In this blog, I’ll explain how to mix voice with music so that the vocals stand out. It’s a common question, because if your music is too loud, it’ll be competing with the voice! This is particularly relevant to podcasters who use “talk over” music and producers who make ads and jingles.
Vocal Enhancer Method
Get started by going into Adobe Audition and heading into multi track, where it’s much easier to mix voice and music together. Then, right click and select Track > Delete Empty Tracks (or SHIFT+E) to get rid of the empty tracks. Now you can focus on the relevant clips.
Then, go into the effects rack and in Track Effects, select Special > Vocal Enhancer.
This isn’t just for vocals – select Music and you’ll hear that it’s pulling frequencies out of the music that compete with the voice. You can also do the same thing in the voice over track and select the gender of the voice instead of Music.
There’s also compression and EQ, which I’ve dived into before, so I won’t go into any detail on that here. You can also simply raise the volume of the voice a bit, maybe by around 1.5dB or take the music down a decibel or so.
Exploring Essential Sound Panel inside Adobe Audition
There are other things you can do too…
If you go into the Window menu and select Essential Sound, you can tell Essential Sound which is music and which is dialogue, then in Music, you can select Ducking, which will automatically duck your music for you when the voice over comes in.
Side Chain Compression Method
One of the easiest – and most accurate ways to apply ducking is to add some side chain compression.
First, you need to go to the Effects Rack and select Amplitude and Compression > Dynamics Processing. Now add amplitude and compression to the music track.
Then check the Set Side-Chain Input box and select Mono. It should turn yellow, until you go to the voice track and turn Sends on. Then, for Send 1, go to Side Chain > Dynamics Processing (Music – Slot 2), the box will turn to green.
Now, the more you move the line down from the markers, the more it will duck your music. You’ll hear that as soon as the voice over has finished, it’ll pull the music back up.
It’s one of the quickest, most instantaneous ways of ducking music to voice, making that overall voice to music balance just right.
And there you have it! A few easy ways to mix voice with music so that the voice can be heard clearly!
Learn More Top Voice And Music Tips
- How To Choose The Best Podcast Intro Music?
- Adobe Audition Tutorial: How to Make Your Voice Sound Better in Multitrack
- How To Choose Voiceover For My Project?
- Why Use Professional Voice Over Artist
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