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Sorry if this question doesn't make sense (or uses the wrong terms, feel free to edit). I've got very little understanding of audio, but willing to learn.

I've recorded a tutorial for Youtube and I'm trying to make the audio sound better in post. I use a Blue Yeti USB microphone to record and I'm using Adobe Audition(CC2015) to do the audio cleanup.

I've been using an effect rack (basically multiple effects stacked) to do some basic audio cleanup. I've got adaptive noise reduction, a speech volume leveler, and a hard limiter (in that order).

My understanding is the the speech volume leveler effect would fix the audio by boosting the quiet parts and bringing down the loud parts, basically making my audio all one level (which is a good thing).

However, it doesn't seem to stay very stable. One second it's a tad bit quiet, the next second it jumps too loud, only to drop back to too quiet again. Why? How do I fix this? I still have the original audio files, so I can go back and re-edit everything if necessary, but what's the best way to fix this?

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There's Way too much to go into here, about leveling audio, and as I haven't heard the audio clip, I will keep it short.

The speech leveller is probably causing the problem and you may not be using the hard limiter properly.

I would suggest scrapping the speech leveller and instead using the single band compresser with 'instant' attack(0ms) ,a short release(~1ms), a ratio of about 5:1 and a threshold set to -20dB. You may need to adjust a few things to get it working as you want for your recording. You may want to try to get some third party plugins, as Audition's dynamics processors leave much to be desired.

After you have applied the compressor, use the Normalizer set to -0.1dB. You may also benifit from a noise gate(before the compressor), to remove noise from 'silent' sections.

Instead of the stadard Audition compressor, you could try the (Izotope) Tube-Modeled Compressor's voice presets if its easier to use presets.

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  • This was very helpful! Can you provide some references to learn more about what exactly the single band compressor settings mean and what I should expect from customizing them further?
    – Sander
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 19:20
  • A 'single band compressor' is a standard compressor. A compressor is a dynamic range processor. After a quick search, I have found three guides on this subject. This guide from Sond On Sound is informative and easy to understand. It explains the parameters toward the end. I also found this and this just in case SoS is too detailed for you.
    – n00dles ♦
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 21:20
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Too many fx! You may need the leveler to meet standards of various places for DR and levels. But good recording mike technique and proper use of a compressor should be enough.

utoob sound is almost all terrible so dont obsess about 'perfection'. you are not really making it better just different with all you diddling.

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