Improving your podcast audio
by Sean Caldwell,
voiceover talent and broadcaster
Podcasting audio quality is an area that needs improvement. As you listen to podcasts, most sound like their recorded in someone’s bedroom on cheap equipment that’s held together with black tape. Fact is, that might be the case! But it doesn’t need to sound that way. Recording voiceovers for professional broadcast is what I’ve spent a good part of my career on. I’ve picked up some things along the way!
In this article, I’ll attempt to provide some ideas on improving your audio quality with a mic, certain pieces of hardware, as well as software.
One of the least understood audio concepts by podcasters is dynamics control; also called compression. This is not data compression which deals with bitrates, mpeg, etc. but rather audio dynamics compression. Ever notice how the radio and most television audio often have a consistent volume to them? Take a look at this waveform, recorded from a big time cable news channel in May of 2006. It’s has a uniform shape and has good density and is easy to listen to. During most of the talk program, the dynamic window is roughly between -2 and -10 db or about 8 db of range. Commercials may be even more compressed.
