How to Get the Best Sounding Audio for Your Podcast
A great sounding audio podcast starts with a good recording. That of course means using a quality microphone, some decent headphones and recording in a quiet room. But once you’re finished with the recording, a few minutes of post production can take that good recording and make it sound great.
There are a lot of great digital audio editors available, but we’re going to focus on Audacity since it’s powerful, cross platform (Mac & PC) and totally free.
Step 1: Amplify (if necessary)
The first step is to get a good waveform. Your peaks should spread pretty evenly through the 1 to -1 (dB) range. If you open your audio file and it looks rather flat, you’ll want to run the Amplify Effect.
To do this select the entire waveform and click on Effect > Amplify. By default Audacity will recommend an amplification setting. This is typically what you want to use. Leave the New Peak Amplitude setting at 0.0 and do not check the box to allow clipping. Give it a quick preview and if everything sounds good click OK.
Step 2: Equalization
Spoken word podcasts typically sound better when the lower frequencies are boosted and the higher frequencies are reduced. This will make your voice sound a little deeper, which is generally desirable (think James Earl Jones or Martha Stewart). Just don’t get carried away…
In Audacity select the entire waveform and click on Effect > Equalization. Then click on the blue line anywhere to drop a point. You can then click and drag that point up, down, left or right. It’s a little tricky at first but you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll need several points to get the right effect and if you need to remove a point just drag it out of the window.
Boost the lower frequencies (anything under 200Hz) to between 10dB and 20dB. Next you’ll lower the higher frequencies (anything above 4,000Hz) to between -3dB and -6dB. You’ll want to play around with the curve and preview until you’re happy, but these settings will serve as a great starting point.
Step 3: Compressor
The compressor helps to produce consistent audio levels throughout your recording. Regardless of how careful you are there will inevitably be times when you drift a little close to the mic, have a loud laugh or speak a little too softly. The compressor within Audacity will smooth all of this out in no time.
Select the entire waveform and click on Effect > Compressor. The only setting we’ll be touching in here is the Threshold. Set that somewhere between -10dB and -16dB and preview until you’re happy. Everything else should be left in the default setting. You can reference the screencast below if your defaults get changed.
Step 4: Export
All that’s left is to File > Export. Buzzsprout can take various file formats, but we suggest you export to one of the following with the quality settings listed to the side.
- MP3 (Constant, 256 kbps, Joint Stereo)
- Ogg Vorbis (Quality 8)
So that’s it. Now you just login to Buzzsprout and upload the exported file. We’re sure you and your listeners will enjoy the results!
If you’re interested in podcasting be sure to follow the Create Buzz Publication. When you’re ready to start your own podcast checkout buzzsprout.com.
Originally published at www.buzzsprout.com on May 2, 2014.
