Podcasting Tips: Converting a Novation Launchpad to a Soundboard for Your Podcast
How a cheap, readily available music tool can improve your podcast workflow.
As I am setting up my new podcast Buddy Check, I want to really focus on my workflow and ensure that I could do as much live work as possible while interviewing, so that my show process is smooth and repeatable. I have a background in radio, and we always had access to a soundboard for live broadcasts.
What is a Soundboard?
The soundboard is a device that queues up advertisements, rolls, sound effects, sound bites from other sources, anything that you might find useful for live radio. By having these sounds at your fingertips, with a low latency player, we can quickly play sounds at just the right time in our recordings. This limits the amount of post-production work that has to be done.
Because our podcast is starting on a very limited budget, I am using tools that I already have available to me to get started. One of those tools is a used Novation Launchpad S. The Launchpad is traditionally a MIDI instrument. You load various sounds to it, press buttons on it, and make music. So it seems tailor made to do what I want.
