Ask HN: Hey Podcasters, do you use AI to optimize your workflow?

  • Yes and no

    For Cybershow [0] we love to use AI images, from a variety of generators, because it's nice to have quick, catchy iconic pictures that help listeners remember/search the episodes visually.

    Also most of the main cast channels now do great transcription, and our audio is clear, so that's one more job that's automatically done for us these days by "AI".

    In the production and audio domain there's very little that "AI" can do better than an experienced writer and editor, imho as a half-decent writer/editor :).

    A lot of editing is moment by moment decision making that just requires a good ear. "AI" can't tell me if something a guest says is ambiguous, or sounds a bit poorly evidenced etc.

    Maybe one tool I'd maybe use if it existed is a "fluff remover" for "ummmm, like, well... y'know, ummmmm, literally... like...."

    But I wouldn't trust it not to butcher the audio and leave things in an irrecoverable (no undo path) state that only gets spotted in the mastering stage.

    Otherwise, many "intelligent" plugins already have built in clever DSP features these days, for things like noise reduction, silence removal, level matching.

    Scripting things is the key... and Audacity is a dream for this!

    For planning/organisation I use emacs org-mode which is fine for capturing notes, linking resources and pulling it all together into a script or talking-points list for recording.

    For an amateur show we don't need much more quality than this.

    [0] https://cybershow.uk/

  • I’m confused as to why you need to pay an AI service to normalize audio volume? Isn’t this something basic audio tools would do for free?