5 Easy Tips for Better Multi-Person Podcast and Livestream Audio

In this episode we teach you some easy ways to improve you podcast and livestream sound. These include recording techniques such as close-micing, post-production skills like railroading, and a quick demo of how an automixing system works. Implementing even just one of these tips can elevate your sound from mediocre to amazing! Let’s take a closer look.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest courses cover Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini and an Intro to Izotope RX.

Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVEStore, Perfect Circuit, Trew Audio or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- SoundDevices MixPre Series Recorders — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- ZOOM F6 audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- ZOOM F8n Pro audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Mackie DLZ Adaptive Digital Mixer — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- SoundDevices 888 Audio Recorder/Mixer — B&H, Sweetwater

- RODE Podmic Dynamic Podcasting Microphone — B&H, Sweetwater

- ElectroVoice RE20 Dynamic Cardioid Microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- ElectroVoice RE27 Broadcast Announcer Microphone — B&H, Sweetwater

- SHURE SM58 Cardioid Dynamic Vocal Mic — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- SHURE SM57 Cardioid Dynamic Instrument Mic — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- SHURE SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- SHURE KSM8 Dualdyne Vocal Mic — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- sE Electronics V7 Handheld Supercardioid Dynamic Microphone — B&H, Sweetwater

- Impact Turtle-Base C-Stands — B&H, Amazon

- Amaran 200x S LED light — B&H, Amazon, Aputure

- Aputure Light Dome II soft box — Aputure, B&H, Amazon

- Aputure Spotlight Mount — Aputure, B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Rosco Prismatic Glass Gobo in Cool Lavender — B&H

- Canon C70 Cinema Camera — B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8 lens — B&H, Amazon

- Panasonic GH5 camera — B&H, Amazon

- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — B&H, Amazon

The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed - “Dynamo” by Virgil Arles. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2023, Curtis Judd

This Happens...

In this week’s episode we discuss what happens when projects don’t go your way— and what to do about it.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest courses cover Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini and an Intro to Izotope RX.

Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVEStore, Perfect Circuit, Trew Audio or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- JZ Microphones Vintage 11 Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone — here (not an affiliate link)

- Sound Devices MixPre audio recorder — B&H, Trew Audio, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Amazon

- Rycote PCS Microphone Quick-Release System — B&H

- Aputure LS 300X used for background light — Aputure, B&H, Amazon

- Aputure Spotlight Mount — Aputure, B&H, DVE Store. Amazon

- Aputure amaran Pixel Tube Lights — Aputure, B&H, Amazon

- Rosco Prismatic Glass Gobo in Cool Lavender — B&H

- Canon C70 cinema camera — B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L lens — B&H, Amazon

- Schneider Radiant Soft 1 diffusion filter — B&H

- Panasonic GH5 camera — B&H, Amazon

- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — B&H, Amazon

The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed - “Dynamo” by Virgil Arles. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2023, Curtis Judd

New Course: Fundamentals of Mixing in DaVinci Resolve Fairlight 18.1

This week, we're happy to announce our new course on how to edit and mix dialogue, prerecorded music intros and outros, and basic sound design in DaVinci Resolve's Fairlight! The course is available here at school.learnlightandsound.com.

DaVinci Resolve is an amazing video post app for editing, coloring, adding visual effects, and mixing sound. And with free and studio versions, anyone can produce very high quality videos and films.

Fairlight is the incredibly powerful audio mixing page within Resolve.

In the course, we’ll teach you how to do all of this in Resolve version 18.1:

- How to configure the Fairlight settings

- How to import and sync your audio clips

- How to get around the Fairlight page

- How to use track layers

- How to choose which mic channel (lav vs. boom) to use in a dialogue edit

- How to set up your channel mapping

- How to use effects to clean and sweeten the mix

- How to use key frames and automation to dynamically adjust track and clip levels

- How to add and mix basic sound design

- How and when to bounce tracks and timelines

- How to loudness normalize your final mix

What is NOT covered:

- Video editing in the Cut and Edit pages

- Color grading in the Color page

- Visual effects in the Fusion page

One of the tricks with online courses is what to do when you have a question. We have you covered there. You can email me any time when you sign up for the course. We also hold weekly Sound for Video Sessions where we cover sound for video topics in more depth and even have Q&A sessions once or twice a month.

Come on over to https://school.learnlightandsound.com and sign up to learn with us!

Sync Audio to Video in Resolve 18 Using Auto Sync or Manually

In this week’s episode, we demonstrate two ways to sync your separately recorded audio to video clips in DaVinci Resolve 18 for single and multicam video footage. The first method is auto sync based on sound — in this case, Resolve uses the audio recorded by the camera as a reference to sync up the audio from your separate audio recorder. If auto sync fails, and it will for some video formats in Resolve 18, we also demonstrate how to manually sync your audio clips to your video clips.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest courses cover Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini and an Intro to Izotope RX.

Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode — or that I use in my regular episodes. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVEStore, Perfect Circuit, Trew Audio or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K — B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devices MixPre audio recorder — B&H, Trew Audio, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Amazon

- Rycote PCS Microphone Quick-Release System — B&H

- Aputure LS 300X used for background light — Aputure, B&H, Amazon

- Aputure Spotlight Mount — Aputure, B&H, DVE Store. Amazon

- Rosco Gobo creates the pattern on the back wall — B&H

- Canon C70 cinema camera — B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L lens — B&H, Amazon

- Schneider Radiant Soft 1 diffusion filter — B&H

- Panasonic GH5 camera — B&H, Amazon

- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — B&H, Amazon

The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed - “Dynamo” by Virgil Arles. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2022, Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session: SHURE Axient Digital, Workflow, & Q&A

In this week's Sound for Video Session, we'll talk about my experience with the SHURE Axient Digital wireless microphone system (just testing, no production experience), run through a workflow question, and answer your questions. We'll also use a new microphone and interface this week — Earthworks ETHOS and the Universal Audio Volt 276.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini and just added Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater

- Universal Audio Volt 276 USB audio interface — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Earthworks SR314 - B&H, Sweetwater

- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon

- Canon C70 Camera - B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens - B&H, Amazon

- TA3-M to XLR-F Adapter cable to feed microphones to C70 or Blackmagic Pocket cameras - B&H

- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H

Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2021, Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session: Izotope RX Rumble Cleanup & Q&A

In this week's Sound for Video Session, we demonstrate how to cleanup an audio clip with plenty of rumbling noise in Izotope RX and then cover your sound related questions.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We also just added a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Behind the Sound Cart by Patrushkha Mierzwa - Amazon

- Earthworks SR314 - B&H, Sweetwater

- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon

- Canon C70 Camera - B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens - B&H, Amazon

- TA3-M to XLR-F Adapter cable to feed microphones to C70 or Blackmagic Pocket cameras - B&H

- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H

Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2021, Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session: Q&A

In this week's Sound for Video Session, we cover your sound related questions.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We also just added a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Behind the Sound Cart by Patrushkha Mierzwa - Amazon

- Earthworks SR314 - B&H, Sweetwater

- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon

- Canon C70 Camera - B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens - B&H, Amazon

- TA3-M to XLR-F Adapter cable to feed microphones to C70 or Blackmagic Pocket cameras - B&H

- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H

Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2021, Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session: 512 Audio Limelight & Skylight Microphones, Izotope Cleanup, Q&A

In this week's Sound for Video Session, we get you some sample audio with the new 512 Audio Limelight and Skylight microphones, clean up a wedding video audio clip in Izotope RX, and cover your sound related questions.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We also just added a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- 512 Audio Limelight dynamic microphone - Sweetwater, Amazon

- 512 Audio Skylight condenser microphone - Sweetwater, Amazon

- Earthworks SR314 - B&H, Sweetwater

- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon

- Canon C70 Camera - B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens - B&H, Amazon

- TA3-M to XLR-F Adapter cable to feed microphones to C70 or Blackmagic Pocket cameras - B&H

- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon

- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H

Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2021, Curtis Judd

Izotope RX Phase — Fix Uneven or Asymmetric Audio Waveforms

Have you ever found that your audio waveforms are uneven or asymmetric — where the top of the waveform hits a much higher peak level than the bottom of the waveform? Or vice versa? And, is it a problem when it does? It turns out that this sometimes happens, especially with some men’s voices. And the problem is that you just aren’t left with enough headroom to boost or normalize the sound levels for your online videos or podcasts. In this episode, we show how you can use Izotope RX’s phase plugin to fix this issue. This will allow you to boost your sound levels without clipping or distorting.

The Phase plugin is available in RX Elements, Standard, and Advanced. See link for Izotope RX below.

Videos on Loudness: Volume vs Loudness How to Loudness Normalize your Audio

Special thanks to Paul Figgiani who provided valuable insights on waveform asymmetry and how to fix it.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest course is Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini.

Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com.

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVEStore, Perfect Circuit, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Izotope RX - B&H, Sweetwater

- Sennheiser MKH8050 microphone - B&H, Amazon

- Sound Devices 888 audio field recorder/mixer - B&H, Sweetwater

- Earthworks SR-314 microphone - B&H, Sweetwater

- Sound Devices MixPre II Series audio recorder - B&H, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Amazon

Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2021, Curtis Judd

Compression for Dialogue Audio - Presets for Video Editors - Quick and Dirty

Are you a video editor and cannot or will not round-trip your audio over to an audio editing app to compress and even out your sound? If so, here’s a quick and dirty way to use a compressor and adjust two quick settings to get your audio sounding consistent and loud enough. Not my first recommendation, but works in a pinch for videos that aren’t that precious or important.

Here’s how I’d really work on audio loudness when the sound really matters.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest course is Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini.

Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com

Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVEStore, Perfect Circuit, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Earthworks SR314 condenser microphone - B&H, Sweetwater

- Schneider Radiant Soft Diffusion Filter - B&H

- Canon C70 - B&H

- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L - B&H, Amazon

- ATEM Mini Extreme HDMI switcher - B&H. DVE Store, Amazon

- Aputure C120DII LED Light - Aputure, B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Aputure Light Dome II soft box - Aputure, B&H, Amazon

- Aputure Amaran 100D LED light - Aputure, B&H, DVE Store, Amazon

- Aputure MC tiny RGB LED lights - Aputure, B&H, Amazon

Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2021, Curtis Judd