The world of podcasting has taken the world by storm over the last decade. Many people love to get their entertainment, current events, and information from this form.
If you’re a huge fan of podcasts and are thinking about starting your own, you need to be aware that your audio will need to go through a post-production process.
This process is important as it helps to make the podcast flow for listeners and create a more polished end result.
No one wants to listen to terrible audio and it may significantly affect the number of people who turn into regulars!
Luckily there are a number of different programs that can be used to help everyone from the novice to the master.
It may take you a while to find one you like but once you have you’ll be well on your way to becoming a podcasting sensation.
In this article, we are going to review the post-production software Auphonic.
TLDR; What Can Auphonic Do For My Podcast
Auphonic is a comprehensive audio post-production webtool that provides professional-grade results. Key features include:
- Intelligent Leveler: Automatically balances levels between speakers, music, and speech.
- Noise & Reverb Reduction: Customizable options to remove both static and fast-changing noises.
- Filtering & AutoEQ: Removes undesired frequencies and sibilance, delivering a clear and pleasant sound.
- Multitrack Algorithms: Allows processing of multiple tracks for an optimized mixdown, including automatic ducking, noise gate, and crosstalk removal.
- Loudness Specifications: Ensures consistency across files and compliance with audio specs by allowing users to define target loudness, true peak limit, MaxLRA, etc.
- Silence Cutting: Automatically removes silence segments such as speech breaks or breathing pauses.
- Speech2Text & Automatic Shownotes: Offers multilingual speech-to-text conversion and automatically generates shownotes and chapters.
- Video Support, Metadata & Chapters: Provides enhanced audio or video podcasts with chapters and waveform audiograms in various output formats.
- Auphonic: Balances sound levels, reduces noise, and filters for superior audio.
- Offers multitrack processing, silence cutting, and customizable loudness.
- Provides speech-to-text conversion, automatic shownotes, and enhanced podcast features.
What Is Auphonic?
Auphonic is an automatic podcast post-production web service that helps to create a better sounding podcast for all users.
Intelligent audio algorithms use a combination of AI and signal processing to provide users with an automatic process to improve the audio quality of their files.
How Does It Work?
Auphonic can be used to edit radio, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, and a whole lot more.
Regardless of what you’re editing, the service helps to create great sounding audio through a super simple process.
To achieve professional levels of audio they use AI-based audio algorithms.
Users can sign up for a free account on their website and download their application via iOS or Android app stores.
The audio editing tools that the site offers include:
- Intelligent Auphonic leveler – balances overall loudness
- Loudness normalization – adjusts overall loudness so the audio has similar loudness consistently throughout
- Audio restoration – background noise and hum reduction
- Multitrack algorithms – automatic ducking
- Speech recognition and transcript editor – choose from over 80 languages
- Video workflow and audiograms
- Automatic content deployment
- Optimal encoding, metadata, and chapter marks
To use the service, simply upload your audio file to the website and select the adjustments you’d like to make with a number of presets and editing tools to choose from.
Once you’ve chosen the specifics, you can watch the program do its thing and complete the production is ready for you to upload.
Features
Let’s look at some of the features in a little more detail here.
Intro And Outro
Auphonic enables you to work in an intro and outro to either end of your podcast to make it sound more professional.
If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, you’ll notice they have theme music or some kind of introduction and play out.
These files can be saved to the program for use with every new production.
External Integrations
The webservice is compatible with a number of different external file sharing sites such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and other cloud based storage spaces.
This allows you to easily move your files between the two applications in order to edit and upload them.
If you decide to finish editing your audio there, you can export the video directly to your chosen publishing platform which makes it super easy.
Chapter Marks
Chapter marks are the points you see in a podcast or video clip that allow you to break it into segments.
These segments mean your listeners can jump to specific parts of the podcast which is handy if you have clearly defined topics you discuss or ‘chapters’ in your work.
These marks can also be used to refer back to a section of the podcast, for example someone hosting the podcast may mention specific topics for their listeners to go back to.
This is more common when people are relaying factual information rather than just conversing.
Saved Presets
As mentioned, there are a number of different settings that can be changed when you upload a new production.
A ‘presets’ button allows you to save all your favorite settings for later use. All of these presets can be named and picked to suit different topics or needs later on.
Not only does this make production a lot easier, it can also save you a lot of time.
Loudness Normalization
Loudness normalization is one of the algorithms used by Auphonic to help make the audio sound more professional.
This ensures that all the audio files uploaded share the same average loudness.
The loudness targets are held against the standards for various audio such as television, radio, and mobile.
Noise And Hum Reduction
One of the features that is probably most important to a lot of podcasters is the reduction of background noise.
The Auphonic algorithms remove background noise in files that have slow varying backgrounds. The hum reduction is also useful to remove powerline hum and partials.
No one wants to hear annoying background noise in a podcast.
There are certain levels of noise removal which can be adjusted with the algorithm, so be sure to save your presets to ensure you are not just using the default option.
Automatic Speech Recognition
Transcribing podcasts is essential to allow people with hearing impairments to access your podcast show.
If you make videos to go along with your podcasts then these transcripts can be added to description boxes or used for closed captioning to make the content accessible.
The automatic speech recognition services come from both Auphonic itself and external sources.
Audio is analyzed and split into segments which enables users to receive basic transcripts from their audio with punctuation and timestamps.
With Multitrack Speech Recognition, the names of individual speakers can be recognized and transcribed in the output files.
We would suggest manually double-checking the output files before uploading to any publishing platforms to avoid any errors.
Intelligent Leveler
This leveler is used to correct the differences between speakers and also between music and speech in a podcast.
It is important to achieve a balanced level of loudness, especially if you have one very quiet speaker and one much louder speaker.
The leveler is useful in contexts such as podcasts, radio, lectures, and conference recordings as dialog is more prominently used here.
Pros
- Easy to use. The whole process is super easy to use and means that everyone can have the opportunity to improve their audio whilst they’re still starting out in the podcasting world.
You can save presets to make things easier still when you create a new production. - Free to use. Auphonic allows you to edit two hours worth of content a month which is ideal for someone making a small-scale podcast on a monthly basis.
Even if you want to pay for more hours, it’s extremely affordable compared to similar web services. - It can produce good quality audio. On the whole, Auphonic should be able to produce some really good quality audio for most people who are making standard audio content.
Those that have more complex needs such as people talking over background music will need to use a more sophisticated tool.
Cons
- You may need to do some further editing. As Auphonic is an automatic process, you will still need to manually check the entirety of your audio to ensure the audio is good quality.
Unfortunately you may find it hasn’t worked in some parts and other parts it may have made it worse. - It can’t guarantee quality. Although the program is designed to make audio sound better, this cannot always be guaranteed as it’s an automated process.
Further, if you have bad quality, low resolution audio in the first place there may be no saving it.
Is It Worth The Money? Auphonic Pricing
There is a free subscription tier with Auphonic, which allows users to upload and edit two hours’ worth of audio content a month for free.
Paid tiers are also available for those that want to edit more than this, these options are as follows:
- Up to 9 hours = $11/month
- Up to 21 hours = $24/month
- Up to 45 hours = $49/month
Even with the paid subscriptions, you’d still save a ton compared to having a professional master your audio.
This is an ideal webservice to use if you’re just starting out and need to save some extra money.
Users that pay for their services can also access advanced audio algorithms. These are slightly more advanced and the Auphonic website states that they should only be used if the user understands them.
The Bottom Line
Auphonic is a great tool for new podcasters to have under their belts.
Not only can they save money by using their free service, they can also take the stress out of learning how to master your own audio to a high level.
Sit back and let Auphonic do it for you!
We hope you found this article interesting and informative, giving you a better understanding of what to look out for in podcasting post-production.