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With the rise of content marketing, more and more terms from broadcasting and publishing are finding their way into marketing conversations. We just launched a podcast at my current company, and during the production we found ourselves unequipped to give direction to our freelance audio engineer. Podcasts have a jargon all their own. Which is how we came to learn a new term, ducking.
Ducking, in audio recording, is a technique that assures that the host’s or guest’s voice can be heard clearly over other sounds. You want to background sounds to “duck” under the voice of the speaker. The engineer (or amateur producer) may also need to adjust the background track up to assure it’s not too faint when no one is speaking. Some applications have ducking built in so you can set a track to be ducked, and it will adjust automatically, reducing the level when it overlaps with another track.
The most common need for ducking is making sure background music does not overwhelm the speaker. Music is there to set the mood or underscore what’s being said, not take over. Similarly, some podcasts introduce ambient sounds, like the rush of a river in a travel story, to set the mood. These ambient sounds can be used to introduce a segment at a higher level, and then keep the listener in the setting at a lower level as the narrator speaks. If you are recording live in a cafe, you want to make sure the clinking of plates and steaming of milk is atmospheric, not distracting.
I’m sure this won’t be the last time I visit audio lingo here. Just last week I learned our podcast has bumpers, but no stinger.
, such as background music.
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