HE SAID WHAAT??

Imagine listening to a podcast where the host’s voice is barely audible over background noise, or the music drowns out their words. Frustrating, right? A balanced audio mix is essential for a podcast’s success. It ensures listeners can clearly hear and engage with the content, whether they’re using their phones, headphones, car speakers, or a smart speaker.

Why Audio Balance Matters in Podcasting

• Professionalism: A polished sound gives your podcast’s quality and credibility a boost. Theres nothing more unprofessional than bad sounding audio.
• Listener Experience: Clear audio keeps listeners engaged and coming back for more.
• Accessibility: Balanced audio considers listeners with hearing sensitivities or those in noisy environments.

Key Mixing Techniques for Podcasts

Levels and Balance:

Start with Vocals: Set all your vocal tracks to a comfortable listening level, usually around -16 LUFS to -14 LUFS, (I try for around -10dB RMS). Balance one at a time. Try average them all at the same volume. This establishes your baseline.

Add Elements Gradually: Introduce music, sound effects, or additional voices one at a time. Adjust their levels so they complement the vocals without overpowering them.

EQ for Clarity:

Cut Low-End Rumble: Apply a high-pass filter (usually around 80-100 Hz) to your vocal tracks to remove unnecessary low frequencies.

Sculpt the Vocals: Gently boost frequencies around 2-5 kHz to add presence and intelligibility to the voice.

De-Ess the Vocals: to remove harshness of the ‘Sss’ sounds (also known as sibilance), you can apply a de-esser in the processing chain. Spend some time on adjusting the processing on your vocal so its consistently acting on the sibilance, and doesn’t effect your vocal.

Compression for Consistency:

Control Dynamics: Use a compressor to even out the loud and quiet parts of the voice, making it sound more consistent. I make sure that I set the compressors attack so it will work fast on the transients and has a slow release so it doesn’t sound ‘pumping’. This will help even out the volume of your vocals.

Avoid Overcompression: Aim for subtle compression to avoid squashing the life out of the vocals. Again, your goal is to improve the overall balance of the vocal. Time spent finding that balance is time well spent.

Noise Reduction:

Use Sparingly: Apply noise reduction only to address noticeable background noise. Be cautious, as excessive noise reduction can make the audio sound unnatural.

Panning for Depth:

Create Space: Pan music or sound effects slightly to the sides to give the mix a sense of depth and avoid competing with the vocals in the center.

Lessons Learned on the Mixing Board

In my years of mixing podcasts, I’ve encountered and overcome several audio balancing challenges, each providing valuable lessons for achieving a polished mix.

Balancing Multiple Voices

I normally have two or three audio tracks which I need to balance. This is common in most podcast productions which features an interview format of podcast.

What I like to do is, apply processing in the following configuration:

I find it better to do my EQ pre dynamics processing. Because I find it helps create cleaner sounding audio on the other side.

If I find that the audio has too much noise on the track I then move to Audio repair mode and will add a Plugin from the Isotope RX11 Plugin suite to attenuate it.

Integrating Music and Sound Effects:

Adding music or sound effects can enhance the listening experience, but it’s essential to strike the right balance. I’ve learned that sometimes, less is more.

• A Lesson in Restraint: In past episodes, I’ve received feedback that background music was too loud and distracting. This taught me that these elements should always be secondary to the spoken content. I now often attenuate music and sound effects significantly (sometimes to -23dB or even -30dB) to ensure they don’t overshadow the message.

• Enhancing, Not Distracting: The goal is to use music and sound effects to complement the narrative, create atmosphere, and evoke emotions in the listener, not to overpower the conversation.

The Key Lessons here is to Prioritize Clarity by focusing on making the voices clear and easy to understand. The Music, and Effects should be used sparingly and thoughtfully to enhance, not detract from, the spoken content. And Critically Listen and be open to adjusting your mix based on listener experiences.

Achieving a balanced podcast mix doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By following these key techniques and listening critically, you can create a polished and professional sound that will captivate your audience.

Call to Action

Need help with your podcast’s audio? Blue Vineyard Audio offers expert podcast mixing and editing services to take your show to the next level. Contact us today for a free consultation! Let us help you produce professional podcasts.

Visit our website at https://bluevineyard.com/audio/ to learn more about our podcast production services and schedule a free consultation.