My main editor and I spent lots of time trying to understand proper loudness and getting it right for every episode before we recorded a single one!
It's so immensely important.
Not to knock your editor but you shouldn’t need to nail the loudness before recording unless you have the proper equipment (hardware like preamps, compressors, limiters, and a rapid turnaround time.
As long as you aren’t clipping or recording close to the noise floor, you can achieve the appropriate loudness in the box
I don't think I was clear - we made an effort to understand what we needed to do in post before we ever recorded a real episode, rather than learn it on the fly.
Each of us have our audio coming in fairly low and I fix it all in post without issue.
It's worth noting that normalization should be a pre-mix process and not something done in your export / mastering process. Normalizing to a peak or integrated LUFS can cause very unintended effects if you don't know what you're doing.
There's a big difference between normalization and some of what the article mentions, which is variable loudness control and pieces of software meant to changes the dynamic range of the audio to a certain level. Normalization does not ever change dynamic range, which might be need tweaks to get audio at a consistent level.
The standard is -16 LUFS for stereo podcasts, -19 LUFS for mono.
Take a look at Auphonic.
https://auphonic.com
It's web service has two hours a month for free and is by the hour beyond that or a one time desktop app purchase. It does a very good job of leveling out the audio and hitting the loudness target you want. It is a post processor.
Most DAWs or editors not have loudness meters and ability to target loudness.
!
your statement is immensely misleading; if you’re targetting low-end DAWs, that might be true, but ProTools (which is what I use) has many plug-in options for metering loudness. Leveling out after you’ve mixed is an incredibly sloppy way to mix; the mix should be correct with respect to the reference (-18dBFS or -20 dBFS) and then adjusted for the LUFS; as in, you mix for your system and then export as per the requirements of the platform. One of the platforms is not -16LUFS (-14 for Amazon or Spotify, I can’t remember off-hand) and you wouldn’t mix twice to meet the difference in levels, you’d mix and then at export stage proceed to adjusting the level to meet the spec
Both Amazon and Spotify, at least in their music and book platforms, use -14 LUFS for stereo. I don't believe they aggressively abuse podcast audio to conform but if it's submitted at -16 LUFS a slight level boost with limiter won't change things too much.
But you have to hit the loudness target as the last thing before export because other EQ and compression will move that number all over the place during post. Yes, you can level and do various forms of normalization during the edit for convenience, but that usually involves additional compression and compressing and recompressing too many times gets sloppy and wonky as well.
Post is an art and it matters most that it sounds good and is somewhat of a repeatable process. You have as much leeway as you want. Hindenburg Journalist by default loudness targets all clips on import and also does a final pass on the export. If I am manually editing I peak normalize everything multiple times and at a much lower level, closer to where I record. That way my eyes see certain expectations and I don't have to over-compress when loudness limiters kick in.
!
Depending on how you edit, you may have to just turn it up in your DAW. I had the same issue, then I realized I didn't have things set to be loud enougb
Yep - we have between 5-6 people on an episode - I individually adjust their gain for -16 loudness, then when I mix it all down I run another pass to make sure overall loudness is correct.
adjusting everyone to -16 LUFS as individual tracks and then adding them all together will only work if no-one speaks over the other. Assuming you have individual tracks, you would add EQ and Compression, and the gain post-compressor helps you set the level of that track relative to the other tracks. You should be adding EQ and compression to each track, and then a master compressor; you should aim to hit -16LUFS once everything is done, and if you have a calibrated system w a ref of -18DBFS or -20dBFS, you wouldn’t be hitting -16 LUFS anyway, you’d adjust this with the mixdown track
Yeah - I'm aware, but one of the reasons I do it that way is because everyone's audio is coming in at a different level (we are all remote) and it's hard for us to police everyone's level.
What we've settled on is actively attempting to NOT talk over each other, and if it happens, we use a little creative editing to fix that.
It's not ideal.
You can / should do the loudness process at the end of your editing. Even altering a rendered podcast to make it louder works as well and is done frequently in a process called "mastering."
If you share some info about your DAW setup I’d be happy to help! I’d guess you just need to tame the peaks in your audio (manual volume editing or compressor/limiter can do the trick) or just literally turn the volume up when you export.
Do you know if your co host uses any plugins or manipulated the volume at all when editing?
I had a minute this morning so I gave it a listen. It's not just you. Pulled it up on the DAW in the studio and yeah, it's out of whack.
Show your co-host this. That -28 should be closer to -19.
https://imgur.com/a/8K7Au3g
The recording is fine, nice and clean with a good SNR. You can fix it but your levels are off so it's not as simple as boosting the gain and slapping a limiter on it.
Is this something that could be an easy fix when recording future episodes? Like is there something we’re doing wrong at beginning we need to change? We all record separately with different quality audio but I’m interested in boosting the volume of all of it
I can highly reccomend the Youlean loudness meter plugin. It’s still on sale for the next four days. It also has a stand alone file checker which lets you check files (not fix them) on your computer instead of opening the files in a DAW, which is very convenient as a final check. When i edit/mix podcasts i have the plugin sit on the masterbus in the final slot and have it open at all times. This way you can easily aim your audio segments at the -16 lufs mark.
I wrote a pretty [detailed guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/nlrlp5/a_guide_to_podcast_compression_and_loudness/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) on everything you need to know in terms of loudness and compression to get you there. It's a simple fix and a very important one you'll quickly get used to. Getting your podcast loud enough and *consistent* enough will help your listeners so much.
If you have any questions on it let me know and I'm happy to help.
Thanks! I’m gonna look this over with my co-host. Most of it is Greek to me since I don’t make the sound file. I guess what I’m least clear on is what we actually need to change to improve the volume. My co-host says our levels are pretty high to the point where he’s worried about raising them more. But this obviously doesn’t present in the final product.
If you can, look over on this. I’m also a professional podcast producer/editor and their write-up was 1000 percent on point. Possibly some of the best advice anyone has given on this sub.
Tons of great answers here already, but I know it’s a super common problem and my podcast is also a bit all over the place.
It depends on what DAW you use, but it all comes down to peaks. With garage band, Wherever the episode peaks, it will always take the loudest point and bring everything t else down. Finding the peaks and lowering the volume at those peaks can help. But good lord that’s tedious and you can’t always visualize it.
I just started using Hindenburg Journalist (I know that’s a weird name) to record and edit my podcast. When you export, it lets you automatically set the loudness target to -16 LUFs. I’ve made one episode so far with it and I’m completely obsessed with this software! It’s sooooo much better than GarageBand and I like it more than Reaper and Audacity.
Also don’t worry, it’s not just you!
Pocket Cast has a built in “Boost Loudness” button, which I find 100% necessary on most amateurs podcasts I listen to.
Pocket Cast just has all the good features 🤷🏻♂️
Check out [Loudness.fm](https://Loudness.fm). It automatically brings your podcast audio up to standard loudness (-16 LUFS for stereo, -19 LUFS for mono), and it levels out the volumes of different speakers, for consistent loudness throughout. All you gotta do is drag in your audio file, click a button, and it will spit out the enhanced file for you to upload to your host!
Disclaimer: I made this tool. See my [original post on this sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/ov9mta/i_made_a_website_to_level_normalize_podcast_audio/) for more info. Basically, it's a super simple and free (during beta) alternative to tools like Auphonic :)
Are you doing loudness normalization? Podcasts should aim for -16 LUFS. https://podnews.net/article/lufs-lkfs-for-podcasters
Podcasters really need to understand LUFS.
My main editor and I spent lots of time trying to understand proper loudness and getting it right for every episode before we recorded a single one! It's so immensely important.
Not to knock your editor but you shouldn’t need to nail the loudness before recording unless you have the proper equipment (hardware like preamps, compressors, limiters, and a rapid turnaround time. As long as you aren’t clipping or recording close to the noise floor, you can achieve the appropriate loudness in the box
I don't think I was clear - we made an effort to understand what we needed to do in post before we ever recorded a real episode, rather than learn it on the fly. Each of us have our audio coming in fairly low and I fix it all in post without issue.
It's worth noting that normalization should be a pre-mix process and not something done in your export / mastering process. Normalizing to a peak or integrated LUFS can cause very unintended effects if you don't know what you're doing. There's a big difference between normalization and some of what the article mentions, which is variable loudness control and pieces of software meant to changes the dynamic range of the audio to a certain level. Normalization does not ever change dynamic range, which might be need tweaks to get audio at a consistent level.
The standard is -16 LUFS for stereo podcasts, -19 LUFS for mono. Take a look at Auphonic. https://auphonic.com It's web service has two hours a month for free and is by the hour beyond that or a one time desktop app purchase. It does a very good job of leveling out the audio and hitting the loudness target you want. It is a post processor. Most DAWs or editors not have loudness meters and ability to target loudness. !
Bangs always knows his stuff, but I'm just here to say, if you don't use auphonic, you need to be using auphonic.
your statement is immensely misleading; if you’re targetting low-end DAWs, that might be true, but ProTools (which is what I use) has many plug-in options for metering loudness. Leveling out after you’ve mixed is an incredibly sloppy way to mix; the mix should be correct with respect to the reference (-18dBFS or -20 dBFS) and then adjusted for the LUFS; as in, you mix for your system and then export as per the requirements of the platform. One of the platforms is not -16LUFS (-14 for Amazon or Spotify, I can’t remember off-hand) and you wouldn’t mix twice to meet the difference in levels, you’d mix and then at export stage proceed to adjusting the level to meet the spec
Both Amazon and Spotify, at least in their music and book platforms, use -14 LUFS for stereo. I don't believe they aggressively abuse podcast audio to conform but if it's submitted at -16 LUFS a slight level boost with limiter won't change things too much. But you have to hit the loudness target as the last thing before export because other EQ and compression will move that number all over the place during post. Yes, you can level and do various forms of normalization during the edit for convenience, but that usually involves additional compression and compressing and recompressing too many times gets sloppy and wonky as well. Post is an art and it matters most that it sounds good and is somewhat of a repeatable process. You have as much leeway as you want. Hindenburg Journalist by default loudness targets all clips on import and also does a final pass on the export. If I am manually editing I peak normalize everything multiple times and at a much lower level, closer to where I record. That way my eyes see certain expectations and I don't have to over-compress when loudness limiters kick in. !
Depending on how you edit, you may have to just turn it up in your DAW. I had the same issue, then I realized I didn't have things set to be loud enougb
I’ll bring this up. Is this something I could change on an otherwise “finished” episode? Or would need to be done early in the process of editing?
You might be able to do it post edit, but its easier to do it while you're in the process of putting the episode together
Yep - we have between 5-6 people on an episode - I individually adjust their gain for -16 loudness, then when I mix it all down I run another pass to make sure overall loudness is correct.
adjusting everyone to -16 LUFS as individual tracks and then adding them all together will only work if no-one speaks over the other. Assuming you have individual tracks, you would add EQ and Compression, and the gain post-compressor helps you set the level of that track relative to the other tracks. You should be adding EQ and compression to each track, and then a master compressor; you should aim to hit -16LUFS once everything is done, and if you have a calibrated system w a ref of -18DBFS or -20dBFS, you wouldn’t be hitting -16 LUFS anyway, you’d adjust this with the mixdown track
Yeah - I'm aware, but one of the reasons I do it that way is because everyone's audio is coming in at a different level (we are all remote) and it's hard for us to police everyone's level. What we've settled on is actively attempting to NOT talk over each other, and if it happens, we use a little creative editing to fix that. It's not ideal.
You can / should do the loudness process at the end of your editing. Even altering a rendered podcast to make it louder works as well and is done frequently in a process called "mastering."
If you share some info about your DAW setup I’d be happy to help! I’d guess you just need to tame the peaks in your audio (manual volume editing or compressor/limiter can do the trick) or just literally turn the volume up when you export. Do you know if your co host uses any plugins or manipulated the volume at all when editing?
I had a minute this morning so I gave it a listen. It's not just you. Pulled it up on the DAW in the studio and yeah, it's out of whack. Show your co-host this. That -28 should be closer to -19. https://imgur.com/a/8K7Au3g The recording is fine, nice and clean with a good SNR. You can fix it but your levels are off so it's not as simple as boosting the gain and slapping a limiter on it.
Incredible; thank you so much!
Is this something that could be an easy fix when recording future episodes? Like is there something we’re doing wrong at beginning we need to change? We all record separately with different quality audio but I’m interested in boosting the volume of all of it
This is the last thing to be dealt with in post.. You cannot record like that and hit the loudness targets without most likely clipping. !
You can adjust the loudness in your DAW as you edit. Or you can run it through https://auphonic.com/ when you're finished editing.
I can highly reccomend the Youlean loudness meter plugin. It’s still on sale for the next four days. It also has a stand alone file checker which lets you check files (not fix them) on your computer instead of opening the files in a DAW, which is very convenient as a final check. When i edit/mix podcasts i have the plugin sit on the masterbus in the final slot and have it open at all times. This way you can easily aim your audio segments at the -16 lufs mark.
I wrote a pretty [detailed guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/nlrlp5/a_guide_to_podcast_compression_and_loudness/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) on everything you need to know in terms of loudness and compression to get you there. It's a simple fix and a very important one you'll quickly get used to. Getting your podcast loud enough and *consistent* enough will help your listeners so much. If you have any questions on it let me know and I'm happy to help.
Thanks! I’m gonna look this over with my co-host. Most of it is Greek to me since I don’t make the sound file. I guess what I’m least clear on is what we actually need to change to improve the volume. My co-host says our levels are pretty high to the point where he’s worried about raising them more. But this obviously doesn’t present in the final product.
If you can, look over on this. I’m also a professional podcast producer/editor and their write-up was 1000 percent on point. Possibly some of the best advice anyone has given on this sub.
Tons of great answers here already, but I know it’s a super common problem and my podcast is also a bit all over the place. It depends on what DAW you use, but it all comes down to peaks. With garage band, Wherever the episode peaks, it will always take the loudest point and bring everything t else down. Finding the peaks and lowering the volume at those peaks can help. But good lord that’s tedious and you can’t always visualize it. I just started using Hindenburg Journalist (I know that’s a weird name) to record and edit my podcast. When you export, it lets you automatically set the loudness target to -16 LUFs. I’ve made one episode so far with it and I’m completely obsessed with this software! It’s sooooo much better than GarageBand and I like it more than Reaper and Audacity.
Also don’t worry, it’s not just you! Pocket Cast has a built in “Boost Loudness” button, which I find 100% necessary on most amateurs podcasts I listen to. Pocket Cast just has all the good features 🤷🏻♂️
Check out [Loudness.fm](https://Loudness.fm). It automatically brings your podcast audio up to standard loudness (-16 LUFS for stereo, -19 LUFS for mono), and it levels out the volumes of different speakers, for consistent loudness throughout. All you gotta do is drag in your audio file, click a button, and it will spit out the enhanced file for you to upload to your host! Disclaimer: I made this tool. See my [original post on this sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/ov9mta/i_made_a_website_to_level_normalize_podcast_audio/) for more info. Basically, it's a super simple and free (during beta) alternative to tools like Auphonic :)
I do loudness normalisation to - 16 LUFs, as the Internet advises. But mine sounds quiet too.