I've attended every single Podfest since 2014. And this year it was great to see so many friends and colleagues in person again!

Here are some of my experiences, notes and highlights of the event:

MY TALK: 

"How to Use Compression & Normalization (Mandatory for Creating Professional Grade Audio)" ---> The full presentation will be published soon! 

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Outline what I covered: 

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• Normalization  (Peak and Loudness)  (When and where to normalize audio)
• Compression  (Why, controls)  (Demonstrations of compressors, upward compression, vocal riding, limiter, and a great sounding plugin chain) 

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*Audio Production Challenge for my listeners: Compress the ultra-dynamic audio clip that I used for demonstration in my presentation and send me your processed audio file!

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Links to Apps and Plugins I Mentioned in My Talk at Podfest 2022 on “Compression and Normalization”

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Link to 4 recent overview posts: 

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• What is Compression? (Audio Processing)
• Introduction to Compressor Controls
• What Are Audio Plugins? (Audio Processing)
• Introduction to Plugin Chains

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PODCASTING 2.0, CRYPTO, BLOCKCHAIN, ETC.: 

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• Spoke with several podcast industry pro's about Podcasting 22.0, crypto integrations into podcast feeds and websites, etc. Hardly anyone was talking about this. It's still VERY early. 
• The Florida Bitcoin & Blockchain Summit

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PRESENTATIONS I SAW: 

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Seth Silvers, CEO of Story On Media --- "The Roadmap To Using NFTs To Engage Your Podcast Audience and Increase Revenue"

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• Focus on "how can NFTs help build my community, instead of how can NFTs make me money."
• Think of an NFT as an access card. 
• "Gratitude" NFTs just for people to support the show. (offer NFTs of every episode, etc.)
• Never-ending tickets. 
• Uncut.fm "Collect NFTs from your favorite podcasts"

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TikTok presentation by Melissa Hughes

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• *Mindset when creating TikTok posts: Document instead of create.

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WHAT I WAS INSPIRED TO CHANGE/DO: 

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• Create a new short course??
• TikTok posting for marketing purposes? (Am I really going to commit to this?!?!)
• Join a songwriting group (which I discussed w/Ashley Lehmann)

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Other interesting things I learned about:

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• Snowpixel:  AI-generated images (Natalie Champa Jennings told me about this)
• "Dream 100", gatekeepers, (from my conversation with Seth Silvers) -- The Dream 100 are relationships with people and/or companies who can help me market my business to their audiences. Instead of focusing on marketing, focus on building these 100 relationships.  

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MY OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE ENTIRE EVENT: 

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• All in all very good
• Perhaps too many speakers and tracks, etc. 
• Felt a bit too spread out
• I should have bought groceries

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PEOPLE I HUNG OUT WITH:

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• Seth Silvers
• Jennie Wren
• Steve Stewart and Mark Deal
• Glenn the Geek
• Mike Helms
• Marc Johanssen
• Roy Stegman
• Harry Duran
• Natalie Champa Jennings
• Ashley Lehmann
• Paul Desmond Adams
• Gordon Firemark
• Bryan Entzminger
• Julia Levine
• Ross Brand
• Dave Jackson
• Dan Hughley
• Daniel Abendroth
• MANY OTHERS! 

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NOTE: The next semester of PES starts on June 28, 2022.

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