Volume Spikes at the Beginning of Sentences

Question:

When a participant on a podcast doesn’t speak for a while and then starts to speak, immediately their audio volume spikes loudly for a second or two and then comes back to a normal level, and remains normal for the rest of the time that they continuously speak. And this happens throughout the episode every time they start speaking after they are silent for a while. How to handle this in post-production?

Answer:

The most likely reason this happens is due to the apps that are processing the person’s audio — like Skype, etc. Many programs use ACG (Automatic Gain Control) and/or compression (and who knows what else) to adjust a person’s volume ON THE FLY depending on their input level — meaning that if a person is really quiet, the ACG will boost their volume, but as soon as the person gets get loud the ACG will lower their volume, and so on.

To avoid this issue, you can (and probably should always) turn off ACG in Skype, and usually you’re able to turn it off in other programs, too.

And what’s the solution in post-production? A couple options:

1. Use a compressor with a medium/fast attack time (1-30 milliseconds) and slow release time (around 2-5 seconds, which is 2000-5000 milliseconds). Then adjust the threshold so that their loud parts are compressed a bit but their normal level parts are not (or hardly) compressed at all.
2. In your DAW software using volume automation, manually bring down the level of their loud parts, making sure to fade the volume gently so the effect is transparent.

I’m sure there are other solutions, too.

How do you handle this situation?

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