Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Mike from Make Time Online. And today I'm just going to show you the difference between Levelator and Alphonic as a way of leveling out the audio of podcasts and I use both. So I'm going to show you like the pros and cons of them and kind of the pricing. And wow, I just basically use the free version, so it would all make sense in a minute, I hope. So this is just a podcast. So this is me talking and the music over the top. So I've already been through and edited this podcast. So it's all in the right place. So you can see there's little like transitions and things. So it's all in the right place. Now, something that's really important for what using Alphonic is to make sure that both tracks, any tracks that you are using, if you're using multiple tracks, start at the start, if they don't, let's just say, for example, you were using music that you wanted to come in here, you would just need to insert. Um, so you just need to insert silence basic. So you go to generate, silence, and you decide how much you want to actually put in, um, I'm not going to do it now, but you just, so if you had four minutes, 30, you just put in four minutes, 30 of silence, and then it goes to the same points. Now I always make sure if I'm going to use Alphonic, the really good part about doing it is that you can export as multiple tracks and then basically what ends up happening with, so with the music that I have here, if I'm speaking, I can make it go quieter, the music when I'm speaking, and then come back in when I'm not speaking. So that's the really good standout feature about that. So I normally export as multiple. Uh, I choose where I want them to go. So I'm going to put it in here. And it's WAV now I've just heard before, not sure why, but apparently WAV just helps to keep your tracks cleaner, nicer, uh, rather than mp3 when you have to upload it to your hosting, you normally have to upload it as an mp3. So that's just something to bear in mind, but just while you're playing around with it and you're getting the levels right and everything, keep it in WAV, WAV for WAV, WAV for as long as possible. Um, and some things that actually, that is actually required. So all I need to do now is head over to Alphonic. I'm not entirely sure why you say Alphonic, Orphonic, I'm not sure. Uh, and then what I'm going to do is you can do it in a couple of ways. You can just do a new production and it just levels your tracks. Just it's simple to do it that way. And it does a really good job. But the reason I use it, you basically get two hours for free each month. And so I tend to only use it for certain podcasts. Um, it's my personal preference. I'll show you why I'll explain why soon, but I'll go into new multi-track production basically. And then in here, I can, you can also set a preset as well. So I can set all these things that I'm about to show you, um, up and it will be there forever basically, and then it just makes it a little bit easier, but all I'm going to show you is that I need to choose file. So I'm just going to upload my two files. So my first one was called this because I only had two files. Now, if you have more files and it starts getting a little bit confusing, which again, is another hint as to why I don't do this for every single, um, track. And then I also go to add another audio track and I put my, this is basically my music, so that is added in. So the really important parts here, filtering is basically, it explains as well, if you see here at the bottom, it classifies the lowest wanted signal. So it basically just filters, disturbing noises, background noises, and things like that, and while the noise and harm reduction and does that, you can take that, I normally do, uh, the full round of background. So if you have like a track that you want to be the main track and you want one behind it, uh, I just normally leave that as auto unless it is the music, which is this one, and then for that one, I go to duck this track. So it will hopefully change my, it will, that will lower the sound when I talk and raise it when I'm not talking. So that's just try and keep that really simple. All of this stuff you can add and you can get like super into it and you can put it straight onto your hosting and things like that. So you publish on an external thing. The only thing I ever, um, concerned about is the output file. Uh, if you want to do it and then you want to tweak it again and audacity is like some people want to get like super techie and stuff, then you probably, like I say, keep it as a WAV file, but I just want to get this done. So this will be MP3 done. And I click on mono and it basically just mixes all those files and it puts it into one mono file. And then all the other things, I just leave this all as it is. This is what it recommends for podcasts. Um, some people will go to minus 19. To be totally honest, it is minimal effects, like unless you're really, really super, you want to get super techie about it. I know some people recommend going to 19 just so it makes it a little bit softer. I just leave it at 16. Just try and keep it as simple as possible. Like I do with most things and just going to double check and then I press start production. And I'm actually not going to put you through all of this. I don't want notifications. It's credits for 20 minutes. Hmm. I don't know why that says 20 minutes because I should have two hours. Anyway, let's see. I'm going to start production and just to show you like the pricing and everything you do get two hours free of audio. And then if you want to upgrade and get nine hours, it's like $11 per month and there's all of those. I would personally recommend maybe checking out if you want to use a bit more, um, which I have done in the past, but I've used mine, uh, is just paying like a one-time fee for a few extra because they get rolled over each month. So if, you know, I only use four hours this month, then I would get, I would still have another, I'll get two, three, two. Uh, so I'd have eight, eight hours left for the next month. And whilst that is going, I'm going to show you what I also do for, um, how I use levelator and then you can see the difference. Now, this one is a longer podcast and you can see, I have more tracks and things in it. I still have the intro and outro music. Um, but I tend to mix it up. The reason I use levelator for this is one, because you run out of credits for phonic and two, because I'm not that fussy and I am happy with what levelator does. But what's really important with levelator, you must export as a WAV, kind of like I was just mentioned a minute ago, keeps it a little bit better anyway. And let's just save that as Mo. Okay. Okay. Okay. 27 seconds. And then as soon as that is done, I'm going to stick the file into levelator. And it just does some magic. I honestly, it looks like the oldest thing that you have ever seen in the world. Look how simple this is. Just make sure that's done good. And then I'm just going to literally stick that in there and then that does it, but it will come out as a WAV to upload to my host, which is pod beam. Um, I also recommend red circle, which is free is to put that back into audacity, back out as an MP3, and then I can upload it. Whereas obviously with this or phonic, this will literally be done once it's done, if I have enough credits, um, I'm not going to sit here and make you have to watch me, but I will keep track of the time for you. So why don't I do this? And you can see how long this actually takes. So it's taken eight minutes so far. I should've probably done this from the start so you can actually see. Anyway, I'll be back in a bit. Okay. So levelator has done, um, or phonic is still going to stop watch. So I only took a couple of minutes. Um, something I didn't mention though, is just a little bit about using audacity. I always find a bit of blank, um, just bit where no one's talking in the file. I go to effect, noise reduction, get noise profile, select all of it. You can also do that just by clicking there. And then I go to effect, repeat noise reduction, and that does that. I'm not going to do it again because I've already done it and I did it. I do it for every single thing that I input. Um, I don't do it for the music normally because that's already been done. Uh, so that's just something I do to get rid of any sound and make it sound a little bit better. So I already did that before going in, but I just thought that was important to point out. Now in here I have the output. I literally put this back into a new audacity file. And then export it as an MP3 because that's what Podbean, my hosting needs to be input in. And as you can see here, can you just see how much better that is? If I go back to my original one, I, I guess here was the, the sound was quite low. My sound was much higher and a bit more like sporadic and things. But then once you put it into Levelator, look at that. So I actually know Mo personally from working in Qatar. We both were teachers in a school in Qatar. And he is... So as you can see there, there's a bit of music. Let me just see if I can get a bit of Mo. It was a week after that, that the ball was rolling. Like everything started from that point. That's crazy. So it was literally, you had a chat with him and then a week later. So what was like your first, your first reaction to him? What was it like? And then a week later, so what was like your first step? Because obviously you've got him. Right. Yeah, I can hear there's actually a little bit of in the background. I don't know if you could hear that. So, um, I just need to check that I actually did go through all of these and did get rid of that background noise. Cause that's kind of what it sounded like it was. I will, I will just check that anyway, but that's what Levelator does. You can even hear at the start, the music wasn't really, but I'm talking over the music a little bit, which I'm fine with because I have actually, I have reduced the volume here, as you can see, so FTE, I read it in a book once. And it's basically, FTE. I read it in a book. So can you see the music? So as you could see there, the music kind of like fades off. I actually do that inside here anyway, which is why I'm never too fussed about me talking over. It's, it does sound a lot more professional once you use Auphonic. Let's see if it's going to work. I'll be back. Right. That took longer than planned purely because let's see how long it took. 18 minutes. Um, you do, if you're doing the multi-track, you do actually need to pay something. Okay. So that is something to bear in mind with the pricing. I just upgraded and got the $22, uh, for 10 hours, one-time credits. I don't know if that's something that's changed. I definitely have used this before and did it. Maybe I was within the 20 minutes though, whereas this one was about 40 minutes. It's just something to bear in mind. Personally, I really like the Auphonic features for using the multi-track because of the duck, the ducking as hopefully you're about to see, but it shows you the output, um, yeah, 35 minutes, you can see that was the input. So you can see like the volume, the levels are kind of all over the place. Look at that bit. That was like really high. Whereas here you can't notice it at all. Um, and yeah, so now I can just download it and see what it is like. Let's put that into one of these. So, so you can see. Okay. Right. So I'm just going to put the audio track into here. So that hopefully you can see the difference now, just right. Let's bear in mind. Oh, I'm going to wait for that to go in. So I just want to show you the difference between the two tracks, basically. So just one. Okay. So the original, here we are. Oh, no, that's not it. This is it. So you can hear what it's like. So you can hear, it's kind of like the level, uh, is just the same. You can hear the music and me speaking. Whereas listen to this. Hey guys, it's Mike from A Time Online. Today, we're looking at exactly why and how to start a podcast that will grow your brand and business. So this podcast today is just going to be. So I know you probably didn't hear that perfectly, but you can see the difference and that is, that's the huge difference for me anyway, that I find with Orphonic compared to Levelator. Levelator is completely free as much as you want. Um, but Orphonic, I just really like the, I like the dubbing of the track, the, the duck track, something like that, where, where, when you put it in. And so that is the big difference. It is, you can get two hours for free. If you want to use the multi-track thing, then you only get 20 minutes. So that is something just to bear in mind as long as the track is less than 20 minutes, then you can use those two hours absolutely fine. So, I mean, if you really, really don't want to spend any money, then I guess you could even just take the bit with the music and do that bit and then put it back into, um, back into Audacity. But it is so simple now to edit podcasts using these tools. And basically you can get them all for free. If you did find that helpful, be sure to make sure you subscribe and hit that like button as it really helps the YouTube channel. I don't really know all that sort of stuff that you're supposed to say, but always YouTube is saying it. So I hope it helps guys. Just the last thing for me guys, if you do want to see like all of the tools and things I use for my own podcast, then just click the link below and you can get like my free cheat sheet for everything that I use, which pretty much everything on there is going to show you how to do it for free, which is always a bonus. Hope it helps.