TPE’s Home Studio setup

About The Podcast Editor

The Podcast Editor was started by George Mocharko, formerly a tech reporter and communication consultant, when he began getting calls out of the blue from people asking for his help with editing their audio. George has been making podcasts since 2009, back in the early days of audio on demand when RSS feeds were new, and when the audio quality and production values weren’t at the levels we hear today.

After starting his radio show and podcast DC Entrepreneur in 2015, he began purchasing recording equipment so that he had a fully-functioning home office to edit podcasts from, along with investing in field audio equipment. After completing the last season of his show in 2020, he’s been helping edit other people’s audio, going on tape syncs, and helping people launch their podcasts.

As an independent producer and audio editor George is a member of AIR Media. He is available to edit audio for clients remotely from his home studio and charges clients based upon AIR's Rate Guide. You can find his production credits on Podchaser.

Let George Do It:

George can help you start a podcast, edit your content, manage production of an existing show, or help you find the throughline in your many hours of tape. You can hear his mixing work as the post production editor of the first season of the Code Story podcast hosted by tech entrepreneur Noah Labhart. He's also helped consult for The Economic Club of New York, and The Real Recruiting Story podcast.

Mixer.png

DAWs Used:

George primarily edits in Adobe Audition, but he has access to Avid ProTools, Audacity, Hindenburg, Ableton Lite, Reaper, and Logic Pro X, software on his iMac. Plugins he uses include iZotope RX 7 audio restoration, Celemony Melodyne, FabFilter Pro-Q 3 Equalizer, Waves Kaledioscopes, and Supertone Clear.

Gear owned:

  • Zoom H6 Handheld Recorder

  • Shure SM7-B (1)

  • Shure SM58 (2)

  • Shure SM57 (1)

  • Rode NTG-2 with hand grip

  • 2 x iRig lav mics

  • Triton FetHead preamp

  • Sony MDR 7506 Headphones

  • Sony MDR CD-900ST Studio Monitoring Headphones

  • KRK Rockit 5 Studio Reference monitors w/ stands

  • Scarlett 2i4 DI

  • iZotope RX 7 Standard

  • Behringer XENYX portable mixer

  • FabFilter ProQ 3 EQ plugin

  • Celemony Melodyne

  • Reason 11 lite (Reason+ subscription)

  • Microphone stands (Shure desk mic stand) w/ boom pole

  • Music stand with light and clip

  • AKAI MPK Mini midi keyboard

  • Novation Launchpad mini

  • Canon DSLR camera

  • Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2

  • 3 Studio lighting umbrellas and reflector, 1 table top ring light

  • Movo Boom pole 8' with Blimp windscreen

  • Tripod and Monopod for camera or recorder

  • Descript subscription

  • Auphonic subscription

Knowledge acquired:

Throughout George’s podcast journey, he has been the beneficiary of knowledge shared from various industry professionals. Grateful for this instruction, these include trainings such as:

  • Art of the Scene workshop with Rob Rosenthal of the Sound School podcast through Radio Bootcamp

  • Mentorship Program with Fred Dews, Senior Multimedia Project Manager of Brookings Institution through The Podcast Academy

  • How to mix - for producers with Rob Byers of Final Final V2, Vox and APM & formerly NPR Training through Radio Bootcamp

  • Mixing Audio with Plugins: iZotope RX audio restoration with Kevin O’Connell of Descript through PRX’s Podcast Garage

  • Editing for Editors: Story Editing with Karen Duffin through Radio Bootcamp

  • So You Want to Talk To Strangers: Interviewing Skills with Lauren Ober of WAMU

  • Making a High-Level Chat Cast: Training with John Asante (WNYC, The Takeaway) through Radio Bootcamp

  • Hearing is Believing: An Audio Documentary Intensive with John Biewen, Scene on Radio, at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies

  • Podcasting & the Art of the Interview: Taught by Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder via Atlas Obscura

  • Story Seminar: in-person seminar taught by Robert McKee in New York

  • Music Recording Mentoring from Ben Mellott of Nothing but Noise Studios

  • Audio Mixing Masterclass: taught by audio engineer Jim Bloch at Arlington Independent Media

  • Studio Sound Design: Principles of Acoustics and acoustical properties of construction materials, Richard Demy, Northern Virginia Community College

  • Various classes through SoundPath in affiliation with AIR

Conferences Attended:

  • Third Coast audio festival, Chicago, IL 2019

  • On Air Fest, Brooklyn, NY 2019

  • Podcast Movement, Chicago, IL, 2016; Anaheim, CA, 2017;
    Philadelphia, PA, 2018, Las Vegas, NV 2023; Washington, DC 2024 (upcoming)

  • DC Podfest, Speaker, Washington, DC 2016, 2017

George is trained and certified to use Arlington Independent Media’s equipment which has a LEDE studio available for rental where you can record or audio using Avid ProTools through an iMac using a Raven MTX console. The studio has two Genelec Studio monitors, a large television screen, and up to 6 pairs of headphones and 6 XLR input lines to record. There is also an audio rack which uses a Universal Audio Apollo digital to analog audio converter, several AKG C-214 condenser mics or two AKG C414s, with both floor and table mic stand configurations available. This setup is perfect for music, voice-over work, or time code syncing and editing in Adobe Premiere. AIM’s commercial rates can be found here.