A voice sounds professional when it is recorded close to the microphone in a quiet room, cleaned with a Low Cut at 80 to 100 Hz, shaped with small EQ moves (a cut around 300 Hz, a boost around 4 kHz), de-essed, and evened out with gentle compression. The microphone matters less than these steps.
In Short
The short version:
- Speak 10 to 15 cm from the microphone, slightly off to one side.
- Remove rumble with a Low Cut at 80–100 Hz and quieten the pauses with a noise gate.
- Cut 2–3 dB around 300 Hz if the voice sounds boxy; boost 2–3 dB around 4 kHz if it sounds dull.
- Soften harsh S sounds with a de-esser, not with EQ.
- Even out the volume with a 3:1 compressor and finish at about -16 LUFS for a podcast.
Start at the Microphone
No editing step can add what the recording doesn’t contain. Before you touch a slider, get these four things right:
- Distance. Speak from 10 to 15 cm away. Close to the microphone, your voice is much louder than the room, so you hear less echo and less noise.
- The proximity effect. Directional microphones, which includes most podcast and USB microphones, boost the bass when you get very close. A few centimeters closer gives a warmer, deeper voice; too close and it turns boomy.
- Angle. Point the microphone at your mouth but speak slightly past it. Bursts of air from P and B sounds then miss the capsule. A pop filter helps too.
- Level. Set the input gain so your loudest words peak around -12 dB. That leaves headroom for a laugh, and a recording that never clips can always be made louder later.
Step 1: Clean Up First
Fix noise before you shape the tone, because EQ and compression make noise more audible. Set a Low Cut at 80 to 100 Hz to remove rumble and use a noise gate to silence the pauses. Both are covered step by step in How to Remove Background Noise from Audio; you can do them in the Noise Gate & De-Esser or the Sound Optimizer.
Step 2: The Best EQ Settings for a Podcast Voice
Every voice and microphone is different, so treat EQ settings as places to listen rather than fixed rules. These five ranges cover almost every voice problem:
| Range | Frequencies | What to try | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rumble | Below 80 Hz | Remove with a Low Cut | Takes out desk bumps, traffic and the thump of P and B sounds |
| Boxiness | 200–400 Hz | Cut 2 to 3 dB | Removes the “talking into a cardboard box” sound and adds clarity |
| Nasal tone | 800 Hz–1.5 kHz | Leave, or cut 1 to 2 dB | Smooths a honky, nasal quality if your voice has one |
| Presence | 3–5 kHz | Boost 2 to 4 dB | Makes words easier to understand, especially over music |
| Sibilance | 5–9 kHz | Use a de-esser | Harsh S sounds are better tamed dynamically than with EQ |
In the 3-Band EQ you can move each band to the frequency you need. To remove boxiness, set the Mid frequency to about 300 Hz and lower Mid by 2 to 3 dB. For more clarity, raise Treble by 2 to 3 dB. Make one change at a time and compare with the original: if you can’t hear an improvement, undo it. The guide to audio frequencies and the 3-band EQ explains each range in detail.
If you want to know why a voice has these ranges at all, the introduction to voice acoustics by the Acoustics Group at UNSW Sydney explains how the vocal folds and the vocal tract shape its sound.
Step 3: Tame Harsh S Sounds
Sibilance is the sharp burst of high frequencies in S, SH and T sounds. Bright microphones and a presence boost make it worse, and on headphones it quickly becomes tiring. Turning the treble down would dull the whole voice; a de-esser lowers the highs only at the moments they spike.
Open the recording in the Noise Gate & De-Esser. Leave the de-esser frequency at 5,000 Hz to begin with and lower the de-esser threshold until the Reduction display shows 3 to 6 dB on S sounds. If the voice starts to sound lispy, you have gone too far.
Step 4: Even Out the Volume
In natural speech, some words are much louder than others. A compressor turns down the loudest moments so that the whole recording can be raised without clipping, and quiet words stay easy to hear. In the Sound Optimizer, set the Compression Ratio to about 3:1 and lower the Compressor Threshold until the loudest words are gently reduced. Then raise Volume / Gain.
For the final level, aim for about -16 LUFS for a podcast, which is what Apple Podcasts recommends, or about -14 LUFS for online video, and keep peaks at or below -1 dB. A mono file reads about 3 LU lower than the same audio in stereo, so a mono podcast lands near -19 LUFS.
Step 5: Edit for Pace
Tight editing does as much for a professional impression as tone. Cut false starts, long hesitations and coughs with the Audio Trimmer, and combine separate takes with the Audio Joiner & Mixer. Keep normal breaths and short pauses: speech without them sounds rushed and unnatural.
The Order That Works
Each step works better on the result of the one before it, so the order matters:
- Record close to the microphone, with peaks around -12 dB.
- Trim mistakes and long pauses.
- Clean: Low Cut first, then the noise gate.
- EQ: cut what is too much, then add a little clarity.
- De-ess after EQ, because a treble boost makes S sounds louder.
- Compress and set the final loudness.
Common Mistakes
- Boosting the bass for a “radio voice”. It adds rumble and makes the voice muddy on small speakers. Move closer to the microphone instead.
- Big EQ moves. More than 4 dB in any direction usually means the problem is in the recording, not the EQ.
- Too much de-essing. The voice loses its S sounds and seems to lisp.
- Heavy compression. Breaths and room noise get as loud as the words, and the voice sounds flat.
- Judging on laptop speakers. They hide rumble and sibilance. Check on headphones, then on a phone.
Try It on Your Own Recording
Open a voice recording in the Sound Optimizer and work through the steps while you listen.
Open the Sound OptimizerFree, no sign-up, and your files never leave your device.