Written by Wil Williams, courtesy of Apollo Podcasts
Want to know how Twenty Thousand Hertz creates their podcasts? On Twitter, Apollo Podcasts (@apollopods) did a live tweet session on just that and has allowed us to compile their thread into an easy-to-follow guide.
A big thanks to Wil Williams from Apollo Podcasts who did this live tweet recap from the 2022 Podcast Movement event, and to Dallas Taylor from Twenty Thousand Hertz for sharing these insights!
Quick navigation – click to jump straight to your chosen topic:
Project Management • Greenlighting a Topic • Working with Guest • Recording the Sessions • Editing and Mixing the Podcast • More about making Twenty Thousand Hertz + the latest podcast episode • Marketing and Artwork • Transcripts • That’s a Wrap
Project Management:
First tip: Trello! This is the system the team uses for brainstorming, organization, and project management.
Trello is a great way to keep an infodump of episode ideas. You can categorize them, make channels of favorites, organize by tags and topics, and so many different things.
Trello is a great way to keep an infodump of episode ideas.
Project management tools are here to help you, and so many like Trello have free plans.
Trello is also a great way to organize RESEARCH. You can put in tons of links and again, give them tags.
You can and should also use Trello to organize your workflow.
The 20khz team also uses good ol’ classic Dropbox, which their whole team can access and organize.
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Greenlighting a Topic:
What’s an idea? What’s in research? What’s being written? What’s being produced? What’s completed?
Once a topic is greenlit, 20khz does an outline – starting with the EMOTIONAL theme. Quirky? Funny? Scary? Start there…
Next, work on story beats focused on that emotion.
Tip: try to have a little exciting cliffhanger before your midroll.
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Working with Guest:
If 20khz has guests, they use HelloSign to go through guest paperwork. (It’s another system that already exists and is here to make your workflow cleaner and easier and more efficient.)
…it typically takes 30-40 minutes to build real trust with your guest.
Next, they build their interview questions based on the story beats. They build the story and narrative right from the start and then follow that flow step-by-step.
More intimate questions are often left for the end of the interview; it typically takes 30-40 minutes to build real trust with your guest.
They use a deepfake of Dallas Taylor’s voice to see how their script sounds, how it flows, and how long it takes.
Fiction creators: this is why I HIGHLY recommend cast interviews before you start recording! (Maybe I’ll write about that for the blog…)
Always ask ‘is there anything else we missed?’ at the end of the interview.
Always ask “is there anything else we missed?” at the end of the interview. 90% of the time, the interviewee will say, “Ummm, no… I think we got it all… But–” and then give you a perfect summary of everything you just discussed that you can use.
Another great question: “Why does this matter?” Or, “Of all of the things you could have done with your life […] why this?” You’ll get “silence – then, poetry.” Many people have never been asked these things. They are “loving” questions to ask.
20khz have ended most of their episodes with responses to one of these questions. They make for beautiful, human, and emotional endings to the story arcs in the show.
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Recording the Sessions:
The mic that 20khz sends to guests? A good ol’ AudioTechnica dynamic USB mic. It’s about $100, sounds great, and “gets rid of as much gunk in the environment as possible.”
For online recording, they recommend Cleanfeed.
For online recording, they recommend Cleanfeed.
They also send guests info packets on how best to record, from putting together their setup to mic placement to what programs to use to how to send recordings. *Do this with your cast, fiction folks!*
And if needed, change your voice memo settings to LOSSLESS.
They also use telbee for digital voicemails. This is great for listeners who send in little voice notes. They’re not going to sound great because listeners don’t often have great mics – but that’s okay! It adds texture and color.
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Editing and Mixing the Podcast:
For audio editing, 20khz uses Descript.
Once the script is set and solid, Taylor is brought back in. He likes coming in with a fresh ear – not coming in with too much knowledge – so his recordings sound both authentic and clean. And also so he can enjoy it as a listener.
Yes, Descript can export right to Pro Tools.
The next step: “All roads lead to Pro Tools.” Yes, Descript can export right to Pro Tools.
When Taylor is acting as a NARRATOR, all breaths are removed.
When Taylor is acting as a CHARACTER, the breaths stay in.
The show uses music as punctuation between thoughts. “I think of the show as 15-20 second vignettes over and over and over again.”
And each of those vignettes has its own music cues. This keeps the listener engaged and helps hit each story beat.
Their general dialogue processing chain:
1. De-noise
2. EQ
3. De-Ess
4. Volume fader
5. De-noise
6. Dynamics
The show is intentionally mixed fairly dark and mid-rangey since most people aren’t listening on big badass speakers with big ol’ bassy subwoofers. Do EQ based on what you expect to sound best to the average listener, not just what sounds great in the studio.
Pro Tools looks like a waveform lasagna when we’re done with a scene
For sound design, they use tracks on tracks on tracks on tracks! Here in the audio drama world, we know that life. Pro Tools looks like a waveform lasagna when we’re done with a scene.
For mixing, they use lots and lots of buses. Not familiar with bus tracks? This post from iZotope will change your life.
And finally, they save tons of different mixes and splits: voice-over only, voice-over and music, voice-music-sfx, etc.
This helps with collaboration, and also helps when switching DAWs.
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Marketing and Artwork:
For marketing, they work with a handful of artists for episode art and assets, and they schedule all their posting
Some hosts allow scheduling, some don’t. They use Megaphone by Spotify and I know Pinecast has super easy scheduling as well.
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Bonus: Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz:
Hear the latest episode:
Hear the behind-the-scenes special episode:
Transcripts:
Every episode has a transcript. It’s great for SEO, and it’s great for accessibility.
Your podcast should always have transcripts! (Check out this post on ‘How to make your podcast more accessible using transcripts’ from Cassie Joesphs via DiscoverPods)
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That’s a Wrap:
After each episode, one thing they do is meet and brainstorm OTHER shows to send it to. Who might want to hear it? This is great for cross-promo.
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A big thanks to Dallas Taylor at Twenty Thousand Hertz for sharing insights into their podcast process and to Wil Williams at Apollo Podcasts for the great recap!
Twenty Thousand Hertz is part of the Audio Podcast Alliance, featuring a hand-picked selection of the very best podcasts about sound. Check out the full list of Audio Podcast Alliance members below, and click a on podcast name to go directly to their latest episode:↑ Back to overview
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