Creating a Video? I Recommend Doing These 3 Quick Steps First
One issue I’ve consistently seen with many company-produced promo videos is uneven sound levels across a given video.
It’s easy to see how this can happen. When the video editor is given different clips, and different kinds of clips, like…
Documentary-style subject interviews
Event speaker or group presentations
Workplace or event b-roll
Music
…the hurdle of getting an even sound level across the finished video emerges. This hurdle becomes more complex and time consuming with more overall clips, and different kinds of clips as listed above.
Why does this matter?
When it comes to your target audience, while uneven sound levels don’t compare to things like a subject name misspelling or a vertical vs. horizontal format issue relative to the platform on which the video is published, this issue can still push your viewer toward thinking “amateur” in the spectrum of professional vs. amateur. Therefore, to come across as professionally competent as possible — and thereby to maximize trust as a means to generate the most conversions — you definitely want to address sound levels as part of your video completion punch list.
Here’s my process to deal with this as the first stage of work on a new video project.
I’m using iMovie to show you my process, but this applies to most free and low-cost video editors — the ones with the simplest interfaces and fewest features, including mobile apps.
1. Locate the clip containing sound that you want to adjust in the workspace.
2. Click on the clip; look for the highlighted border to confirm you selected it.
3. While watching the sound waves that are above the baseline in the clip you selected (see in yellow in the screenshot above, for example), go to the Volume Adjust tool and drag down the slider from 100%.
Before letting go of the slider — before depressing your mouse, or pulling your finger away from your screen if you’re on a mobile device — you want to make sure that most of the sound-wave “peaks” are either at the baseline, or just above it. It’s OK if a few peaks still show as yellow, or one step (or pixel) above the baseline. You just don’t want many or all peaks going well above the baseline — that’s when you get into distortion territory, which will sound bad in the finished video.
From here you can either:
If your video editor has an option to apply the volume adjust across all clips at the same time — as with the checkbox and slider in the above screenshot from iMovie — then you can do that as part of Step 3 above.
If you don’t have that tool, then the slower option is to apply Steps 1-3 to all clips in your project.
If you’re editing one long clip for the entire part of the video that has sound — like a vlog or offer from your owner, CEO, or a business development or sales rep — then you just need to do the 3 steps above once. When you then go to slice and dice the clip into smaller clips in order to remove pauses, “um”s, etc., you’ll be good to go for sound level across all the clips.
I hope this is helpful information for your business or nonprofit. If you need marketing help, book a free call with me where we’ll discuss your needs.
