MWGblog

Michael W. Geoghegan's Weblog

  • Home
  • Archives
  • Press
  • Speaking
  • Search
  • Contact
    • Email
    • RSS
    • Twitter

The Levelatorâ„¢

10/7/2006 By Michael

Levelator

It has been one week since we debuted The Levelatorâ„¢ and to say we are pleased is an understatement. The response has been overwhelming! With kudos and claims of “hit of the Expo” and “best new software” from folks like Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte, Jake Ludington, Scott Bourne, Rocketboom, Paul Colligan and many, many others it can get a bit heady. Let me take a step back and explain The Levelatorâ„¢ for the uninitiated; what it does and why we made it freely available.

The Levelatorâ„¢ solves a common problem for podcasters: recordings with participants at various levels. Whether this is a multi-mic setup such as a panel discussion, a single mic interview with multiple people, a “double”/”multiple” ender or the infamous Skype recording. With one fell swoop of the drag and drop, The Levelatorâ„¢ will take a Wav or Aiff file and “level” all those various speakers. Here is a quick example:

Levelator Before
[audio:http://mwgblog.com/audio/Levelator_Before.mp3]
Notice that the middle section is severely reduced. In this case I turned and stepped away from the microphone. The lead and end levels are me speaking directly into the microphone. I took this file and with no other audio manipulation dropped it on The Levelatorâ„¢. The Result:

Levelator After
[audio:http://mwgblog.com/audio/Levelator_After.mp3]

Now fixing a single segment like this is easy with standard tools, but imagine if this were a forty-five minute interview. Now you understand the power of The Levelatorâ„¢. I took a sample file that originally took me 3 hours to fix, and The Levelatorâ„¢ brought it up to broadcast/podcast standards in a minute and a half. Pretty incredible. Many see The Levelatorâ„¢ and assume that is is doing normalization. While that feature is a step in the process there is much more going on. For a technical description check out Doug Kaye’s explanation. Also, please check out The Levelatorâ„¢ forums.

So why has GigaVox made this available for free for non-commercial use? As many know, GigaVox Media is the parent company of IT Conversations and our other podcast channels. Currently, we have 1400+ active podcast episodes on our network and that number is growing every day. What many do not know is that in order to run a network and production team of 55 plus people we needed to implement innovative tools and solutions to automate the production workflow. Our three years of experience and development clearly establishes us at the premier podcast technoloogy company. Simply put, while others have interesting ideas, no one has the hard earned and tried and true technology that we have developed. Whether it is the monster Content Management System/Audio Assembly System that runs the entire network that allows us to inject sponsor messages into any and or all episodes with the click of a button, our recently debuted GigaVox Media Audio Lite, our coming video technology or the tools we give to our audio engineers such as The Levelatorâ„¢, we are the podcast technology leader. We gave The Levelatorâ„¢ out as an example. It is an amazing tool and one we hope will help podcasters make better podcasts. For those who are curious, you should see what we keep behind the curtain…

Download The Levelator here.

Filed Under: Noteworthy, Podcasting Tagged With: Colligan, Doug-Kaye, GigaVox, IT-Conversations, Jake-Ludington, Leo-Laporte, Levelator, Paul-Colligan, Podcasting, Portable-Media-Expo, Radio, Robert-Scoble, Rocketboom, Scott-Bourne, The-Levelator, TWIT

Filed Under: Noteworthy, Podcasting Tagged With: Colligan, Doug-Kaye, GigaVox, IT-Conversations, Jake-Ludington, Leo-Laporte, Levelator, Paul-Colligan, Podcasting, Portable-Media-Expo, Radio, Robert-Scoble, Rocketboom, Scott-Bourne, The-Levelator, TWIT

About Michael

Michael W. Geoghegan is founder and CEO of GigaVox Media. NewMedia Entrepreneur & Podcast Pioneer/Pundit. Author of two books. Creator of two time James Beard Award winner GrapeRadio.com
My Books on Amazon / GigaVox Media / Grape Radio / Podcast Academy / Reel Reviews Radio

Comments

  1. Ed Ovett says

    10/16/2006 at 12:45 pm

    On Show #52, item #17 of the Ed’s Mixed Bag podcast you can download an audio of Doug Kaye’s explanation of the Levelator software as an excerpt from his seminar “The Secret Lives of MP3 Files” at the 2nd Annual Podcasting and Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California. There is also a link on the same line item to the actual Levelator software download! Check it out, and while there grab the Direct Download of show #52, my celebration of 1-year of podcasting, of the Ed’s Mixed Bag podcast!!

  2. Daniel says

    8/14/2007 at 12:47 am

    I couldn’t understand some parts of this article evelatorâ„¢ at MWGblog, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

  3. Joshua Giese says

    10/8/2007 at 11:35 am

    wow, this seems like a great tool. I have been doing a multi mic podcast for almost a year now. levels have been something that I have constantly had trouble with. I will check this tool out for sure!

Trackbacks

  1. Scoble, the most boring blogger « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger says:
    10/7/2006 at 11:16 pm

    […] If you’re bored go and check out Doug Kaye’s new Levelator. It’s free and makes your audio levels come out better. I gotta figure out how to use this for my videos. […]

  2. Podcast Fresh - » GigaVox Unveiled Free Podcasting Tool says:
    10/8/2006 at 5:59 pm

    […] GigaVox’ Levelator is literally easy to use and is intended to work with any WAV and AIFF file, mono or stereo at any sample rate. It can greatly alleviate recording a podcast with several speakers at various sound levels. With just few drag and drop, Levelator will take a Wav or Aiff file and “level” all those various speakers. […]

  3. New Media in Australia » Blog Archive » links for 2006-10-09 says:
    10/9/2006 at 1:20 am

    […] The Levelator By all accounts the best free software for podcasters since iTunes (tags: Podcasting) […]

  4. The Levelatorâ„¢ « Jeffrey Daniel Frey’s Blog says:
    10/10/2006 at 12:20 pm

    […] I found out about this tool at the Podcast Academy / Podcast and Portable Media Expo… and it truly is a revolutionary tool. Find details here. Download this tool: http://www.gigavox.com/levelator. […]

KX6A – amateur radio callsign

KX6A

Yaesu FT1D SOTA Trail Card

FT1D SOTA Trail Card

My Books

Podcast Solutions

The Business Podcasting Book

RSS KX6A

  • KX6A Amateur Radio Goals – 2018
  • KX6A Radio Goal Results for 2017
  • SOTA W6/SS-224, Peak 11,100

RSS Reel Reviews Radio

Produced By


GigaVox Media, Inc.

Links

  • GigaVox Media
  • KX6A
  • Reel Reviews Radio

Recent

  • Radio and SOTA moved to KX6A.com
  • SOTA W6/SC-405, Sugarloaf
  • SOTA W6/CT-172, Sitton Peak
  • Podcast Domains For Sale
  • SOTA W6/CT-056, Iron Mountain

About

Michael W. Geoghegan is founder and CEO of GigaVox Media.

As a pioneer of podcasting, Michael created some of the first corporate podcasts, including efforts by Disney. Michael is also creator of the 2008 & 2011 James Beard Award winning "GrapeRadio" and "Reel Reviews: Films Worth Watching."

He is editor-in-chief of the Podcast Academy™ book series and co-author of Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting.

Copyright © 2004–2022 · Michael W. Geoghegan & GigaVox Media, Inc. · Genesis Framework · Log in