Podcast Loudness and Mixing Basics

EQ, compression, loudness targets — the audio-engineering minimum for professional-sounding shows.

The landscape

When it comes to the engineering you actually need vs the rabbit hole, the details matter. Here's what the evidence and practitioner experience point to:

• The minimum mixing stack: high-pass filter (cut rumble below 80Hz), light compression (even out level), and normalise to -16 LUFS.
• EQ moves that matter: slight presence boost around 3–5kHz for clarity, cut sibilance around 6–8kHz if harsh — done.

What actually works

When it comes to the engineering you actually need vs the rabbit hole, the details matter. Here's what the evidence and practitioner experience point to:

• Compression tame the loud/quiet variance that makes listeners reach for volume — gentle ratios (2:1–3:1) preserve natural dynamics.
• Level-matching voices is the most important step — guests and host at consistent perceived loudness is what reads as 'professional'.

Putting it into practice

When it comes to the engineering you actually need vs the rabbit hole, the details matter. Here's what the evidence and practitioner experience point to:

• AI-rendered audio skips the mixing stage — provider output is already consistent, correctly-levelled speech.
• Loudness normalisation to -16 LUFS + true-peak limiting under -1 dBTP is the delivery spec — verify once, then trust the pipeline.

Key takeaways

• The minimum mixing stack: high-pass filter (cut rumble below 80Hz), light compression (even out level), and normalise to -16 LUFS.
• Level-matching voices is the most important step — guests and host at consistent perceived loudness is what reads as 'professional'.
• Loudness normalisation to -16 LUFS + true-peak limiting under -1 dBTP is the delivery spec — verify once, then trust the pipeline.

Ready to put this into practice? PodKrafter turns research into broadcast-ready podcast episodes — start free.