Make narration audible without clipping the recording

Record a sentence containing a quiet phrase and your normal emphasis. If no voice exists in the original, follow the input-route and permission checks rather than boosting an empty track. If the voice is faint but recognisable, investigate placement and level next.

Keep your playback volume fixed while comparing samples. Turning speakers up for one test and down for another makes it difficult to tell which capture change helped. Headphone output is not the same setting as microphone input gain.

Place the microphone consistently and use a comfortable speaking level. Avoid pointing a loud airflow directly at the capsule, rubbing a cable or letting clothing contact a headset mic. Check an accessory’s own instructions before changing physical gain or routing.

OBS’s mixer guide recommends checking levels at the source before the application fader. Its meter and clipping descriptions belong to OBS; another recorder may display different scales. This article does not prescribe a universal percentage or one target number for every microphone.

Make a sample with speech alone, app sound alone and both together. If speech is clear alone but buried in the combination, reduce the competing source rather than raising every channel. Preserve intelligibility in the words that explain the important action.

In Reel, source mute/level controls and the single-track export choice are separate decisions in reviewed settings. Test the saved movie. With separate tracks, a player choosing the wrong stream can resemble a balance problem even when both sources were captured.

Speak the most enthusiastic line you expect in the lesson, then return to ordinary narration. Listen for harshness or breakup on those louder words. A setting that rescues a whisper but damages normal emphasis is not a useful compromise.

If editing a copy in iMovie, Apple documents clip-volume changes and waveform warnings for distortion/clipping. Lowering a clipped recording later does not establish that the damaged original has been restored. Prefer a clean new take when the important explanation is distorted.

Play the delivery copy at ordinary volume on the intended device. Check the opening words, the quietest explanation and the moment with the most app sound. Do not judge only the loudest sentence in the source editor.

Keep a note of mic placement and the accepted source balance for the next session. If you add noise suppression or processing, repeat the speech test: processing can change both loudness and clarity. The aim is understandable narration, not the largest waveform.