Podcast Review: ‘This Sounds Better’

Editor’s note: As part of CMN’s ongoing music journalism program, we asked our team of music writers to choose a single episode of a podcast about music to review . The choices were electric and interesting. Check out all the podcast reviews by browsing our music section. 

This Sounds Better is \, who are three decorated mixing engineers in the rap, pop, and alternative rock genres.  The podcast focuses on audio engineering, mixing, and producing discussion, as well as industry terminology. They also discuss how to navigate upstream within this particular avenue of the industry. 

It is a great podcast that covers key points important to engineers and producers — and has a taste of comedy that makes it all the more enjoyable. 

I chose this podcast because I have an interest in producing and engineering.  I try to learn as much as I can from people I am around in the studio — and my professors in workshops at school — and being away from the school studio, who better to listen to than three well versed audio engineers and producers?

I listened to this podcast through headphones, and because it is a podcast about audio engineering, there were no identifiable problems with the quality, even though it was their first stab at a podcast.  I would have liked to hear more music, though, or examples of stems they were referencing to make things clearer. Overall, they got their points across with the right intention. 

While there are three official hosts of the show, Tumay is the driver of the podcast.  His expertise is in rap and has handled vocals for artists like Young Thug, Kanye West, Travis Scott and Drake. Tumay does a fantastic job at regulating the time frames of certain topics and is an attentive listener. He gives Walker and Kingsland plenty of space to explain their thoughts on details like workspace or points on a track. 

After listening to this podcast for the first time, I have subscribed to it — and the wealth of information they are kind enough to share.  To be able to tap into expert thoughts in a field you have a direct interest in is pretty amazing and I intend to consume as much of it as possible.