The world of podcasting can be filled with confusing technical jargon such as; LUFS, Samples, and bits, to name a few. That’s because it’s dealing with audio which is choc full of confusing terminology. This is mostly because musicians love giving complicated, opaque names to things. In the case of mastering, it’s a hangover from a past era. In the modern era, where all audio can be altered in its digital state, it has a slightly different meaning. It used to mean making the “master” tape (and it was tape) to be copied to print records, tapes, etc. So, it was the last step in the recording process. It’s good to know its musical connotation to understand how it relates to the podcasting world.
What is Mastering
In music, the mastering process or stereo mix, which takes place after the final mix, ensures the song goes through both speakers equally. Most importantly, it optimizes the song to play in all formats.
Podcasting and Audiobooks
In the podcasting world, it often gets confusing with mixing. All mixing refers to (mostly) is that the elements are at the correct volume to each other. No one wants to hear a conversation where one person is twice as loud as the others. The mastering process or “loudness standard” for an audiobook is called RMS (Root Means Squared). More tech jargon! It’s an average of the peaks, and what it’s getting at is that the book has consistent volume throughout.
Voiceover and Podcasting
Fortunately, you don’t have to think about this too much, as there’s usually an RMS requirement for the hosting site of your book. If the site wants your RMS level at -20db (current ACX standard), your final export should be at that level. Though you don’t need to know the ins and outs of making the audio have the right RMS level to be a good narrator, it’s good to know why they require it in the first place. Hindenburg Narrator makes the process easy for you as we run your book through the same validator that ACX uses. It fixes the RMS level for you, so you don’t have to deal with it. We all want life to be a little easier regardless of the jargon.
You can give our Narrator Studio a try here.
And watch some vids on how to export for ACX here:
Who’s the Master? By Jonathan Hurley, Minister of Education at Hindenburg Audio
