I’m working to complete the setup of the podcast that my students have developed this year. Its called Deconstructing Management and I’m hosting with Anchor. I didn’t want the tech to consume us so we recorded in Riverside, edited in Descript, and then assembled the Intro, Episode, Outro in Anchor. I had to rework a few episodes where the editing was really choppy. I am not sure if that was as a result of the students, or a side effect of the filler word remover/studio sound features, or both. Either way, I am relistening to all the episodes out on Anchor to see how they sound. I will be republishing these episodes in order once I know they are all set.
My question for you is that I had one episode where the levels between the speakers was REALLY bad. I think Descript adjusts some of this and studio sound may be also helping other episodes but this one had a lot of different pieces and I thought Auphonic might make it better. This was my first time using Auphonic. I definitely think it sounds better. I might consider running all the episodes through Auphonic but I wasn’t even sure I did this one the best way anyway.
Here were the options I chose based on watching this video. I decided to use the Noise and Hum Reduction because there was a bit in this episode. I would rather output as MP3 since that is what Anchor takes but he recommended WAV so that is what I did the first time but then I had to open it in Audacity again and export it as an MP3 anyway. I also had the intro, episode, outro completely together and Audacity said it exported it as one stereo track.
I may not even have time to do this before my 12/31 deadline but I still wanted to know what people here think is best for options in case I decide to do it and for when I use Auphonic again in the future.
This is the episode I ran through Auphonic. I do have at least one other episode where I think Auphonic would really help as well so I would be inclined to at least do that one.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sorry, I’ve no Auphonic knowledge at all.
This is a perfect case for throwing something “on the Workbench.” Our Supporting Members have a dedicated category for seeking the crowd’s wisdom in a more private setting. Posts here in Public don’t notify everyone on the platform, whereas posts in Workbench do notify all the Supporting Members. Obviously, there’s no guarantee it would get solved better/sooner on the Workbench.
That said, it’s perfectly fine to post this here in Public to see if anyone can help.
I always pass my work through Auphonic as the last step. I note Buzzsprout ways he like to keep them as WAVs for as long as possible. I agree but this is my least step so I export as MP3.
I export as mono -19LUFS MP3.
If it is the last step there is no need to import it back into Audacity.
Descript auto levels as you import. I would also then listen to the Studio Sound on/off and see which you prefer - sometimes it interferes too much and you can leave it to Auphonic. (Descript has its own version of Studio Sound but I just realised you may mean Riverside). Too much fiddling by too many automated cooks can cause you problems. Keep it simple and keep it as little as is needed.
Choppy could be the auto-remove of filler words in Descript - it is getting better with ums/ers but I always check them and add a little fade in/out if it is needed, or add a little extra space. Descript has the option to add ambient background as space rather than total silence. Try it and see if it works for you. I don’t remove space automatically and no other filler words - on the cheaper plan.
Thanks so much for all of this @steveh. I am not sure yet how to do what you’ve listed above, but I will experiment with that at a later date. I don’t have enough time to fiddle with this too much more right now as I have to FINALIZE all 18 episodes by 12/31 (and finish my grant report); right now I consider 7 of 18 finalized but one of those was one where I wasn’t 100% happy with the levels.
Since I already have each of the project files in each of the episodes with Studio Sound on, I don’t want to try to toggle it off as I feel that’s a rabbit hole I might not come out. I think I’m going to resist doing all of the episodes with Auphonic but may decide to do a few that need a little extra help.
I looked for my old notes and your settings match mine from May 2020.
Auphonics is pretty cool at doing a kind of global mix. I’d ask Steve Heatherington too if you have further questions. Sorry to hear you had tricky sound issues!
I run everything through Auphonic prior to publication, and so far, I’ve used the default settings. It exports directly to Podbean, so I don’t need to download it, but before they connected to Podbean, I exported as mp3. For whatever that’s worth.
Just would like to say happy new year, this is amazing! I’ve been having a bunch of issues with finding out how to make this more simple and concise process and listening to the videos about management and being able to quantify what we’ve learned as well a manage the work so we can get things done before the deadlines it’s creating the such a seamless process which gives us less stress dealing with so much choices! I’m also going to take a look at the video and see how Dr. Praveen Parboteeah has crafted this topic!
Your recording sounds pretty good to me @NicoleColter. Levels sound even. There’s always going to be a difference in the richness of the sound due to the differences in the recording environments and tech. But the levels sound even to me.
On the Auphonic settings - they look good. I use the same as in your screenshot. The Adaptive Leveler is the key one that evens the levels. The rest are all bonuses.
