After editing them the noise level on my voice podcasts are a little bit too “forceful”, for want of a better word. They don’t peak out, but they’re a little loud and forceful, and slightly vibrate the speakers. The initial recording doesn’t do this, if anything it’s a little too quiet and way less powerful. I think it’s the compressor settings I have. And I think I need to untick the box “make up gain 0db after compressing” but the problem is that then it goes back to being really quiet. Any ideas?
For each episode I do this:
-set hard limiter. -0.5
-normalize. -0.1
-compressor. -20db
Well, compression/limiting (as it’s normally used with make-up gain) does tend to make everything louder.
And I think I need to untick the box “make up gain 0db after compressing” but the problem is that then it goes back to being really quiet.
OK, don’t use the default make-up gain but after compression/limiting use the Amplify effect to bring the volume up to your taste.
Or, use less aggressive compression & limiting. Compression & limiting are an “art”. There are lots of settings (especially for compression) and every recording is different. If you have headroom maybe you can Amplify without using compression at all! Or, maybe you just need some slight limiting to allow some room to Amplify.
and slightly vibrate the speakers.
Of course, that depends on your amplifier, speakers, and volume control setting. The speakers on my TV might rattle/vibrate while my home theater speakers can go a lot louder “cleanly”.
After editing them the noise level…
Just FYI - In engineering or audio terminology, “noise” is unwanted. Hum & hiss from the electronics are noise, a dog barking in the background while you’re recording your voice is noise.
When you boost the volume, you bring-up the signal and the noise together. Compression makes the signal-to-noise ratio worse by bringing-up the background noise relative to the signal, or by reducing the loudest parts of the signal. Distortion is another kind of unwanted sound
Hi, i’ve now defintely isolated “compressor” as the cause of making the ESSSS “s” sounds very piercing. Which setting should I tweak:
threshold -20db
noisefloor -40db
ratio 2:1
make-up gain for 0db after compressing