Podcasting probably won’t make you an expert at anything (at least, it hasn’t done that to me). But if you deal with podcasting technology regularly, it’ll definitely sharpen your troubleshooting skills.

Many podcasters (me included) have dealt with the “I thought I had the right microphone selected!” problem when working with computers. After all, computers have built-in mics, and other common accessories like webcams often have their own microphones. DAWs then betray your best intentions when they show waveforms being drawn from the wrong microphone.

Today I learned this condition isn’t applicable to just computers. It can also strike when recording with something as simple as a phone, even when the phone isn’t directly connected to anything else.