Can someone please explain to me as you would to a 5 year old what I’m looking at when I open the equalization window. My podcasting hosting website (the FANTASTIC buzzsprout.com) has suggested that we boost the lows and mids and then slightly drop the highs. I know we have to sellect the entire wave form and then click ‘effects’ and ‘equalization.’ What I don’t understand is how the equalization window correlates to the wave form, and also what the x and y axis of the equalization window are showing me.
“Equalization” is like a fancy “tone control”.
Whereas on a CD player you may have “Bass” and “Treble”, where “Bass” is the low frequencies and “Treble” is the high frequencies, Equalization provides much finer control of frequencies. The left of the graph shows the lowest frequencies, then frequencies become progressively higher to the right, with the very highest frequencies at the extreme right.
There is more information here: Audacity Manual
You may find the much simpler “Bass and Treble” effect to be adequate for the task.
See here for details: Audacity Manual
Just by reducing the Treble, you are effectively raising the bass and middle frequencies.
explain to me as you would to a 5 year old
ELI5?
We are about to commit the sin of recommending tools and services without ever hearing the show. While I’m sure they’re probably right, it’s good to know what we’re dealing with. Is there a posting address of a “typical” show? Or do you have a representative sample you can post? You would post a WAV if we needed technical and scientific inspection, but we just need to hear what you’re doing, so pick a very good quality (250 Stereo, 125 mono) MP3 and post that.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1
I’m personally of the belief that you should be shooting the final show. What else would you shoot? People go into this with the idea that they can shoot anything without paying attention and “fix it in Audacity later.” These people can have very serious problems. The poster child for this is Effect > Noise Removal which doesn’t actually remove noise very well, certainly not dogs barking or microphone hiss. The joke is by the time you realize you need it, it’s too late.
It’s possible we’re going to take one good listen and recommend changes for your shoots so that you won’t have to do anything but cut here and there to tighten it up and press “Submit.”
It’s also possible we’re going to hide under the bed holding our ears.
Koz