Can you remove all my background noise?
Yes and no, most background noise like a computer fan or air conditioner can be removed using our high end noise and reverb removal plugins (reverb is your voice bouncing back off flat surfaces or glass, sometimes called "echo"). Also any sound that doesn't happen when you are speaking, such as a dog bark or a table bump sound, can be cut out easily. But any sound that happens at the same time as the person speaking, such as a cell phone notification ding, will be very difficult to remove as they are essentially one sound at that moment to the microphone. We have some tricks to help this and we will more importantly coach you on avoiding noise at the source with tips and tricks to record at your best. There's no substitute for a quality recording from the source, if there was a magic button then people like Joe Rogan wouldn't use quiet sound treated recording studios. But we know this is not possible for most and can certainly make it sound MUCH better.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is your turnaround time?
Our standard minimum is 48 hours. Many times, based on our capacity at that moment, we have returned assets within a day. And we get it, life gets in the way sometimes so we are always available for an emergency rush if you need. Ideally for all parties involved we ask for 3-4 days to allow for any revisions and changes you may need and not having anyone rush or stress over the weekend for an episode that's airing Monday for example. But at the end of the day we're pretty quick and pride ourselves on that!
My last agency outsourced to upwork on the cheap, do you?
No, while Max's assistant editor is in Brazil, Max personally proofs and processes EVERY episode that comes out of our shop. This means that each episode is of the highest quality and any changes or adjustments needed can be made by Max personally in real time.
Do you have a contract or retainers? Am I locked in?
No. We have an agreement that we sign to set expectations such as who owns the assets (You), turnaround time expectations etc. But there's no retainer or contract. You're free to adjust your package up or down at any time. The only time a lock in would come into play is if we offer a discount over a long term such as 6 months of service for the price of 5, you would pay upfront and we would adjust the agreement to say that we will provide the service to you during that period. But you're never locked in with Podcast Boutique.
Do I have to use Descript?
No. But we strongly suggest content editing your show before it gets to us, this is as easy as striking through on a word document. We (And Kevin at GTS) recommend that you make that first pass to remove any content that doesn't lend to your goal for what you want to convey to your audience. A 35 minute podcast will likely get more retention than a 50 minute one, so a rough content edit to remove anything non compelling is a must for a quality podcast. That being said if you don't want to use Descript, you can simply send us the files through Google Drive and we can happily edit and compile your show from those files. Here's a quick overview of Descript.
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Do you charge extra for small things like trailers and intros?
No. As part of the service we are happy to help with small things like a trailer or a new ad you want music added to. Along with the constant real time coaching, it's included in the service. We'll even do a short full episode for you at no extra charge if you need that a couple of times a year.
What don't you do?
We are not a creative agency, so we don’t make creative decisions for you such as your audiogram or intro quote, colours on your graphics or music choices for your voiceovers for example. Anything that is a creative decision we ask that the host or the producer choose that before it comes to us. The best analogy is, we are builders not architects, we take your plans (templates / arrangement / creative choices) and build them to be as high quality as possible saving you hours of time, but much like builders we don’t decide what type of kitchen counter you want or what colour to paint your bathroom, that’s the architects job. So if you want new artwork designed you would liaise with a designer then send those templates to us for weekly production. We can certainly give feedback on things like music but those things are best decided by you and your growth coach (If you’re a GTS client)
This allows us to focus on high quality assets turned around very quickly and consistently for all our clients.