I agree with you AND you are just a little bit crazy which is why I love your videos.

After 24 years in pro audio, I couldn't agree with you more. More people need to watch this!

Great video - as a voice actor who does home recordings I've spent so much time and energy learning how to do all this the right way. Most of us consider audio quality an afterthought or think the engineers can just fix it in post, but there's such a difference when everything is done right from start to finish.

These new relatively short guides are a very nice addition to your channel!! Much appreciated!

Great video as always! I would add that the “sound”, including post-processing, should match the emotions in the content. Eg Don’t overcompress and eq an emotional or sad story. Bear in mind your intended audience demographic too and be empathetic. Always go for intelligibility and listen on as much different kit as possible before publishing. Mark (37 years doing this stuff at BBC Radio and still not always getting it right!)

Here's a tip for the newbies trying to get into streaming: Don't learn how to process audio by watching advertisements on youtube. Bonus tip: The famous streamer trying to sell you a streambeets subscription or some USB affiliate garbage that can be "just as good" as an expensive studio mic doesn't actually want your stream to sound good. You're not just his/her customer, you're also their competition.

5 years of home studio experience here is the tips I find most important : 1) If your room is untreated : Dynamic > Condenser. Unless you're in a sound booth, condenser microphones will just pick up noise, not just room noise like reverb and stuff, they will pick other things in the house, they'll pick up the truck or the motorcycle that just did a fly by etc. dynamic microphones are less sensitive and you'll get away with some of these things. 2) Never get only one take : Even if the take sounds great to you, always get at least 2, ideally 3. Because you never know, maybe overtime you'll notice a little detail that goes unnoticed at first , the recording is where the magic actually happens, half assed recordings always sound bad and unnatural. 3) Background noise removal : It is easy and it helps get rid of preamp hissing and some background stuff 4) Microphones sound the best when they're being themselves : Your mic is tuned this way for a reason, do as little as possible, because otherwise you'll end up with an unnatural sound. 5) "test" your recording through as many things as possible. Whenever I record something, I test the audio out of my booth headphones, my reference, my daily driver earbuds, sometimes through cheap earbuds, my speakers and a phone speaker. To get an idea of how it'll sound, to everyone 6) Don't bother with usb mics: If you're serious about recording something quality, usb mics are not for you, sure they'll humiliate any webcam mic, but a cheap xlr mic with a cheap audio interface will be better, and will offer cleaner gain and better upgrade paths . 7) If your recording sounds wrong , it's you fault : You don't need a Shure SM7B, you don't need a Neumann to sound good, a cheap Behringer can do the trick. If you sound like shit, it's almost never your equipment's fault, You'd sound bad out of an expensive setup too.

Totally agree with you. Based on your reviews we ended up recording audio books with the Procaster as well as the RE20. Still I do love to fiddle around in RX for subtle mouth de-clicks and such, but to have an unedited rough cut that could be just loudness normalized and published like that is just a joy to work with.

Bandrew...Thank you. THANK YOU! As a post pro for spoken word (audiobooks) and this is the most difficult/frustrating part of the work that I do with my clients and students and will be linking to and sharing this to the end of time. THANK YOU! Keep doing what you do.

Thanks for the spiel, Bandrew!! Post-processing for audiobooks has become less hectic. I've done over 50 now and it wasn't until book 42 I was in okay shape thanks to audio peeps like you.

The mad-lad does it again! I completely agree with this video and epitomizes my work as a podcast post-producer. I'm definitely going to be saving this video for the future.

I really appreciate these commentary videos. Helps self-directed learners like myself to make necessary improvements when we can grasp what should(and shouldn't) be done. Thanks!

Great video !! Your demonstrations, along with the concepts, were very effective, in this video. Thanks !!

Amen. Put this message on loud and on repeat. Thank you.

I needed this video a couple years ago when I was first starting out in Audiobooks. Hopefully this prevents folks from doing the same mistakes. You don't need that compression, past me! You don't!

I follow your channel because your reviews are honest and informative. Now I see your recent videos are mor informative. Happy to subscribe .

Excellent points in an excellent video! I have to admit, I do process our podcast audio pretty heavily to get that up front sound, but I also do my best to get it as clean as possible at the source. 2-SM7B and 1-RE20 plus 4 additional laptop/ipad audio sources with ground lift where needed. I cut 70 and below, I boost a little in the low range, then lightly boost a high shelf at 3k on up. I also use a gain rider to help control the overall level of each person, then comp, then limit. I also use a gain rider and a limiter on the additional audio sources. So far, so good. It does have that "radio compression" only because I can't stand having to adjust the volume every time i listen to a podcast. Honestly, a voice sounding like it's in an echo chamber and the lack of output level control are two main reasons i shut off podcasts. I think you made a great example of an echo chamber, too. I could always learn more tips, though.

Guilty as charged. I've used post processing to essentially change the way my voice sounds, as well as removing background noise and what not. I will now limit my post processing to removing background noise and do little to no EQ. Thanks Bandrew.

The process of learning how to do audio the right way has been exhausting. Thank you for your videos, I am slowly learning how it all works.

Great video Bandrew as always and a great topic for sure.

Thank you so much for the awesome video. I just started my channel and learned a lot from you. Keep the great work going!

Totally agree that great audio starts at the mic. But also believe that there is a time and place for post processing. In my case, my audience is often listening while working out. I need to make sure our content is not drowned out by the sounds of the listener's environment. So yeah, I do reach for an eq, stage some compression and limiting to help my audio cut through. I also use the same effects to create a little excitement when the content changes gear. It is also my goal to make sure that all the voices in our podcast are level matched. We are a show that helps people reach an athletic goal and we try to keep the positive energy flowing on a content and audio level. So I would say, know your audience first and then respond with the kind of dynamics and EQ that best fits how they listen to your content.

I laughed so hard at the radio sound, it was so damn accurate, reminds me of Howard Stern's show

Good advice as always, especially that you need to start with great audio to end up with great audio. I always try to get the best audio and then I don't need to do much, if any fixing in post.

I just think we should all use unprocessed ribbons so we can sound like the announcer on the Mercury Theatre saying, "The Columbia Broadcasting system and its affiliated stations...." Actually, we should just all use ribbons because they sound really cool.

This video and the one before it are gold, I tell you! GOLD! Would you consider making it a trilogy with a video about The Purpose of Pre-Processing? You get the same alliteration and plosives, and who wouldn't want that? As you said in this one, get it right going in, and you have less to do before it goes out.

This video is grossly underrated

This video is perfect and much needed!!!

Hi - You are bang on with your first point. Any amount of post processing won't cure a poor recording. Also, - you've got me on a roll now lol - So many over use the toys like compressors, noise removers, even removing breath noise!! - People have to breath...... lol. Rant over - Love your videos - keep up the great work. .

Thank you for opening my eyes on things that wasn't aware of them

Great video as always. I would still say that for the post post processing you need to test in different audio gear, cause sometimes you do EQs, for example, that sound amazing with your gear, but the viewer is going to hear it and it sounds terrible for their gear. KZfaqrs love to boost their bass frequencies, what sometimes make them so hard to understand if your gear also has a bass boost (very common in cheap headphones, for example).

As always, great advices ! I realise it is a "make your own podcast" channel but I'd like to add my two cents about podcast/video editing and post : a decent half of the video and podcast clients that employs me are not audio tech (or don't bother to add a sound field recorder for the video ones) and fail to provide me good audio materials. Thing is, retakes (and ADR) are pretty expensive and almost always cannot fit in the client budget or schedule so he/she is open to quality compromises. You will often face poolry recorded files, messy edits/exports from previous long-gone collaborators or dodgy gain-rides and the client will expect you to attenuate those problems to a mid-range level (i.e. podcasts, shorts, Netflix, ...) - thus paying you for this tech part. Of course you can avoid working on such projects if you manage to get enough income from your activity and only work with top-notch recordings - I wish I was able to do so ! Long story short, I've been mastering and teaching iZotope's RX advanced for years and could only advise young audio techs to get into this type of restoration software because at some point most of the clients will ask for some de-noising of pitch edits and those software are time saving in terms of workflow. Use it with parsimony though, don't be greedy : it can cause more harm than good when used in a wrong way ! There's plenty of documentation online, it's worth it.

So right. With music too. This saves so much in mixing. People waste endless amounts of time thinking they need to add stuff.

Even when you purposely try to make bad audio, it still comes out good. Magic.

Excellent advice. Thank you so much :)

The next to the last section is hysterical! Thanks for the laugh and the education!

This dialogue re-recording mixer gives a phat thumbs up to this video. My job is to make the dialogue serve the story. To that end we record well, edit with great care and mix to make the sound invisible for lack of a better word.

Thanks for the video!

Grreeettiiingggss Marrssliiinngggss .. I would like to know how to make my audio EASY TO LISTEN TO my audiences .. Jokes aside, I would love to see Podcastage recommendations for audiobook processing 😊

Definitely needed to hear this.

I want these videos to be called "Audio rants" so bad 🥺 I love it so much

A lot of people don't seem to understand that the "phat" radio vocal sound was out of necessity rather than an artistic choice. Radio signals are inherently very noisy, so we use a lot of tricks to get around that, the most common being pre- and de-emphasis. Basically, all of the signals coming out of the studio are boosted in certain frequency ranges (pre-emphasis or PE), and then the receiver in your radio will look for a metadata flag that tells it whether to apply de-emphasis (DE). This lowers those frequencies back down, which also lowers the signal noise in those ranges too, making the signal artificially sound "cleaner". The problem though is that some stations started boosting past the needs of PE, and thus when DE is applied, you have that "thick" radio sound that makes the DJs sound like James Earl Jones.

Wonderful video Podcastage, I think you should do a video on some hardware such as the DBX286s or the ART Pro channel II.

I needed to hear that!!!

For the brief time I did my own podcast, any post effects were added tastefully. Very mild EQ on the final mix to bring back what was lost to mixing or limiting. My thought was always get it as tight as you could on the master because anything you add may very well bring up a defect that you didn't or couldn't hear prior. I used my channel as a lead, then any other channel had a noise gate. Kept the floor lower and because it was quiet enough in the room I used, with very light compression it sounded very natural. I did roll off low end slightly only because my voice tended to come off as muddy sounding and it is. It is a characteristic of my voice and all I did was mix it so it wasn't detracting from the recording. Again, very very mild, 3db max change.

Thank you for this @podcastage , its very educational. If i may ask, could you create content explaining, the best acoustic treatment for broadcast/podcast or whatever setup that you are currently using, i would really love to hear your thought/opinion about this topic Thanks in advance :)

this has strong Professor Dad energy and I am here for it. Preach brotha.

Well i agree. Adding to many filters, as not the idea. I should had realised this as well, being in music myself. All i added is a EQ, gain and a filter that removes background static. It sound so much better. Will be looking at a xlr mic. Right now, im able to work with my nw 7000

GIRATS. Get it right at the source.

As the Proverb says, you cannot make a silk purse from a sows ear. Start with quality audio and tweak it not freak it. Loved the vid Bandrew. Keep it up.

I agree 100%. The post processing should make the audio easier to listen to, and you should get everything as good as possible before you start.

I love how when you listed the different platforms of content creation, you visibly winced on TikTok

Great basic tips!!

Great points!

To be honest post processing can help for certain audio devices. I've often used it to a bit better sound out headset microphones, such as with the Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless. The "Clearcast Microphone" used on those headsets can sometimes sound rather nasaly, but the recent release of the Steelseries Sonar software, I can choose the "Deep Voice" preset, which boosts the low end slightly while reducing a lot of background noise. The slightly boosted low end also helps microphone just sound a bit more natural in my opinion.

Appreciate this!

Very much agreed. Of course, I had this one "ADR" session where a video I shot in the middle of the city has a small segment of audio that I wanted to dub over. Good thing I used the RE20 to record the dub. The deeper dynamic range of the RE20 than the on-camera Movo VXR-10 and Rode WirelessGO2 combo I was using originally was a perfect mismatch. I couldn't get it to match and I had to roll with it. Why didn't I just re-record with the original setup? Those mics were recently stolen and I'm waiting for replacements!

I usually prefer to have the gain a bit lower to start with and tweak the levels a bit higher if necessary later , because it's easier to add a bit of volume and keep it clean than have it too loud and clean it in post, I'm saying this as a singer knowing that my vocals can vary from soft to screaming

Great message. My audio sucked until I got rid of everything and went super simple. Sm7b into a MicPre3 and got rid of all the other crap. :)

Okay, I need this hat! Great video!

love your videos

Great video!

you nailed it. everything is true.

Great video. Funny and accurate. 👍

"Rich, dark chocolate with sweet, soft centers flavored with exotic fruit juices." That's been my line for practicing sibilant cuts during delivery. I also had a problem with coming out of the gate hot and loud at the beginning of sentences then tapering down very low, and compression and limiters made it sound even worse. I do notice mud with close proximity of my mic, which is a shotgun, and only figured out that EQ fix today. I made it onto Bunny Studios yesterday, at my first attempt. I was so friggin' nervous. I knew that I had to alter the way that I read and processed in order to meet their standards, and not spend HOURS manually lowering my peaks. WOOOHOOO!

Totally agree with ya. Garbage in, garbage out. You can have absolutely stellar audio with even cheap gear if you educate yourself a little bit.

great explanation

5:18 What compression software is that? I have the Fabfilter EQ but I've never seen that compressor before.

I agree by default. I record the best I can according to my wife's opinion. I seldom do any post processing because my old ears can't hear any difference. Enjoy your show and am a regular viewer. Cheers.

best video I've seen from you

I've had to fix audio for quite a bit of podcasts (that I didn't record) and can only agree with you. No amount of noise gate and RX will save bad audio. It's not fun work either imo.

I made that same mistake a few times with heavy post-processing after following some tutorials claiming it would make me sound better, but I find that I like hardly any processing, just minimize the background, fix the clicks, de-ess a bit, normalize, fix a couple of things, bam ez done.

I actually liked the radio sound propeller hat audio. Do more with that EQ pls.

I agree with you 100%. Just record it good and forget about post altogether. Even if it takes 1000 takes it'll at least still sound better in the end

I know virtually nothing about EQ and I have a couple of good microphones (Zoom H1 and Rode Videomic) so it’s extra encouraging to hear that as long as the microphone itself sounds good, then don’t worry too much about post processing.

i would love a basic EQ/frequency tutorial...this is so alien to me

As I was taught in the recording studio back in the 1 and 2 inch tape days. “ Fix it and the mix my ass” “Sh!t in Sh!t Out”. There are examples of post processing repair when something like a phone rings during a chamber orchestra recording and you use a repair tools such as RX 9 and or Spectral Layers, but in a controlled environment like a Vocal Booth. Post production involves plosives, sibilance and maybe compressor limiting in my opinion.

Hi man! A big follower and fan from Baghdad. I like to host you in a Zoom meeting to talk about your recommended mics for teachers.

"I'll fix it in post" is like saying "It'll buff out"... maybe but maybe not. I had that mindset until I started getting complaints about my audio. My biggest conundrum now is do I get a dynamic or condenser mic to give guitar lessons in an untreated room.

Love it!

should do a tutorial into recording perfect as possible sound. As a sound engineer, my tips. 0. remember, shit in/shit out. 1. get as close to your microphone as possible. Some mics, like SM7B you can almost touch the mic with your lips and it sounds amazing, but you need to turn up the gain or get a cloud lifter if the gain isn't enough, or there's other mics like condenser mics, where they pick almost everything up, which are great for sound controlled rooms and recording multiple things in the room and best thing is they don't need as much gain. You also don't need to get as close to the microphone and do have a little more control as to microphone placement. 2. aim to record -6db. can always turn the gain up if its too low, but can't correct clipping. 3. editing should be done to remove any unwanted background noise like breathing or clacking. 4. post processing, compressor/eq ect.. so it fits better with what you are going for, or to make it fit with the rest of the audio.

I keep my voice natural. I recently push the sm7b mids button up but that's it.I wish I had a limiter so I dont have to worry about peaking. In reality a noise gate would be solid as well.

THAT EQ CURVE!!!!! Interesting because I feel like I saw that EXACT "crazy" looking EQ decision in some other KZfaqr's video last week. I was like HUH?????? 😱

helpful! thanks

Sounds like good advice, get it right first then play about if you want

Hi, what's the name of the microphone you're talking? I didn't find it in the description. Thank You and congratulations on what you do. I envy you for all the microphones you have :D

With a great sounding/treated room and no background noise from fans or aircondition, you can get great sound with a super cheap soundcard and a 58.

Based on some of these comments, i can tell alot of ppl are still missing his point. ppl are practically saying " If you cant drill a screw through the wall u can always reach for a hammer and bang it in!"' guys move the nail over an inch and try again... theres a pipe there. ... u get the point.

I couldn't agree more. When you use your voice as professional tool, like I do, you should know that the voice carries almost all of the information. Not the picture. And the more you process your recordings, the more of the information is destroyed. For some recordings that might be good, though.

I need to know how you record these videos they look so good

I'm the person people hie to "fix it in post". I can say it's always better to get it right going in. It is possible to get rid of noises without much artifacting. (I could've cleaned up that noise without nasty artifacting) What you can't "fix in post" is microphone placement, burned in processing or bad acting. "Fixing it in post" will make editing/mixing take longer too.

very informative

In Reaper for indoor recordings I subract out the computer fan noise, add a highpass filter, then either a de-esser or a narrow EQ for sibilants with a limiter at the end of the chain just to be safe. So mostly I am just dealing with noise.

The audio in all of your videos but especially this one there's some type of really annoying resident frequency somewhere in the mids that drives me bananas

Hey Bandrew, I have caught wind of a new Rode device to end all devices for podcasting, with 4 mic inputs. 4 headphone amps and a screen and ll the DSP power in the world, I really need you to review it as soon as you can. I bet it's awesomeersome

Off topic. Which is best for bedroom. Yamaha Hs8 Adam audio t8v Focal evo 80 I thought I’d ask you since you make the most sense of all the videos on KZfaq lol.

Hey, thank you a lot for all the helpful videos, would you consider to make a video for RE20 with the Go XLR? I bought it recently as I thought it would sound „better“ then Shure SM7B but I am quite disappointed with the results and I am sure your video would help out a ton

“Plugin Post Process with a Purpose” is a great plosive test phrase

It is with astonishing regularity that I come upon KZfaq videos in which the presenter's audio quality is dramatically lower than the price of the equipment on display would suggest. Misapplication of processing is common, as is ignorance of fundamental principles like how to position and address a mic, which polar pattern to use and how set input gain levels. More astonishing is the frequency with which these videos are reviews of microphones or other audio equipment, or of recording techniques. What can you do.

Hello Podcastage, I have a question. What do you think about the Behringer C-1? I'm curious, since your review is now 6 years old. I am planning on upgrading to an XLR microphone, but is the C1 still worth it? Or are there better alternatives for around the same price?