Light compressor for podcasting how to#

You should try to set the threshold 6-10dB below the average volume of the audio. The right setting for the threshold depends entirely on how loud the audio is. If it's too low, the voice will sound overly compressed and completely squashed. If the threshold is too high, the audio won't be compressed at all. The threshold determines the level at which the compressor kicks in. ThresholdĪlthough all the parameters of a compressor are equally important, getting the threshold right is key. I find that even 3:1 is more than enough in most situations.įor this reason, my guideline for ratio would be somewhere between 2:1 and 4:1, with 2.5:1 being a great starting point. You could go above 5:1 if you were recording a voice for an advert, or wanted to use compression as an obvious effect.īut for a natural sound it's important to keep the ratio below 5:1. With this in mind, you want to keep the ratio low in most circumstances. It should subtly improve the sound of the voice without showing off. Unless you're a radio DJ or recording a voice over for an advert, you don't want the compression to be noticeable. The main thing that you need to remember when applying compression to voice is to keep it subtle. So if your ratio is set to 3:1, the output will be 3 times quieter. The ratio determines how much the audio is reduced in volume by the compressor. The first number tells us by what factor the level will be reduced.

Light compressor for podcasting how to#

I'll show you how to improve your voice recordings with a little bit of compression. I can get you 80% of the way there with a few guidelines. You can apply this principle to compressing a voice recording. The key to mastering compression is, of course, practice. This means you can get 80% of the way towards an objective in a fifth of the time if you can only figure out what that 20% is. He realised that 80% of the results generally come from 20% of the efforts. He found that 80% of his garden peas were produced by only 20% of the pods in his garden.Īfter some thought he applied this 80/20 concept to other areas and discovered a bit of a trend. Pareto was an 18th century Italian philosopher who made an interesting and unusual discovery. Perhaps you've heard of Pareto's Principle. You don't, however, need to spend hours on research and practice to have a basic understanding of compression. Actually, I can do you one better-you don't need to spend much time on research and practice at all. I have no idea where they read that-but it's most definitely not true.Ĭompression is one of those tools that most people like to set and forget. When you are more concerned with content than quality, it can easily happen. Especially when you run a podcast, record voice overs or make your own videos. I can still remember the disbelief that I felt at that moment as well.

They said: 'Rob, I read that applying compression to a voice over with a ratio of 20:1 will make it instantly sound more powerful and authoritative?'

I can remember a very peculiar question that somebody asked me once.