Splitting stereo 2-track into 2x mono interviews - hiss issue

The trouble with all the podcast how-to videos is that they all start from different places and scenarios. Which means that you won't find a generic one that really covers the basics, because the people that make them only ever consider things from their own point of view, and rarely consider that there are alternatives. And there certainly are alternative approaches when it comes to podcast editing. Upshot - I wouldn't recommend any of them.

A lot of it comes down to common sense, and having a clear idea of what you want to end up with. Really, this makes a difference from the outset - before you record anything. For instance, using Cleanfeed is fine, but if you want to make it sound as though your guest is in the studio with you, then ideally you need to set it up as a double-ender, where your guest records a clean version of the interview you're conducting at his or her end, and sends you a file of it that you can substitute for the Cleanfeed version. But hey, you don't have to - just using the remote feed is fine if it's clear enough.

But then you have choices, depending upon whether you've got split or combined files. You can either edit each separately and then have a lot of fun lining up the other side of the conversation so that it fits - which is fine, as long as your head can stand it - or you do what I'd do, which is to do whatever processing I need to to each track and then mix the unedited versions back into a single stereo file. At this point, you have an interview that sounds fine, but needs the bits you want selected from it - and that's relatively easy, as it's all in sync now. But you do need to keep in mind how the final version's going to sound - so when you mix it back to stereo, you set the pan for each channel so that it's slightly either side of centre and sounds natural. Then you don't need to mess with it again.

Editing the stereo file - well there are two approaches to this. The way Audition was designed means that the easy way is to make your selection in Waveform view, and mark each range that you want to use - and you can give the marker a sensible name. Now, if you right-click on a marker range, you get an option to insert that into a Multitrack session; it gets placed wherever you last had the cursor. As long as you remember this, that's fine... but then all you have to do is move the clips around until it sounds the way you want it. And that's flexible, because it's only markers you've moved - so if you need to extend or shorten clips, you can just drag them out or in a bit until it's right.

Or alternatively, just put the whole stereo file into Multitrack, and use the Split command and a bit of dragging to remove the the bits that you aren't using - the end result is nearly the same. The difference is subtle though - editing is actually about selecting the bits you want, not about cutting out the bits you don't. And that's why the first method is intrinsically better - you have to make positive choices and label them.

As for speed - well that comes with practice; neither method is faster than the other.