In the session

Once you're in the room, you've got the control bar at the bottom. On top of that there's the chat, the markers that carry your notes all the way into the edit, a handful of keyboard shortcuts and, if you're the host, small marks that tell you whether everyone's recording is landing.

The control bar¶

You switch the microphone on or off with one click. Its settings let you pick the input device, show you the level, and hold echo cancellation and automatic gain. Echo cancellation starts out the way you answered the headphones question in the waiting room, and you can change it here any time. When you mute yourself, podsink records silence for that stretch, so your track keeps its full length.

The camera works the same way. Its settings let you pick the camera and the resolution to record at. Whatever the host set for the session is the ceiling, and your own pick can only go lower (resolutions and bitrates). The others see you live as well as the connection allows, but that live picture has nothing to do with the recording.

With screen share you can share a whole screen, a window or a browser tab. You pick a quality preset for it, "Crisp" for slides and text or "Motion" for video and demos, or you let the browser decide. You can also pause the share without ending it. If the session records video, the shared screen goes into the recording as its own track.

Your own picture can float over the grid, sit in it, or be minimised. None of that changes what's recorded.

Raising your hand¶

If you'd like to say something without cutting in, the hand button or Cmd/Ctrl + G raises your hand. Everyone sees it on your tile with a number, so when several people are waiting, it's clear who was first. It makes no sound on purpose. From a speaker, a chime would easily reach the microphone and end up in the recording.

Your hand comes down by itself once you've been talking for a few seconds with your mic on. A short "mhm" isn't enough for that, and nothing you say while muted counts. You can also lower it yourself with the same button or shortcut, and if you leave the session, your hand goes with you. None of this touches the recording.

Chat¶

The chat is for anything that shouldn't interrupt the conversation, like a link, a quick heads-up, or a question for after the take. podsink keeps the whole history, and the host finds it as a text file in the download later. So a link someone pasted during the recording is still there when you edit.

Markers¶

A marker lets you flag a moment while it's happening, so you can find it again in the edit without scrubbing around. The host and every guest can set markers, and each one records who set it and when.

• A chapter marker (key 1) marks the start of a chapter, and everyone in the room sees it.
• An edit marker (key 2) marks a spot that should go, or one you want to listen to again. During the session only you see your own edit markers, so they don't throw anyone off mid-conversation. The host gets all of them in the download.
• A break marker (key 3) starts a break, and pressing the key again ends it with a resume marker. As long as the break lasts, everyone sees a "Break in progress" notice.

What's important to know is that a break doesn't stop the recording. It keeps running the whole time, and the two markers show you later in the edit exactly which stretch to cut out.

R adds a note to the last marker, and Alt+1 or Alt+2 sets a marker with a note in one go. The marker panel lists everything set so far, and you can edit the notes there too. A session holds up to 250 markers.

A chapter or edit marker that landed in the wrong spot can go again. The bin next to it in the marker panel deletes it for everyone in the session, after asking once, and it won't be in the download either. Anyone in the session can delete the markers they see, as anyone can edit a note, so in practice your own edit markers only you. It works until the session ends. Break and resume markers stay, because together they mark the break.

In the download, the markers show up as a list with type, time and author, as a chapter file, and inside the project files for Reaper, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, right where they were set on the timeline.

Keyboard shortcuts¶

In the session, ? brings up the full list, and with a mouse or trackpad you'll also find it in the menu under "Keyboard shortcuts". By default the shortcuts use Cmd on a Mac and Ctrl everywhere else:

That list also has a "Quick shortcuts" switch that drops the Cmd or Ctrl key and puts the shortcuts on single keys, D, E and P as above, M for markers, C for chat, T for the title and H for your hand. That's handy when your hands are on the keyboard anyway, but risky when you're typing in another window.

Is everyone's recording landing?¶

Only the host sees these marks. Every few seconds the server reports how much of each recording it has actually stored, and the small (i) next to each name shows you the result. It's green while everything is landing, amber when someone is falling behind, and red when nothing has arrived from that person for a while. Hover over it to see the numbers. Next to the REC pill there's also one mark for the whole room, a green check while every track is landing or a line with names once one isn't.

If that mark says the server hasn't reported in a while, it's your own connection that has gone quiet, not theirs. podsink reconnects on its own once the connection is back. The (i) marks turn grey with it, so you don't trust a green one that's out of date.

After a stop, the marks follow the last uploads in and turn into a check once every track is on the server. If someone closed their tab when everything but the last few seconds was uploaded, the end dialog lists them just for information, not as someone still uploading. If you end the session, though, those last seconds are lost.

Keep the screen on¶

On a phone or tablet, podsink asks whether it may keep the screen on during the session. Please say yes, because when the screen goes dark, the browser may stop your recording along with it.

When the device runs out of room¶

Recordings stay on your device until they're uploaded. If there's no room left there for new recording data, podsink lets you know, and your track gets a gap from that point on. Saving works again once the connection to the server is back and the waiting data has uploaded, because that frees the space on its own. So there's nothing for you to delete, since whatever is still on the device is still needed.