Fixing audio levels on established channel

Mate, it is less complicated than it seems. I'm a youtube newbie but I know a thing or two about audio. You ALWAYS want your video to be as loud as possible, but for no reason should it EVER clip. You'll always want to stay as close as possible to 0db, but never touch the red line. The fastest way to achieve this is to add some compression to your voice, or whatever you do on your cannel, so that the lower volume sounds will come closer to the loudest ones and you'll have a more even sound.

In today's world all content creators fight the loudness war... the louder you are, the more your stuff comes across among the sea of people producing content. If you need any advice feel free to hit me up. I'll be happy to do so.
Concerning the old videos, just let those be. From now on get your sound to level with your competition.

P.s. I checked out your latest vid. I'd recommend you some very low volume background music. It very useful filling the silent spots and covering the background noise of your kitchen. There are a lot of people who put music out there copyright free, so you don't risk to lose money. You don't have to check out my stuff if you don't want, but I definitly recommend you to google some free music up. Keep up the amazing job!

 

Coliwob.. have you just made video making more complicated ? lol

i wouldn't make it too loud because its easier to click on the 'X' than it is to turn it down. You down want to see a big bounce rate of people leaving your vid because they were annoyed by the noise.

meanwhile.. the internet's most popular content seem to be set to a million dbs for reason not understand.. i'm told

 

i use NUGEN AUDIO MasterCheck plugin both for my audio mix and video.
This plugin allows you to meet the proper loudness target based on the provided presets: Youtube, Broadcast, AES, Apple Music, Spotify, etc.

you can use other audio file as reference and automatically match your mix with the reference inside the plugin.


For me, i have no issue with loudness level as long as i stayed below peak at least -4db average. But i always boost more EQ for Youtube video which contain music too. Coz they sounds way too flat in my opinion

 

A little processing is more than enough for only voice. You will need some peaks, since it's the way that sound of human voice works (as opposed to heavily distorted guitar). You want to raise the lower volume sounds juuuuust a bit, not a whole lot. The trick here is to apply compression as you hear the result, so DON't try to graphically shape the wave a certain way, or to hammer it too hard, instead, apply compression until you think that it is becoming unnatural, then back up a little. you have two options: Limiting at 0db and cranking the gain (louder but very unnatural), or applying moderate compression and then setting your highest peak in the video to 0db (which allows for a more natural dynamic range, while still narrower than the dr track)

 

For audio levels, I would suggest to use premiere pro or adobe audition. There is a audio meter that indicates how loud or low is your audio. Red means loud, dark green means too low. Try to use the suggested software. Using headphones or earphones are not recommended for editing audio.

 

Hey, I'm happy you solved your problem. Always remember to be light with post processing and not to clip, everything else is more or less variable. Feel free to ask if you have any more issues. Have a good day!