In episode 7 in our Masterclass series we chat all things audio with our post-audio engineer Josiah!

Step 1) Level out your dialogue clips to have a somewhat consistent volume using clip gain control

Step 2) EQ unwanted frequencies out (low end and top end artifacts, mid-range honkyness, etc)

Step 3) Making sure that s-sounds aren’t too sharp using a DeEsser (don’t over do it though!)

Step 4) Dealing with any unwanted background noise (de-noising)

Step 5) Make sure the levels are consistent using a compressor

Waves plugins:
- R-EQ6 plugin
- Q8/Q10
- iZotope RX Repair Tool Kit

Glossary
Dialogue: Human voice(s), often with synchronized video.

Voice over: Narration not accompanied by synchronized video of the speaker.

Compressors: When the dynamic range (effectively the difference between loud and quiet) of an audio waveform is reduced, making the sound more even in volume.

Clip gain: Here referred to as a pre-insert volume control before any additional processing is applied.

Volume automation: Allows the console to remember the adjustments of faders during the editing process.

EQ: The levels of frequency response of an audio signal, or controls which allow their adjustment.

Low-end: Low radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz.
Also known as "Low freq" or LF.

Mid-range: Radio frequencies in the range of 250 kHz–2000 kHz

High-end: Radio frequencies above the 2000 kHz.

DeEsser: De-essing (also desibilizing) is any technique that reduces or eliminates the excessive prominence of sibilant consonants, such as the sounds (normally represented in English by) "s", "z", "ch", "j" and "sh", in recordings of the human voice.

Denoising: Signal processing method which reconstructs a signal from a noisy one in order to remove the noise.