We’re a small production studio working out of 12 Park Hill Lane in Larchmont. We make interview podcasts for B2B companies — the kind your customers put on for the commute and actually ride out to the end. This page is the stuff we’d tell you over coffee: where the weird name came from, the rules we edit by, and whether we’re even the right fit.
01 / about.the.name
People ask on basically every first call, so here it is. Short answer: it’s the two halves of the job. One is what we do to the tape. The other is what we do for the person talking into the mic.
zip·per /ˈzipər/ · noun · what we do to the tape
1.Every interview has gaps in it — the false start, the dead air while someone hunts for their notes, the ten minutes on parking at the conference center.
2.We pull those out and close the seam so tight you can’t hear where it was. The listener just gets the good part, start to stop, with no lumps.
See also: multitrack edit, iZotope RX, “trim the Q3 bit”
lan·tern /ˈlantərn/ · noun · what we do for the guest
1.Most of your guests have never been on a podcast. They’re a little nervous, and honestly, who wouldn’t be?
2.So we light the way: a prep email they can actually skim, a producer on the call, a clear “okay, we’re rolling.” Then we make them sound like the sharpest person in their industry — because they probably are.
See also: guest prep, the coat-closet trick, “you sounded great”
02 / edit.decision.list
An edit decision list is the log an editor keeps of every cut. This is ours, minus the timecodes — the stuff we don’t bend on, plus why. If any of it rubs you the wrong way, better you find out now.
| Event | The call | Why we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| 001cut | Edit for the listener, not the guest’s favorite story. |
If a tangent doesn’t earn its minutes, it goes — even if your VP loved telling it. We flag every big trim in the review note, so you can ask for it back. |
| 002keep | Clean the ums. Keep the laugh. |
We scrub filler and mouth clicks, not personality. A real laugh or a “wait, let me say that better” stays if it makes the guest sound like a person. |
| 003live | A producer sits in on every recording. |
Someone’s watching levels and the backup track the whole time, so your host can just talk. Nobody should be half-listening to their own interview. |
| 004mix | Every episode lands at −16 LUFS. |
Same loudness, every time. Your show shouldn’t be the one people crank the volume for in the car, then get blasted by the next one in their queue. |
| 005hand-off | The files are yours, all of them. |
Raw multitracks, final mixes, artwork — it lives in a shared drive with your company’s name on it. Leave whenever and take everything with you. |
| 006flag | We’ll tell you when a segment isn’t working. |
Sometimes a conversation just doesn’t land. We’d rather say so and suggest re-recording ten minutes than quietly polish something that won’t hold anyone. |
03 / a.day.at.the.desk
You’ll mostly see us as a recording link and a review email. Here’s what’s happening on our side of the screen, roughly every weekday.
Yesterday’s finished episodes get a fresh-ears pass and a loudness check before anything leaves the building.
Remote recordings run late morning into early afternoon, with a producer on every call watching the meters.
The long edit blocks. Cutting, leveling voices, and scrubbing out the HVAC hum in iZotope RX.
Show notes get written, chapters get set, and scheduled drops get a last metadata check.
Review links hit your inbox with a short note on what we trimmed and why. Every email gets a reply before 7.
04 / fit.check
We’d rather lose a sale than make a show that doesn’t suit you. Here’s the honest version, both directions.
$ zl start --episodes 4
Send a few lines about the show in your head — who’s hosting, who you’d love to have on, what your buyers keep asking about. We’ll reply within one business day with a rough episode plan and a kickoff date.
Four finished, published episodes from $5,360.
Mon–Fri, 8:30am–7pm. Bring a rough idea — we’ll bring the questions.