Ignoring Levels?: Music vs. Hosts vs. Guests

It seems like half of the new podcasts I check out have a major issue in terms of audio quality — they have a level imbalance between intro music and each host and each guest. Intro music is usually way too loud (so listeners can’t even hear the host when they start talking), or way too quiet (making listeners JUMP when the host comes in MUCH louder than the music). And either host or guest is significantly lower in volume than the other, making it annoying for listeners to set a playback level where they can hear everything without straining to hear or getting their ears blown out every 90 seconds.

This is audio production 101 and experienced podcasters should not still be getting this wrong. In the mixing phase of production they should adjust the level of each of these elements to make them all play back at proper levels.

But sadly most podcasters aren’t even aware of this issue. And if you tell them about their audio quality shortcomings they won’t care — they’ll say something like, “Well, I’ve done 300 episodes and no one has complained.” Well, they haven’t complained TO YOU, but they’ve had to endure your bad audio even if they didn’t consciously know why.

Of course editors/producers should be nailing the mix every single episode.

And regular podcasters who want to do as little post-production as possible should at least use something like Auphonic’s Adaptive Leveler to accomplish a decent mix and avoid publishing bad audio.

Now get off my lawn. HA

What are your thoughts on this particular podcasting epidemic? Comment below!

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