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4 steps to edit your podcast in minutes with DynAssist
Editing your podcast with DynAssist is quick and straightforward.
If you want to follow these steps, feel free to download the free trial of DynAssist and test it on your own recorded podcast.
1. Achieve consistent loudness
Adjust the 'Target Loudness'
The target loudness depends on the platform where you plan to release your podcast. If you plan to use a compressor later, you can keep the default target loudness.
Plattform | LUFS |
|---|---|
Spotify | -14 |
Apple Music | -16 |
YouTube | -14 |
Amazon Music | -14 |
Deezer | -15 |
Adjust the 'Speed Slider'
For a well-leveled signal, the speed slider should be set between 1 and 2 seconds. This ensures subtle gain riding that enhances the listening experience without being noticeable.
Use 'Smooth'
The Smooth setting is located in the ‘Rider’ settings. With the speed slider set between 1 and 2 seconds, keep it at 50%. If you prefer faster settings, you can make them more subtle by setting Smooth to a higher value.
Avoid Clipping - Keep it on
The ‘Avoid Clipping’ feature should always be enabled. This ensures that no matter the target loudness, your signal won’t clip. DynAssist detects parts that are going to clip and reduces them. DynAssist also detects and reduces true peaks to keep you always safe from clipping.
2. Gate pauses between sentences
With the Gate feature, we cut out pauses between sentences, where you often hear background noise such as passing cars, a door slamming, or ambient noise. By default, our gate differentiates between ‘pauses’ and ‘voice activity’. So, you don’t need to adjust a threshold when there’s only one speaker on the track without any mic bleed.
But to get the right gate settings, we need to consider two things:
- Audio Quality: If there is constant background noise, it’s best to denoise your signal first. If you don’t have a denoiser, we’ll need to adjust the vox gate settings differently.
- Number of Speakers: If your recording involves multiple people in the same room, this results in mic bleed. You’ll hear both persons on each track, with the one closer to the mic being louder. Using the Vox-Gate in default mode, it detects the main voice but also captures the second speaker’s room reflections on your microphone and boosts them to the same level. The result is a well-leveled main voice accompanied by an amplified ambient voice from the other speaker. When layering both recordings from both microphones together, the vocals end up sounding with a lot of room ambiance.
After considering these factors, you can set up the vox gate. Keep the default settings for fade in and fade out. The ‘Min-Noise-Length’ determines how long a pause must be to trigger gating. If unsure, leave it at its default value.
By hovering over the red line at the bottom, you can adjust the reduction level. For most productions set it to -inf dB. If there is a constant whistle or noise, adjusting this may help prevent the noise from becoming more conspicuous when it turns on and off.
For recordings with mic bleed from another voice, use the loudness cutoff to exclude the unwanted bleed.
3. Tame annoying breaths
When speaking face-to-face, breath loudness is not really important. But in recordings, they can be annoying and unpleasant. DynAssist allows you to bring them to a less conspicuous level. After analyzing, you’ll see breaths marked in darker grey on the waveform. To target only annoying breaths, keep the default settings. For more thorough processing, set the relative threshold to -inf, but keep the range somewhere between 10dB-20dB to avoid unnatural reduction.
4. Reduce harsh sibilance
Sometimes, the ‘S’ sounds in poorly recorded podcasts can be very unpleasant. The default settings are usually sufficient to tame harsh sibilance. If you desire more reduction, set the relative threshold below -16dB. However, be cautious as too much reduction can cause your recording to sound lisped.
Finished
Now you’re ready! If you’d like, you can move on to mixing your vocals with EQs and compressors. We’ve created a blog about the entire vocal mixing process. Check it out and dive deeper into the world of vocal editing and mixing.
