Check Your Own Podcast Mixes Against Reference Episodes From Time to Time

To verify that the audio quality of your podcast episodes is hitting the mark and sounding great, it’s a good practice to compare your mixes with other mixes which you know are objectively very high quality. When you compare your mix to others back to back, you’ll hear things like: One mix has more clarity, one mix has way too much low end muddiness, one mix sounds distant and the other sounds up front and clear, and much more. Then you can use these observations to tweak and optimize your mixes (and your ears) so that the audio you produce going forward is top notch!

Here’s how to use reference mixes:

1. Identify several podcast episodes mixed by other people that sound really good. To help you get started, here are three that I’ve identified: One, two, three.
2. Continue alternating between playing 20 seconds of your mix and playing 20 seconds of the reference mix. Make sure that both play back at the same volume (because if one is louder your brain will usually tell you that the louder one sounds better, even though it may not). Also be sure to jump around to listen to random sections of each episode for variety.
3. Notice what the differences are and how your mixes could be improved.
4. Immediately open up one of your mixes and spend a few minutes tweaking your mix to tweak/remedy any issues you may have identified.
5. Repeat all these steps on a regular basis. If you’re new to producing audio, I suggest doing this once per month. If you’re more experienced, once per year should be fine.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have any helpful suggestions? Comment below!

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