport. My flight was really delayed. It was like one o’clock in the morning. And for some reason I decided to listen to this podcast about paranormal activity. It’s called like buzzfeed. Oh God, I’m gonna have to look it up.

[00:19:25] Laura Clapp Davidson: And it was so scary. I had to turn it off. And it’s funny, like one of the guys is a total skeptic and the other one isn’t. And I don’t know why, but I, the sound there, there are all these like technologies now buzzfeed unsolved is what it’s called, where you can find, or you can like communicate with ghosts more easily.

[00:19:45] Laura Clapp Davidson: And so they were doing this on the show at one o’clock in the morning and I was driving back Rosa, Connecticut. It was scary. But anyway,

[00:19:52] Jeff Sieh: See something in your rear view mirror, like, oh yeah. So I, I’m like you, I have a 32nd commute and like, so that’s why I love road trips ’cause I like have all these podcasts [00:20:00] I can just binge listen to. So it’s a lot of fun. So

[00:20:03] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yes,

[00:20:03] Conor Brown: Yeah. Yeah. There’s so much out there. I think that that’s the big thing for me too. It’s like only so much time in the day. Of course. I can’t wait to hear about how you started and, and you’re building your new podcast. But we have a great question first from, um, this one, Jeff Bubble Up Media.

[00:20:17] Conor Brown: They ask any rules of thumb to make sure the recorded level of podcasts sounds best across multiple platforms. Is compression a solution? Nothing worse than a podcast That’s too quiet for the gym. I’m totally in agreement with I, it’s one thing that I think when do you go to the after No, no, Not the gym part.

[00:20:37] Laura Clapp Davidson: Oh, called out.

[00:20:38] Conor Brown: No, no, no, no. Time out. Not gym part. No, I it’s the thing of like, all of a sudden it’s super loud and then it’s super quiet and I keep having to pull my phone out and update the, the volume and stuff like that. So how can we kind of get consistent to ensure that it’s a good volume across whatever platform our, our listeners are listening with.

[00:20:57] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah, so it’s, it’s kind of twofold. So the thing that you [00:21:00] wanna do is make sure that when you’re recording in that your gain level is high enough so that you’re hitting in the green and yellow, not in the red on your audio meters, no matter what platform you’re using. Those are gonna be the colors you look for.

[00:21:14] Laura Clapp Davidson: So you wanna make sure you’re in green and yellow, just so it’s nice and hot, and the signal is there. Then on the back end when you’re processing it and you’re exporting it, there’s something called normalization that you can use. There’s also something called mastering, which we traditionally do on music mixes, and that’s where it takes the whole podcast, the whole recording, what have you, and boosts the signal and normalizes it so that you don’t have any major peaks and valleys.

[00:21:40] Laura Clapp Davidson: And it’s what’s, it’s regulating what’s called loudness. So essentially they’re, they have that on some plugins. I think I’ve seen it in Adobe. so you can apply that normalization and it should kind of boost things. But the best thing to do is before you hit publish, go listen to it in your car, you know, before you hit go if you have [00:22:00] time.

[00:22:00] Laura Clapp Davidson: That’s my litmus test. The gym I don’t go to. Um, but you know, you wanna make sure. That it is loud enough and that it’s level matched. So you compare it against existing pods. So go into your car, pull up a podcast on whatever you listen on, in my case, the evil Spotify, and then play it on your phone or whatever you’re going to be sending that final file from.

[00:22:22] Laura Clapp Davidson: And if it’s not loud enough, you boost the overall mix, not individual channels. You should do that prior to

[00:22:30] Laura Clapp Davidson: mastering.

[00:22:31] Conor Brown: Jeff,

[00:22:31] Conor Brown: this is what you do. You get your podcast right? Then you put up on YouTube sounds from the gym. All right? You put your headphones in and turn up. You never have to step foot in a

[00:22:42] Conor Brown: gym. I

[00:22:43] Jeff Sieh: I that, that’s a great tip. ’cause I won’t, like, I used to lift weights, but they’re so heavy. So, and Chris from Casta ahead says, he’s, he’s actually put it in there. so there are some standards if you Google ’em, like, and like when you export from Descript or some of the other tools, you can set like the, the, [00:23:00] the podcast recommended loudness settings I think is something that you can use and there’s like normalize and all that stuff.

[00:23:06] Jeff Sieh: But I’ll let Laura and Chris answer all those super nerdy sound. Chris, Chris, he’ll talk your off about all this stuff and then you, you ignore like half of it and then you’re like, oh, settings. Okay, I can do that. It’s like with Chris, ’cause he’s, he’s a, he’s a big time audio guy. He’s where I go all my questions with.

[00:23:21] Jeff Sieh: So, but wanna talk about your upcoming podcast. great name, TMI with Laura, which stands for the music industry, which I thought was genius. So what inspired you to launch this second podcast and, uh, your one now Song 43. Was there something that you weren’t able to cover or a topic. That you wanted to create this new one, what are, what are the thoughts of like switching?

[00:23:46] Jeff Sieh: Or are you, are you gonna have two at the same time or are you just gonna kind of fade out one? What’s your thoughts?

[00:23:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: Well, so Song 43 has been on hiatus since April. So my thought is to do a limited run of, you know, three to five more [00:24:00] episodes to kind of segue into TMI, which it’s a very similar platform. Song 43 is a podcast that I created because I was teaching people how to podcast and I didn’t have one of my own, which just embarrassing.

[00:24:13] Laura Clapp Davidson: So I said, I’m gonna take the advice of all these amazing creators around me, and I’m just gonna push record. And so I did. I recorded it, I edited it, and I published it from an airplane on my way to that Nam show that I was telling you about. And now I’m like 108 episodes into that show. But I realized I had kind of run out of listening to myself talk, and when I’d had guests on, I had so much more fun.

[00:24:37] Laura Clapp Davidson: So TMI is. All it’s interviews with all of my friends in the industry who I’ve known for a million years, who are out there crushing it and doing things that you probably have never heard of. So, front of house engineer for the Indigo Girls, tech for Bon Jovi. the background singer for Eric Church, you know, like learning about. What they [00:25:00] do, how they survive when they’re doing a tour. You know, like you don’t have steady income. So what does that look like? And just giving a real peek behind the curtain of all the stuff that is the music industry and whether it changes drastically from AI and what we’re all looking at from that perspective at this point.

[00:25:18] Laura Clapp Davidson: And, you know, it’s just, I’m really excited about it. So it’s a segue. It’s the same thing. Song 43 was about how I managed to make music while I’m being a mom, working full time and doing all the things. And now this is about how everybody else does that. And just bringing in more people. ’cause I was just bored of myself basically.

[00:25:35] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I get that. That’s why Connor’s here. Uh, Connor’s amazing too. Yeah.

[00:25:39] Conor Brown: Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, Laura, I, I’m interested in, are there any nerves about going from a short form to a long form? I know you’re bringing in guests right now, but do you have any apprehensions before you, you started that? and then also what do you want people to get out of this show?

[00:25:57] Conor Brown: Who, they might be a podcaster, right? But [00:26:00] they want better audio tips. What are you hoping people get out of it in general?

[00:26:05] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah. So I guess first the answer to the first part is, am I daunted by it or, you know, nervous about it? Yes, absolutely. but I know that I have the right tools and the skills to, to do it much better than I was when I started song 43, 3 years ago. So I guess the only thing that I’m daunted by is the time that it takes to just, you know, batch record.

[00:26:28] Laura Clapp Davidson: Edit all that jazz and the visuals. That’s what I’m the most doned by. Like having that real branded launch. ’cause song 43, I was just figuring it out as I went. And so like the thumbnails aren’t the same and you know, it’s all whatever. I tried my best. So now I’m really trying to approach it from a measured standpoint of like, how do I wanna do this?

[00:26:47] Laura Clapp Davidson: Who do I wanna reach? What is my message? So that’s different. So that’s daunting. and yeah, just having people learn something they haven’t, they maybe didn’t know about the music business is what I’m looking [00:27:00] for. And then just, yeah, empowering. ’cause I always drop little tidbits in about the tech that I use and why I use it and you know, so I’m hoping that it continues down that path.

[00:27:09] Jeff Sieh: So is it gonna be a, you said you’re gonna do, um, kind of wrap up the other show a couple more episodes, kind of a limited run, and then start this new one. Is it gonna be a weekly show? Is that what you’re planning? Or what’s the

[00:27:21] Laura Clapp Davidson: I don’t know yet because I think it’s probably gonna have to be every other, just knowing how my schedule runs and the production side of things. and knowing the people that I’m trying to get on their schedules are very tricky to work around. So that’s what I’m organizing right now. is it going to be, you know, like a long form thing where I get them on and batch everybody in a, a couple days or am I spreading this out?

[00:27:46] Laura Clapp Davidson: So I, I’m aiming for and every other week just ’cause I know my life, but who knows? I have a lot of cool friends, so maybe I’ll knock a bunch

[00:27:54] Laura Clapp Davidson: out.

[00:27:55] Jeff Sieh: That’s what’s a good, that’s a good thing. Um, so what about, is it gonna be video or are you gonna just do audio only. [00:28:00] Okay,

[00:28:00] Laura Clapp Davidson: No, it’ll be video.

[00:28:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah, it’ll be both. And it the, the reason why I wanted to pivot now too away from Song 43 is because I have a new album that I’ve been working on for six bloody years that I’m really trying to get out. And so it’s kind of a way to ramp up to that and just build an audience for that.

[00:28:19] Laura Clapp Davidson: Because I’ve learned a lot from you, Jeff, and from Lou, and just from everybody about community and the importance of community. And I’m sitting on this email list of people who’ve been following my musical journey forever, but I’m kind of like, well, there’s more to offer. You know? Did you know that I know these cool people?

[00:28:36] Laura Clapp Davidson: Did you know that I can help you set up your podcast? I can help you get better audio. You know? So I have ulterior motives like everybody else. I’m not just making it to hear

[00:28:45] Laura Clapp Davidson: myself talk.

[00:28:46] Jeff Sieh: So I have a follow up question, Connor, and you can follow up after this one. But, um, so, I think, you know, you’re gonna interview studio people and hopefully. They’ll have great audio setups when you interview them. But I have [00:29:00] found, because we, I produce Guy Kawasaki, he’s remarkable people and he has people like, you know, we’ve had Martha Stewart on, we’re getting ready to have Bene Brown.

[00:29:08] Jeff Sieh: I mean, all these people like huge

[00:29:09] Jeff Sieh: people, and the more famous and wealthy they are, the worst their tech is. There’s some algorithm. I talk about

[00:29:16] Jeff Sieh: this with Chris Stone. There’s something happened. So how as you getting ready, because I think it’ll be really fascinating for people who are watching and, and kind of wanting to start their own shows.

[00:29:24] Jeff Sieh: Like, what are you going to do with to help with that? Now Guy sends a mic to all his guests. Now a lot of them just don’t use it like it’s a decent mic and

[00:29:34] Jeff Sieh: they just like, ah, and so. How are you gonna set yourself up for success for this? Because I know that’s a lot a problem that a lot of people have when they do interview shows.

[00:29:43] Jeff Sieh: You’re kind of limited if you don’t have an in studio thing where people can come to New York and come to your studio. We’re all doing this via basically like interview mode with Ecamm. So what are you gonna do? How are you gonna handle that?

[00:29:54] Laura Clapp Davidson: So I will be asking, so I’m gonna make an intake form. I’m actually, that’s on my to-do list for [00:30:00] this next week so that it’s set, you know, ask the question of where are you gonna record because it’s gonna be catch, catch can for some of them. And can I send you a mic, or do you have one? So my thought is I will be sending out a mic and headphones for them to use earphones specifically as like a gift to the guest.

[00:30:18] Laura Clapp Davidson: You know, other thing, like, I’m not

[00:30:19] Jeff Sieh: When can I be on, no.

[00:30:21] Laura Clapp Davidson: yeah, right. You’ll sign Maybe not the mic, but the headphones. I don’t want earphone back.

[00:30:25] Laura Clapp Davidson: Once you’ve used those, those are all yours.but you know, like I remember I was a guest on a podcast and this woman is in Australia and she sent me a plant.

[00:30:33] Laura Clapp Davidson: And I, I love it. It’s like still in my bedroom and it makes me so happy. So, and I sent, I had a guest on and I sent her a journal, you know, just like something, So

[00:30:44] Laura Clapp Davidson: anyway,

[00:30:45] Jeff Sieh: I gotta figure out what to send to Laura. Gosh, now.

[00:30:47] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah. Nope, nope.

[00:30:50] Jeff Sieh: Connor, do you have any

[00:30:50] Laura Clapp Davidson: give me, you give me

[00:30:52] Conor Brown: I just wanna,

[00:30:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: Jeff. That’s my, that’s your gift to me.

[00:30:55] Conor Brown: sends me, pecan pies all the time. It’s great. Can’t, can’t get enough [00:31:00] maybe, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Cats outta the bag. You might have to start sending that to everyone

[00:31:03] Conor Brown: now, Jeff.

[00:31:04] Jeff Sieh: that. Yeah,

[00:31:04] Conor Brown: My bad. Um,

[00:31:06] Jeff Sieh: gosh.

[00:31:06] Jeff Sieh: Uh.

[00:31:06] Laura Clapp Davidson: That’s my husband’s favorite.

[00:31:08] Conor Brown: these are very good. They’re very, very good. Laura, I do wanna ask you what, go back a hundred episodes, right, right.

[00:31:15] Conor Brown: From, Song 43, what do you know now about podcasting that you either wish you knew back then or just something you learned along the way and how are you gonna take that with, with TMI?

[00:31:29] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah, I think streamlining the process for distribution is what I learned. ’cause I would just be like, I would, I would record, edit, publish all in one night, which was super fun. But now I can’t do that with guests. So it’s just having those tools all lined up, having the templates lined up, having, you know, my Ecamm all set, my overlays and the branding there, so my scenes are good to go.

[00:31:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: that’s something I would never have thought about. So that’s where I’m really looking at it, is just from a streamlining all the [00:32:00] processes, because I’m gonna be

[00:32:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: doing it all myself.

[00:32:02] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. so this is a great, I I want before we move on to the next section, I wanted to bring this up from Chris. He goes, I’ve found that most podcast guests don’t consider even halfway decent audio important. No one has told them, honestly that they need to just get a dynamic might not complicated or expensive.

[00:32:18] Jeff Sieh: So for those of us, Laura, who can’t send a mic to our guests just because it’s, we don’t work for a mic company and we just can’t do that, what would what, so you mentioned kind of having a checklist and like maybe even a pre-call. Are there anything else we can do to make sure the guest has the best experience and sounds the best?

[00:32:38] Jeff Sieh: Not just for our show, but just in general? Because it’s gonna be hopefully shared out and people will listen to it. And you want the guest to sound good. So are there any other things we should look at?

[00:32:47] Laura Clapp Davidson: I think, I think Chris is right in that kind of, the honesty is really important. Having it be, maybe show ’em kind of like an AB example. Like here’s what we’re going for, here’s what we’re not going for. Because that [00:33:00] tends to make people go, oh snap. Yeah. You know, and, and show them like a famous person with crappy audio on ESPN.

[00:33:08] Laura Clapp Davidson: Like a lot of times you’re watching network television and they’re calling in on CNN too. And they’re just like, you know, during COVID we suffered through a lot of it, but Chris is ri get yourself a dynamic mic. But people are, people don’t know what that means. But anyway, I guess, yeah, giving them kind of, if they’re being stubborn or they’re pushing back or you can’t send them a mic, give them the basics of using headphones, getting as close to the source as they can, and then maybe have them record themselves and see, because you, you really can’t tell what’s coming in unless you listen back.

[00:33:40] Laura Clapp Davidson: So, I dunno, is that

[00:33:41] Laura Clapp Davidson: kind of, that was a jumbled response.

[00:33:43] Jeff Sieh: Well, I, I’m lucky enough, and I think Chris is this way too ’cause of the Deal Caster show, which is another great show by the way. I know you’ve been on that a couple times, um, you know, you could have pre-calls with people you don’t know. I’m lucky that I, I know most, I knew Laura’s gonna have great sound.

[00:33:54] Jeff Sieh: We didn’t have to do a pre-call most of my guests or podcasters or video people, and I know. So, I [00:34:00] think having that checklist and doing, if you don’t, the only time I’ve been burned is when I haven’t done, like, gotten on early enough to help diagnose problems

[00:34:07] Jeff Sieh: or haven’t done a pre-call. So when you’re setting up, when you’re starting a podcast, especially for interviews, having that checklist and just being really disciplined to do that, like I know it’s a pain to do a pre-call with people who haven’t done it before, but.

[00:34:20] Jeff Sieh: Man, I’ve been burnt and I don’t, you know, like I had one person, we did a, we said, let’s do a call. She, she hadn’t done it before, and she, she did a call and it was great. And then she showed up in a different location for the actual show. And I’m

[00:34:33] Jeff Sieh: like, why would we do the

[00:34:36] Jeff Sieh: pre call? Yeah. So anyway,

[00:34:40] Conor Brown: Billy Thorpe, the, the incomparable Billy Thorpe with this great comment, Mike, you, you get the boot. They

[00:34:47] Conor Brown: decide, draw the

[00:34:49] Conor Brown: hard

[00:34:49] Laura Clapp Davidson: That’s

[00:34:49] Conor Brown: right there.

[00:34:51] Laura Clapp Davidson: I am, I’m loving. Kira’s comment though, just to go back to the Can or p camp. I, I hear it the same way. She says she only hears Billy Crystal saying it Beacon. Bye.[00:35:00]

[00:35:00] Jeff Sieh: pecan, bye.

[00:35:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: Beacon. Bye. Sorry. I love

[00:35:04] Jeff Sieh: Very true. That was, anyway,

[00:35:06] Laura Clapp Davidson: Harry Met Sally, for

[00:35:07] Jeff Sieh: yes, that’s my wife’s favorite. actually one of our favorite movies we saw when we were dating. That’s how old we are. Oh

[00:35:14] Jeff Sieh: my gosh.

[00:35:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: I mean, that movie

[00:35:17] Laura Clapp Davidson: has so many great lines and it’s based in the fall, so everyone should watch it right now

[00:35:21] Jeff Sieh: Pretty much. Yeah.

[00:35:22] Laura Clapp Davidson: Just do it.

[00:35:23] Jeff Sieh: real quick, another thing you should watch or go to and see, watch all of ec cam’s amazing stuff over at their channel, Ecamm dot com slash jeff to save 15% on your first purchase. They have a ton of stuff and Jill, who was in the audience earlier, has been killing it over there.

[00:35:36] Jeff Sieh: they, they have so much good stuff going on. They’re putting out so much great content.

[00:35:39] Jeff Sieh: e km.com/jeff, this has been a fun show. We’re already off the rails and I’m having a good time. Um,

[00:35:44] Conor Brown: say e Ecamm fam, the newly launched YouTube channel, Ecamm Fam. This week they posted, I think Jill and Doc Rock their studio tours and it’s great ’cause they’re very different, right? But you can kind of see what works for you and they talk [00:36:00] over mics and, and all the stuff in there. So give that a

[00:36:02] Conor Brown: watch as well.

[00:36:04] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, you probably won’t ever see a studio tour here ’cause there’s a cone

[00:36:06] Jeff Sieh: of cleanliness that’s just like right Here, like on the sides. Oh my gosh. Like a bomb went off. Alright, so let’s talk about this next part. But I wanna know, from the audience, what’s one piece of audio gear you own that completely changed your game or maybe it made what you wanted to rage quit. Like, don’t ever talk to me again. Like what? I wanna know both sides of the coin. Like what is, what is frustrating you the most and what is the thing that changed the game?

[00:36:35] Jeff Sieh: Connor, do you have something that changed the game for you audio-wise?

[00:36:38] Conor Brown: I listen, I know, I know she’s here, but I have to say my shure SM7B, but it’s comboed with that, with, I plug it into the road caster and the reason is I don’t have to worry about everything. Right? Like I know I flip two switches. I, I, I keep my levels like exactly where they are. I don’t move those things at all.

[00:36:57] Conor Brown: And I know it’s just going to produce [00:37:00] good clean audio. That’s what it was. I made that investment. I wanted to make that investment. I’ve had this for years now and it works so, so, so well. So that’s the thing that, that changed it for me, knowing that it’s gonna produce great sounding content and I have

[00:37:16] Conor Brown: it all set up is awesome.

[00:37:17] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, for me, so I started, listen, you can start with anything folks, and this is going to, I can just hear Chris Stone screaming at his monitor right now. I used a Blue Yeti for a long time,

[00:37:28] Laura Clapp Davidson: a lot of us did

[00:37:29] Jeff Sieh: and a lot, I mean, it was, that was the thing I had, I actually had it hanging. It was like 50 pounds hanging in front of me.

[00:37:36] Jeff Sieh: For my, like my first podcast for a long time. So you can do stuff with a decent mic. Of course. I love my SM7DB and I think the road caster for me, and I still have the original big, huge one. I don’t have the, the, the newer one. I would love to have a dual ’cause it’d be smaller, but I love the, the, the sounds that you can get from it.

[00:37:53] Jeff Sieh: But, I think that was the biggest thing. And then learning, having people on like Laura and talking to Chris and like having [00:38:00] them help me up my audio game. People will forgive video. They will not forgive your audio. So that was the one thing that was always nailed in my head. So, if you’re trying to up your game, and I know Amy Keys was talking about that, find a good mic in your budget and you can get a really good, good mics all the way through.

[00:38:16] Jeff Sieh: So Laura, what about you? What was the thing that changed it for you? And then kind of give us the breakdown of prices for people who wanna upgrade. Like we talked about, like in your budget, like that can mean a lot of things. So

[00:38:28] Laura Clapp Davidson: Oh, it absolutely can. And I think what changed the game for me, so I came to shure, it’ll be eight years next month, which is crazy. And I thought I knew all the things about Mics and I didn’t know anything about them. So I had to learn and. The first time I used one of our motive mics, MOTIV, it changed my life because I was so used to having to get an interface or a mixer and an XLR cable, all of these words that people might be like, you lost me.

[00:38:58] Laura Clapp Davidson: But it, it took a [00:39:00] lot of effort and lift. Now, USB mics have come so far, so when I started to use a USB mic, I was like, well, this is easy. And that was the real game changer for me. So I have all the gear, I have all the things I can plug into and, and over complicated. But now, yeah, plug in via USB, plug in my headphones.

[00:39:22] Laura Clapp Davidson: Sounds great.

[00:39:23] Jeff Sieh: Very cool.

[00:39:24] Laura Clapp Davidson: So, so pricing wise, you had asked about that. It kind of depends on what you’re looking for in terms of, if you’re gonna be using something that’s going into a mixer, then you can start with something as affordable as an SM58. I mean, there’s all kinds of mics out there. I’m

[00:39:39] Jeff Sieh: So when you say affordable, what’s the, what’s the price for that? What’s, when you say that,

[00:39:42] Laura Clapp Davidson: $109.

[00:39:43] Laura Clapp Davidson: It was $99 for a million years and we, you know, the world’s changed. So $109 for an SM 58, and that would just plug into, a mixer, an interface like the focus, right, which I have sitting right over there. or we make something called the MVX2U, which is a single [00:40:00] channel interface. And I usually have all of my toys in front of me.

[00:40:03] Laura Clapp Davidson: I’m so ill prepared. My desk is just a mess, so I can’t grab anything. But it’s, it’s an inline pre that you plug the microphone into and then it runs USB into your computer, which is great. and you know, everything ranges from like $109 to $500 and that’s the top in terms of our podcasting range. So it’s not, I’m not saying that’s not a lot of money.

[00:40:25] Laura Clapp Davidson: It is, but you can get into the market and, you know, get the MV7 plus that I’m using right now for $299 and

[00:40:34] Jeff Sieh: Which is a great, great mic. Yeah.

[00:40:36] Laura Clapp Davidson: yeah. And it sounds like a lot, but when you think about it, because it is your mic and your interface essentially, you know, you’re great. And then there’s another level, the MV7I, which actually is a microphone with a built-in interface that we made so that you can have a two channel podcast with just one of these.

[00:40:53] Laura Clapp Davidson: It’s, it’s magic bananas, but our, our prices are not crazy and. But some people [00:41:00] view us as premium. There’s a reason because we’re indestructible. You know, the, the SM7B came out in the seventies, the SM7DB just a couple of years ago. And for those who are playing along at home, the DB has a built in preamp because the SM7B is notoriously gain hungry.

[00:41:16] Laura Clapp Davidson: The road caster can drive it, but you often have to, if you weren’t using a road caster, bring in something called the cloud lifter. Now the SM7DB, you don’t have to. Um,so like I said, $109, you know, that’s for an SM58 all the way up to the SM7DB. it’s not crazy though. You’re worth it.

[00:41:34] Laura Clapp Davidson: That’s I

[00:41:34] Conor Brown: investment. You have it for years. It’s not a one and done. We’re recording two podcasts with this thing. You’re gonna have it for all the time. Yeah.

[00:41:42] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Unless you’re hit by lightning or something. But that’s,

[00:41:45] Jeff Sieh: yeah. let’s.

[00:41:46] Jeff Sieh: Uh, um, so, um, here’s a question for you before I bring out some comments, is how important it is. So I think it’s the SM7, is it the plus that has USB and you have the option to do an [00:42:00] XLRN if you did wanna go to interface,

[00:42:02] Laura Clapp Davidson: The MV7. The MV7 plus. Yeah, the M, the original MV7 was the same way. The difference between the MV7and the MV7 plus is the USBC and then some additional DSP features. So DSP stands for digital signal processing, which essentially lets you have reverb, the denoiser that I talked about, and just a few other features under the hood.

[00:42:23] Laura Clapp Davidson: And a different LED screen or touch panel rather. yes, that one is XLR or USB when you use it via XLR, we’ve had people say this thing, it’s not lighting up. It sucks. And I’m like, well, no, it’s great. It’s just, you’re using it as an XLR microphone, which means you lose all the DSP, you lose the lights and all that processing power.

[00:42:42] Laura Clapp Davidson: ’cause that’s coming through

[00:42:43] Laura Clapp Davidson: the,

[00:42:44] Laura Clapp Davidson: the the USP. So just

[00:42:46] Jeff Sieh: I,

[00:42:46] Laura Clapp Davidson: the.

[00:42:47] Jeff Sieh: so I usually recommend that for people who are getting started, because if they do wanna get aboard later, it’s, you can use it for that. You’re not like, and that’s why I, I love being able to have both options. Like you can plug in USB and just go [00:43:00] and have all the lights and like you’re saying, but if you upgrade and you wanna have a road caster or something like that, you have the mic already.

[00:43:06] Jeff Sieh: You don’t have to go buy another mic. So I just

[00:43:08] Laura Clapp Davidson: Exactly.

[00:43:09] Jeff Sieh: what are you laughing at, Connor? What did I say?

[00:43:10] Conor Brown: No, I’m laughing at all these, these comments about my, my setup. Billy Thorpe saying, dang, Connor’s Road Caster Plus, Shure. SM7B can’t hide money. It’s called credit card debt people. All right. Get on

[00:43:22] Laura Clapp Davidson: No,

[00:43:23] Conor Brown: no,

[00:43:23] Conor Brown: it’s It’s not. I bought ’em years ago, you know, and I bought You buy one thing at a time.

[00:43:28] Conor Brown: Right? It’s the same thing. Yeah.

[00:43:31] Laura Clapp Davidson: Here’s my, here’s my latest plug, Connor, that I’m gonna say, I don’t know if this will resonate, who it’ll resonate with, but I used to say like handbags for women, but I’m gonna say dinners. Okay, nice. Dinners out for two people. You’re dropping a hundred, 150 bucks. Right? Okay. Let’s be real now.

[00:43:50] Laura Clapp Davidson: Let’s just skip two dinners and you can have an MV7 plus two dinners out. I’m not saying starve yourself, but I’m just saying like, put it into perspective. ’cause people are like, [00:44:00] whoa, 300 bucks, that’s a lot of money. No kidding. But so is everything right now. So put it into perspective and realize it’s an investment in you.

[00:44:08] Laura Clapp Davidson: And do you wanna buy something and then have to buy it again two or three times, do you wanna buy the right thing the first time? Just Saying

[00:44:15] Conor Brown: Exactly.

[00:44:15] Jeff Sieh: and and seriously, it’s last once you said it. Oh. So we got questions, but I was gonna ask one more question. ’cause gosh, you only have 10 minutes left. and this is from Billy. It remind me of this. He goes, it looks great. I, he hate how it looks on camera, but there’s a reason it’s on every stage in the world.

[00:44:29] Jeff Sieh: Here’s the question. I see a lot of YouTubers who are using those boom mics. ’cause they don’t like to have this in front of, in front of ’em. They don’t like the way it looks, which I think is, I’m not gonna say, but anyway, what are your thoughts about having a set up with just a boom mic? Like

[00:44:45] Laura Clapp Davidson: Are you talking like a shotgun

[00:44:46] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:44:46] Jeff Sieh: Shotgun mic outta

[00:44:47] Jeff Sieh: camera kind of a thing. What are your

[00:44:49] Laura Clapp Davidson: Don’t do it. People think shotgun mics. I can hear doc like chiming in and be like, no, don’t think that a shotgun mic is a telescope. It is not. Shotgun mics are used for [00:45:00] outdoor recording of dialogue. That’s when you see the guy with the boom pole gal, sorry, not to, yeah.

[00:45:05] Laura Clapp Davidson: Stereotype and it’s, it’s got baffles in the side that help redirect wind and external noise. And give you a focused sound at the very front of the mic, but they don’t reach out and grab sound. And that’s the misconception of all people. So with microphones, they think, well, I’ll just get it outta my shot.

[00:45:24] Laura Clapp Davidson: Well, cool. But now you hear more of the space. So you, you really have to work with your mics. They don’t reach out and grab the sound. So if you don’t want a mic in your shot, you can get creative with it. Like, I don’t have to have this mic here. I could use a low profile boom arm. I could have it further down.

[00:45:42] Laura Clapp Davidson: But you just have to keep in mind you’re gonna compromise your sound quality. ’cause mics are not magical. They have to, they’re capturing what’s right in front of ’em.

[00:45:50] Laura Clapp Davidson: So that’s my soapbox

[00:45:52] Jeff Sieh: S So even if you’re doing YouTube videos, it makes sense to do a mic like this is what you’re saying.

[00:45:57] Laura Clapp Davidson: Well, or you

[00:45:58] Laura Clapp Davidson: use a lavalier, you know, [00:46:00] which again, I don’t Oh, I do have one. He, yay. Go me. Uh, you know, we make these little creation content creator mics. this is move mic. And it’s a lavalier that pairs to your phone, or you can use it with our receiver, which looks like this.

[00:46:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: And the receiver can plug into your computer or into your phone as well. So you know you have options. And this guy is so discreet,

[00:46:25] Jeff Sieh: awesome.

[00:46:25] Laura Clapp Davidson: know, so. Like teeny tiny and super durable. So if you, yeah, if you wanna have your hands free, you don’t want a mic in your shot, you talk with your hands a lot people tell me that, I’m like, well, that’s just user error.

[00:46:34] Laura Clapp Davidson: Just like, move the mic and then you can be a little more free. but I will say, Using the MV7 plus in auto level mode, which many of our mics come with now, also alleviates that so you can be a little further away and fudge it and get it out of your shot and auto level mode will automatically adjust your signal so that you’re getting the best sound, even if you’re not right up on it.

[00:46:59] Laura Clapp Davidson: So you [00:47:00] can, if you’re listening in headphones, it’s actually boosting my signal very slowly right now. And then if I were to get right up on it, it’s gonna cut it back down so that it’s not gonna overload anybody. So that can help

[00:47:11] Laura Clapp Davidson: too.

[00:47:11] Jeff Sieh: Nice.

[00:47:12] Conor Brown: So kind of a, a follow-up question with that is, Jen Schone has this talking about the boom arms, right? So meaning this, that we have here, this apparatus, right? How important is this for the mic as opposed to just one that’s sitting on the desk? Is it more a preferential thing? Is it actually enhancing the audio?

[00:47:32] Conor Brown: What’s

[00:47:32] Conor Brown: your thoughts on that?

[00:47:33] Laura Clapp Davidson: it’s really isolating. The mic is what the boom arm does. If you have a desktop mic, it’s gonna be more prone to picking up your mouse movement. If you’re typing anything, it, that’s why we get it up and out. but yeah, if you haven’t on the desktop stand, you’ll pick up table noise. So that’s just something to think about.

[00:47:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: If you’re not touching your, your table or your desk while you’re doing things, yeah, you’re

[00:47:57] Laura Clapp Davidson: fine.

[00:47:57] Conor Brown: I like using it too because I can [00:48:00] just, once I’m

[00:48:00] Conor Brown: done, I just

[00:48:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah. You push it outta the way. Yep.

[00:48:03] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:48:06] Laura Clapp Davidson: Mine’s always here. I don’t know who I’m kidding, but yes,

[00:48:09] Laura Clapp Davidson: I dream

[00:48:10] Jeff Sieh: And I, and I think I said this at Momentum or I can’t, maybe it was crater camp, but if you can, if you can find a spot where you can leave everything set up so you don’t have to be taking it up and down. Like if you’re wanting to start a podcast, I mean that’s, even if it’s a corner of your closet or bedroom or whatever, having a spot where you don’t have to be like, I gotta set up lights, take it down.

[00:48:29] Jeff Sieh: ’cause you won’t do it. Like, you’ll be like, I don’t wanna do that. Remove all friction and having a little

[00:48:33] Jeff Sieh: spot,

[00:48:33] Laura Clapp Davidson: Such great advice. Yes.

[00:48:36] Jeff Sieh: so I wanna ask you as we kind of wrap up, from your perspective as both the creator and an audio expert, what is a common misconception creators have about achieving great sound?

[00:48:47] Jeff Sieh: Like do you have, like, when you’re talking to people about audio, you’re doing these presentations like at podcast movement or camp or wherever, what do they usually get wrong that you have to go right. You know, come outta the gate with, and like, this is, no, [00:49:00] this is what you need to do.

[00:49:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: They think they need to spend way more than they need to spend, and they think that they need a degree in audio to know how to do to start a podcast, and now it’s so. Much easier. It’s so simple. So I think it’s just removing that stigma and removing that internal barrier for them that they really can just buy this one mic and this and some headphones and they’re good to go.

[00:49:24] Laura Clapp Davidson: Well, and a computer or a phone.

[00:49:27] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So, looking ahead, what developments in the space, like with tech or, you know, emerging creator needs, what are you most exciting about in the Audi audio frontier? Like, I know you have all these insights with Shure. And you can only share so much, but what are you excited about that you see coming down the, the, the roadmap.

[00:49:48] Laura Clapp Davidson: I think it’s really just the ability to lessen the burden from an editing perspective. From all the AI and the tools and the algorithms that have gotten so much better within these platforms [00:50:00] that we’re using, that’s what I’m the most excited about because you know, that’s where people, they, they get tired.

[00:50:06] Laura Clapp Davidson: They bug out, bug out because they’re like, I don’t wanna put this much time into it. So that’s what I’m most excited about is just the creative tools just continuing

[00:50:15] Laura Clapp Davidson: to evolve and get better.

[00:50:17] Jeff Sieh: Yeah,

[00:50:17] Jeff Sieh: it’s just exciting times. This is the worst it’s gonna be right now, so a lot of people in the comments are saying things like, my Amazon wish list just got a little longer. and Amy Key says Mine too. so, black Friday’s coming up like next month. Should we wait? Is what I’m saying.

[00:50:35] Jeff Sieh: Should we, is it, would it be a good idea to, to hang onto our money, maybe put it in a, savings account and then wait, because of all the goodness that is Shure. I mean, they usually have some really great deals around that time. So should we wait? What are your thoughts, Laura?

[00:50:48] Laura Clapp Davidson: I will neither confirm nor deny that statement or that question.

[00:50:55] Jeff Sieh: There are some great deals that happen on, black Friday, so I don’t have, I don’t have any idea,

[00:50:59] Laura Clapp Davidson: There. [00:51:00] There are.

[00:51:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: There are. usually, historically there have been deals.

[00:51:05] Jeff Sieh: say that so I would, so Amy and Kira, um, unless you need it right away, like if you’re starting it next week, I would wait till next month to buy your mic. ’cause they’re usually some great deals, from all sorts of microphone things

[00:51:19] Laura Clapp Davidson: Jeff said it, I

[00:51:20] Laura Clapp Davidson: didn’t. Just

[00:51:21] Jeff Sieh: but I’m just saying it’s, I mean, across the board, not just For Shure, there’s mic deals that are gonna happen on Black Friday. But you might wanna pick up some ear earphones, you might wanna do some other stuff. So I would Wait, Conor, did I miss anything that I should do?

[00:51:34] Conor Brown: No, I was just gonna say, and then you’ll send me a note and I’ll send over

[00:51:37] Conor Brown: my Amazon affiliate link and we’ll get that all squared

[00:51:39] Conor Brown: away. Amy and yeah, yeah, yeah. Um,Laura, this has been amazing. where can people find out more about you and they can sign up to get your new podcast? All the things that are Laura Davidson.

[00:51:52] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yes, so you can go to, to confuse things. Laura clap.com. That is my maiden name and my artist name and my [00:52:00] Clark Kent identity, I guess, or my Superman

[00:52:02] Laura Clapp Davidson: identity, I

[00:52:02] Laura Clapp Davidson: don’t know. Um, in that you can find my music, you can find song 43 and there will be links to TMI. There’s also TMI with laura.com. There’s nothing there really yet, but if you wanna go on there and make sure you are in the know, you can, you can sign up there.

[00:52:18] Laura Clapp Davidson: and yeah, that’s

[00:52:19] Laura Clapp Davidson: the easiest way.

[00:52:20] Jeff Sieh: So, the question I have is, you mentioned there’s an album coming out that’s like been six years in the making. Can we go to that, to, to listen to that if we want to? Is it@lauraclap.com?

[00:52:31] Laura Clapp Davidson: It is not there yet, but two of the singles that will be on it are there. So one is called Pretend uh, and the other one is called Don’t Call Me Anymore.

[00:52:40] Laura Clapp Davidson: And so those will be on the album.

[00:52:42] Conor Brown: That’s what I tell Jeff after every episode.

[00:52:45] Jeff Sieh: was, that was pretty much my username in college.

[00:52:47] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah.

[00:52:49] Jeff Sieh:

[00:52:49] Jeff Sieh: what, oh, so when is the album coming out? Like when’s the actual album? Like the

[00:52:54] Laura Clapp Davidson: Oh, well I can’t even put a date on that because my producer is is I’m at His Mercy,

[00:52:59] Jeff Sieh: So the be [00:53:00] like the beginning of next year, like beginning

[00:53:01] Laura Clapp Davidson: Yeah, like January is what I’m hoping for, for the Namm show. I like to launch it around then ’cause I have a lot of people I can tell about it when I go to that show,

[00:53:09] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And for you

[00:53:09] Jeff Sieh: guys listening. It’s Laura Clapp and that’s CLAPP.com for you guys listening on the podcast. So make sure you go check her out, check out the music. She’s amazing. If you ever see her or you need a guest to talk about audio on your show, she is amazing. and so much fun to hang out with at conferences and seeing her presentations and all that.

[00:53:29] Jeff Sieh: So make sure you

[00:53:30] Jeff Sieh: go check her out.and Connor Brown, what can people find out more about the unsinkable Connor Brown?

[00:53:34] Conor Brown: You can go to vacation kingdoms.com or follow me at Vacation Kingdoms. We’ve been talking a lot about our, holiday wishlist. You know, what is a great gift? A gift of a vacation, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, universal Orlando. Reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help you plan that trip. What an awesome, awesome show we have had here

[00:53:53] Conor Brown: today.

[00:53:54] Jeff Sieh: Yes. So much fun. Laura is amazing. go out and a, I mean, if you have questions, if you’re watching this in the [00:54:00] replay, put ’em down below. Wherever you’re watching from, we’ll try to answer them because I know it can be a little overwhelming when you’re first starting a podcast or a live show or whatever.

[00:54:07] Jeff Sieh: You’re trying to get all your gear, right. We kinda kinda obsess with that. Get your mic right. You know, look at Shures lineup. They have some amazing stuff from all, you know, all gamuts of like budgets. and invest in yourself and get the one that you need, to have longevity with your show because, they make some great stuff.

[00:54:24] Jeff Sieh: That’s why both Connor and I use that when, with that. Thank you Jennifer. Thank you Amy. Thank you Kira, everybody. And Jim, all of the fellas and ladies who watched the show. I appreciate you guys. and with that, we’ll, and thank you to Ecamm for Sponsors Show. And by the way, you can find out more about them by going to Ecamm dot com slash jeff.

[00:54:42] Jeff Sieh: With that. We’ll see you guys next week. Bye everyone. Have a great weekend. Talk to you later.