How to Add Clarity to a Dull Sounding Recording?

The dull sounding recordings I’m talking about here are the really bad ones – like recording a guest through their onboard computer mic when that mic really stinks, or through Skype when their voice is coming through with very little clarity, etc.

First of all, try to avoid this.

But, if you have to perform some magic to get a dull sounding track to sound decent, here are some ways:

• Add high frequencies using EQ. This can help, but of course if you’ll be boosting whatever noise and nastiness is within those frequencies as well, so make sure you don’t add too much and make things worse.
• Remove some low and low-mid frequencies to accentuate mids, high-mids and highs. This really helps but be careful not to remove too much of the body of the sound or else it will sound way too thin.
• Use an aural exciter to add some high frequency harmonics. These harmonics can sound much smoother than a regular EQ, but you still can only add so much before it’s too much.
• Use a transient shaper like iZotope’s or Spiff, etc. These processors will accentuate the transients of the sound like hard consonants, etc., and this can make a dull recording sound more intelligible.

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And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

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