Issues leveling sound -- could it be the mic?

[paulam25909058]

Newbie question here. I've watched several videos on compression and match loundness. Sometimes what I try works, others not. I'm having a really hard time leveling the sound of my latest interview. I use ecamm to record my Skype interviews. For some reason on the last one, if you look at the wave form, it looks like I'm speaking more quietly than my interviewee. However, if you actually listen to the audio, I sound louder than my guest so I'm not sure why my wave levels look lower. It seems like I can't balance out the sound if it appears I'm speaking quietly when I'm not. Any thoughts? I'm using a Blue Yeti mic and when I record solo I don't have any issues. And, actually, usually, I do sound more quiet than the person on the other side of the interview, so I'm not sure what happened today, but I'd love to learn how to fix this. Thank you for your thoughtful comments PS I really like Jason Levine's videos on YouTube and would love to hear more Audio 101 tutorial suggestions.

[Bob_Howes · Accepted solution]

Are you leaving your Skype recording as a single stereo track when you apply the compression/loudness matching?  If so, I suggest you split the recording into two mono tracks and apply the compression separately with different settings for each track.  If your stereo recording has different levels on L and R, a single setup for compression won't give optimum results on both.  I don't use ecamm but from what I can read you can split your track there of later in Audition.

Regarding the difference in levels, I believe you can adjust the level of your microphone in Skype on the Tools/Options/Audio Settings menu.  From memory the default is automatic adjustment so setting it manually to a higher level may help.

Finally, yeah, Jason Levine is brilliant!

[paulam25909058]

Thank you for this very thoughtful answer, Bob! I'll give this a try.