Post-processing a podcast: volume leveling

Have you ever listened to an audio program or recorded musical piece where one segment is so low in volume that you have to crank up the volume yourself and then, the next thing you know, the following segment is so loud that you have to turn the volume back down only keep going back and forth or else suffer it through? Well, I have; and recently this had become annoying as some podcasts that I listen to have disparate microphone pickups at recording.  Most hosts are not pro sound engineers and can be forgiven for that, but the issue still remained. So I set myself to solve the problem, at least for myself, and came up with this solution.

What I do is run the audio  through a digital compressor before syncing. In my case I use the one included in the Magix Audio Cleaning Lab, of which I have talked of some times before. Most of the time the results are just what I was looking (or listening) for. When it doesn't, and it usually means that I turned the ratio knob too far to the right.

With the batch processing feature it only takes me some extra minutes, but it is pain free and now I can listen without the risk of having my ears blown off by a sudden yelp of exaltation from the host.

This program can be tried for free, but there are surely other good alternatives out there.

Oh, there's a good article on wikipedia too about compression:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_compressor


Update 10/12/15

With the rise of smartphones and the podcast clients it is now more difficult for listeners, or at least for me, to pull the leveling in such a straightforward fashion. As you can tell, the proposed solution depended on having iTunes on a PC and an iPod to sync to. I believe that for the majority now, this is no longer the case. Podcast client programmers have not wised up to volume leveling, but maybe sometime in the future? On the other side of the equation, since the original posting, and surely not thanks to it, I have seen (heard) podcasters take this area more in consideration. First it was the elimination of ambient noise and better recording equipment, now, more closer to us, volume leveling.  if you're a podcaster the tools are within your reach to make your show better for your listeners.

De-essing part 5: software

There is one final solution that can potentially solve all your problems when trying to de-ess a LP: going digital.

Digitizing your music from analog is not only the way to go for archival purposes on the cheap, but it also allows you to tweak with the resulting data in literally, hundreds of ways. A free, or very low-cost program can reduce or eliminate  hisses and scratchings and can be very good with dealing with the constant noise wave.

The program I have been using for years is the Magix Audio Cleaning Lab. Apparently, they have dropped the version number so the latest one is labeled MX. My old version 11 works so well that I have not seen the need to update it. Broadly speaking, the program lets you import your music from various sources,  including your turntable, process it, and save it or export it into different file formats or optical media. The processing stage is the meatiest one and it can automatically analyze the data for a recommended set of adjustments; alternatively, if you're so inclined, you can choose from many presets or fiddle with the various processing tools as you would with rack hardware. Generally the results are very good. Not all offending sounds can be eliminated, but close enough.

In regards with de-essing, there are at least a couple of tools that can help you. One is a dedicated de-Esser plug-in and the other is a preset in the multimax tool. Oh, there are also a couple of free VST plug-ins:  Spitfish (www.digitalfishphones.com) and  the Tonman deesser (www.gersic.com/plugins/index.php?daCat=5) . They pull a mighty effort at cleaning, but if the source is too far gone, they will still leave noticeable traces. In my informal tests the

Tonmann performed best out of the free tools. There are surely some other paid plug-ins out there.

So, is this the way to go? If you don't care whether your music is analog or digital, then getting this kind of software and using it concurrently with other solutions, such as the ones we have already discussed, will solve most of your problems. If you do care about keeping your LP music analog, using software is not an option for regular listening.

More on de-essing: 

De-essing part1: Easier cartridge alignment

De-essing part2: Get a hardware de-esser

De-essing part3: at440mla review

De-essing part4: Laser turntable