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Shrimp Store

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Searched the forum but couldn't find anything.

I'm keen to find out what are some of the better brewing podcasts out there that you guys listen to? I don't listen to any podcasts on any topics (and have never done so) so I have no idea where to start.

Possibly a good idea to sticky a thread for reference?

Cheers
 
In terms of information, "The Master Brewers Association Podcast" and "The Sour Hour" are both fantastic resources. Unfortunately both of these programs suffer from really poor production. Sound quality is awful, intros are awful, the levels on ads are way out of balance from the rest of the program, but if you can look past those issues there is a ton of great information on both programs. I would kill to have a program that provides the kind of information available in these shows from a legit podcast production company like Gimlet or the like.

Beyond those suggestions, and I struggle to make this recommendation, The Good Beer Hunting Podcast has some very well done interviews with several of the best brewers around. Their production quality is top notch as well. There are quite a few episodes that I struggle to make it through but the shows featuring Shaun Hill or Dan Suarez are exceptional.

I've tried listening to quite a few other brewing podcasts but almost all of them suffer from amateurish production and/or obnoxious hosts.
 
The Brewing Network shows have a lot of good information but you usually have to skip around a lot of non-topical chatter. Roam around the archives, especially a few years ago, where there are some great episodes with good information. Increasingly the shows turn into more brewers/hosts hanging out and less getting into brewing details.

Similarly, basic brewing radio has a lot of good older episodes. Seems like the past couple years the host ran out of material and has been phoning it in with really generic topics.

The Milk the Funk podcast is full of good information on sour brewing and alternative fermentation. Audio quality is terrible though.

If you are an AHA member you can go back through the NHC seminars. Most years have audio recordings (some only video) and there's some good presentations every year.
 
The Milk the Funk podcast is full of good information on sour brewing and alternative fermentation. Audio quality is terrible though.

:(

Agree though. I'm slowly trying to get everyone better mics, but I'm just throwing one in whenever I get a little extra money. Trade off for not running hella ads. Thinking about setting up a patreon.
 
:(

Agree though. I'm slowly trying to get everyone better mics, but I'm just throwing one in whenever I get a little extra money. Trade off for not running hella ads. Thinking about setting up a patreon.

For my day job, I work as a mechanical engineer for one of the most highly regarded audio/microphone companies.

If/when you're looking to upgrade, send me a message and I should be to help you guys get a little more bang for your buck.
 
For my day job, I work as a mechanical engineer for one of the most highly regarded audio/microphone companies.

If/when you're looking to upgrade, send me a message and I should be to help you guys get a little more bang for your buck.

I sent Dan an Audio-Technica AT2020USB+. Current workflow is they call each other on skype/hangouts but record their own audio on their machines via audacity. Then Matt edits the audio and cuts out the pauses. Not sure if you know of a better way.
 
I sent Dan an Audio-Technica AT2020USB+. Current workflow is they call each other on skype/hangouts but record their own audio on their machines via audacity. Then Matt edits the audio and cuts out the pauses. Not sure if you know of a better way.
I'll be honest, for a dude who designs microphones, I know next to nothing about recording/audio processing. My expertise is more in the: "design this product such that you can drop it onto concrete ten times and still have it function like it did right out of the box" realm. Audio Technica makes solid mics and I'm not really qualified to comment on your processes.

My offer was along the lines of helping MTF get some better equipment without breaking the bank, but for what you're doing the AT USB mics are more than fine. The next tier would be studio quality recording equipment along the lines of a Shure SM7B, but then you'd need a dedicated recording space (i.e. soundproofing), since that sensitive of a mic would pick up a fly shitting next door (with a proper preamp).
 
I sent Dan an Audio-Technica AT2020USB+. Current workflow is they call each other on skype/hangouts but record their own audio on their machines via audacity. Then Matt edits the audio and cuts out the pauses. Not sure if you know of a better way.

The sound quality is getting better which is partially a function of better mics and a better job processing the audio. The problem now is that EQing out the background noise requires cutting out a lot of frequencies where there is voice which makes voices sound thin and very similar. The easy solution for that is soundproofing which will help reduce background noise and reverberated voice. It's hard to EQ out reverberated voice without losing some of the tone in the voice. There are soundproofing stands you can buy but a cheap option is to hang a thick towel behind the mic. It won't do much for sound behind the speaker but it will absorb reverberated sound.

Another thing you can play with in processing the audio is to slightly pan each speaker to different positions to the left and right which will give space to the audio and make the voices feel more distinguished, especially when listening with headphones.
 
The sound quality is getting better which is partially a function of better mics and a better job processing the audio. The problem now is that EQing out the background noise requires cutting out a lot of frequencies where there is voice which makes voices sound thin and very similar. The easy solution for that is soundproofing which will help reduce background noise and reverberated voice. It's hard to EQ out reverberated voice without losing some of the tone in the voice. There are soundproofing stands you can buy but a cheap option is to hang a thick towel behind the mic. It won't do much for sound behind the speaker but it will absorb reverberated sound.

Another thing you can play with in processing the audio is to slightly pan each speaker to different positions to the left and right which will give space to the audio and make the voices feel more distinguished, especially when listening with headphones.
Or glue some egg crate bed padding to some plywood
 
Just to chime in here, our biggest limitation on the MTF podcast is that our guests do most of the talking, and we do the interviews over Skype. So our audio is only as good as our guests' audio recordings (they record their own audio, which usually involves a headset and Windows Recorder). We appreciate the feedback, and Matt continues to try and find ways to make the audio sound better without us having any budget or the ability to have everyone in the same location (notice that we have no sponsors or advertisements, and that is something we want to continue with).
 
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Brulosophy
Master Brewers
Sour Hour
Beersmith
Experimental Brewing
Brew Strong
Milk the Funk
Craft Beer and Brewing (when Jaime is interviewing)

Give them all shot. They offer different help. I will say skipping through ads and playing at 1.5x-2x is huge.
 
quinnsi's show is one of my favorites - The Beer Temple Insiders Roundtable. Good cross-section of industry folks on most shows (brewers, retailers, journalists, vendors, & the occasional avid consumer) discussing current issues and events.

Agree with the folks who plugged Steal This Beer and DDB/Malt Couture. STB has a great format and guests are typically brewers, with the odd journalist/beer writer thrown in every few episodes. Malt Couture has good banter between hosts & focuses more on the consumer perspective.

Speaking to the audio quality issues noted with other shows, I have a show with a couple of friends that's beer-adjacent. We use a combination of AT USB mics and a Yeti Blue that we manage to squeeze out decent-to-good quality audio from with little need for soundproofing. The Yeti Mic is super-popular but horrible if you have more than 1 person on mic at a time--even in cardioid configuration with the gain set all the way down, it peaks and picks up a lot of background noise, table touches, etc.
 
Started listening to Brulosophy and really enjoying. Although the host sometimes gets on a roll and speaks so fast it is hard to keep up (for a n00by like me anyway).
 
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