When creating a podcast, webinar, guided meditation or any piece of audio with a voice content and a music bed, there are a few things to keep in mind to create an optimal mix that brings clarity and focus.

An optimal mix in this case for me is clearly being able to hear the speaker, while the music bed provides an ambient backdrop. We want the speakers content to the primary focus, upfront and clear. We want the music to invite the listener in and create an emotional bed for the piece.

By following these steps, you’ll ensure a greater chance that your spoken word audio piece will shine through.

1) FREQUENCY SLOT YOUR VOICE OVER & MUSIC

This is the first thing I do when I start editing a piece of audio with spoken word and music. Frequency slotting speaks to the process of letting each “instrument” or “player” in your audio project rest within a certain frequency within the entire project. A lot of novice audio editors forget to do this when they’re mixing an audio piece. The result is that every sound starts to blend together. The guitars don’t have as much punch, the low end is kind of messy, the drums lack clarity and the vocals are overwhelmed and lost by all of the noise intruding on the sweet spots.

In our case with spoken word and a music bed, the theory of frequency slotting still stands but it’s much less intense…you’re only slotting for two instruments.

First, listen to the “instrument” you want to be upfront, in this case we’re talking about the voice over content. Listen for the speaker’s sweet spot, where their voice has the most “character”. For females, this is usually in the 200-350hz range. For male speakers, it’s typically within the 100-200hz range.

Once you find the speakers sweet spot, you’ll want to deduct or attenuate that frequency from the music bed. You can do this using any number of EQ plug-ins. Play around with the amount you’ll need to attenuate. It could be a lot or just a bit. You’ll notice the difference right away once you deduct the speakers sweet spot from the music bed.

2) SIDE CHAIN COMPRESS YOUR MUSIC

Side chain compression, one of the best tools in an audio engineers tool box. This is the process of setting a compressor to “duck” or “compress” an audio track when it is triggered by another audio track…sort of like having a master/slave relationship.

A classic example of this would be when engineers side-chain compress the bass line according to the kick drum within a music track. The kick drum acts as the master and the bass line as the slave. When the kick drum hits…boom…the bass line ducks…whoop. Because they both occupy the same frequency range, this technique is necessary for clarity of both instruments.

In our case, side chain compressing the music according to the lead vocal will give the impression or feeling that the voice over content has more room to breathe…it will sound like you can hear the voice much better with the music, even when the music is louder than necessary.

You’ll need to play around with the compression parameters like attack, release and ratio to get the best sound. Do you!

3) MAKE SURE YOU’RE MUSIC LEVEL ISN’T DROWNING OUT YOUR VOICE OVER

Unless your trying to convey the feeling of a momentous speech or a Lord of the Rings pep talk, you’ll want the music in your podcast or webinar to be relatively low…like a 1:10 ratio music to voice content.

This is a fairly simple process. Play around with the levels for your music but a good rule of thumb would be that you want to hear the voice content clearly when it comes in and be able to discern your music when the voice content goes out.

You’ll need to be the judge here but even if you’ve frequency slotted and side chain compressed, an abnormally loud music bed will drown out your voice over. Boo…

CONCLUSION

In the grand scheme of things, it’s good to remember that your voice content is the primary focus…don’t loose that focus. If you can’t hear the voice content, your podcast, webinar or guided meditation is basically lost.

Happy Mixing!