Mastering a podcast

Cubase
1

Hello.

Me and a friend have a podcast called Arctic Sessions where we present a one hour mix with electronic dance music. We do a little bit of talking and put samples of recordings we have made of people here and there in the mix. Its like “hello my name is xxx I am from xxx and you are listening to Arctic Sessions”. Its quite good if I may say so, hehe.

However, we are struggeling in making the podcast sound really clean and full (loudness). The problem is perhaps in two parts:

  1. Which VSTs to use in relation to the different files (usually voice overs) in Cubase
  2. Mastering settings (controll panel in Cubase and Effects chain and settings in Wavelab)

There are a ton of small snippets of information on the web but we cannot find a complete guide as to making a podcast.

As to mastering, I guess we have to work on the different volume settings on the Cubase controll panel and select the correct effects in Wavealab to use on the entire podcast. So far I have tried and errored myself to use a compressor followed by limiter to push the volume to max without exeeding the red.

I can mention that we record the podcast with a -6db gain to give us headroom to work in.

We would really apprechiate any tips as to how best get our voice overs to integrate with the DJ mix and how to master the podcast to make it sound clean, full and professional.

Please check them out here:

2

One of the quickest easiest ways would be to place the Maximizer on the voice tracks and allow that to pump up the volume on the vocal. Try the optimize between 25-50 and I’d guess that should help a great deal with the volume.

You may also want to take the EQ and use a low shelf to drop out some sub-bass (generally setting it between 50-150, personally I swing the EQ up until I hear the bass starting to drop out of the vocal and then find the sweetspot from there). You may then want to use another band of the EQ to boost some treble.

I hope this is a helpful start.

3

@Chris, great starting tips!
{‘-’}

4

Thanks! I will try this when we do our next podcast :slight_smile: