What Plugins Do I Use When I Edit Podcasts?

I’ve been asked who makes my favorite plugins for podcast editing or who I recommend buying plugins from.

These are the companies whose tools I rely on heavily for each episode:

Hindenburg - my DAW of choice.  As a 20 year user of Logic, that is where I started, but I quickly found out the workflow did not work for me.  It wasn't great for editing podcasts and I was looking for efficiency.

This led me to 3 months of trying various DAWs.  

• Audition was like a foreign language.
• Audacity - just no - I wanted a modern DAW that had standard features like non-destructive editing — I know this has recently been added, but why did it take so long to add a feature that every other DAW has had for decades - I guess that is the answer, Audacity is an audio editor, not a DAW.
• Universal Audio Luna — this was close, but with it being version 1, it still had some room to grow.
• Hindenburg - it took a second trial period where I forced myself to use it because it offered everything I wanted — I just couldn’t get over the waveform display, which I now love.

Izotope RX: if you are editing podcasts for clients, I feel RX is a mandatory tool.  It has a learning curve, but once you understand how to use it and have good starter presets, you can quickly repair many audio problems.  Mouth de-click and de-plosive alone are worth the price.

Universal Audio: I’ve used their interfaces for 15 years and love their plugins.  Every episode goes through their Fairchild 670 and usually the Ampex ATR-102 and, lately, the API 2500 bus compressor.  I also love their la2a and 1176 compressors. Fortunately, they have started releasing their plugins natively, so those who don't use their interfaces can now benefit from their plugins. On top of that, they are competitively priced when on sale, so keep that in mind. Don't pay full price.

Sonible: I have started using their Smart Plugins over the last six months, and they have sped up my process.  The Smart Comp has become my go-to compressor for dialog compression because it provides good settings out of the gate.  Their new Smart Gate is the best gate I have used.  

FabFilter: these are my go-to plugins when I am training or coaching because they have such great user interfaces and make it easy to see and hear exactly what you’re doing.  Their Pro Q3 is my go-to for EQ if the Sonible Smart EQ isn’t giving the desired results, and the Pro DS is the only de-esser I use.

YouLean Loudness Meter: A good free loudness meter - I have one on every track and the master.

Plugin-Alliance: although I don’t use many of their plugins for podcast editing, I use them when working on music. They are the company I recommend for affordable but good-sounding plugins.  I don’t think they have a vocal rider plugin, but they have everything else you would need and, in my opinion, are better plugins than Waves (and there are no paid updates).  Like Waves, they often have sales where you can get plugins for $29.  Do not pay full price — wait for a sale

A couple of recommendations are:

• bx_console Focusrite - a good channel strip
• Kirchhoff EQ - a good EQ very similar to Fabfilter’s Pro Q3
• SPL De-esser collection - I haven’t used this, but Tom Kelly raves about it, so I consider that a good enough recommendation to make it myself

These are the tools I use and recommend.  I hope this helps.

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