Great video with bad audio is still bad content. Viewers will sit through average visuals if the sound is clear. They will click away from stunning visuals if the audio is muffled, noisy, or uneven. Audio quality is not a secondary concern. It is often the first thing your audience notices.
If you have recorded a video and the sound is not where it needs to be, this guide walks you through how to edit the sound of a video from start to finish: the process, the tools, and the specific adjustments that make the biggest difference.
Most creators focus on the visual side of video production. They invest in cameras, lighting, and editing software, then treat audio as an afterthought. That is backwards.
Research on viewer retention consistently shows that poor audio is the leading reason people abandon video content. A small, cheap lapel microphone with clean audio outperforms a $3,000 camera setup with room noise and echo.
The good news: audio problems that happen during recording are fixable. Not always perfectly, but well enough that your final output sounds intentional and professional. The tools available in 2026 make what used to require a professional studio session something you can handle in a standard video editing workflow.
Before you can edit sound, you need to work with it independently. In most video editors, you can detach the audio track from the video so you can adjust it without affecting the visual cut.
In tools like DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, or Final Cut Pro, right-click the clip and look for "Detach Audio" or "Unlink Audio and Video." This gives you an audio waveform you can manipulate directly.
If your audio was recorded separately, like a podcast-style interview where you used a dedicated audio recorder or each participant recorded locally, you are importing those audio files directly and syncing them to the video manually (usually using a clap or visual cue).
The first thing to tackle is unwanted noise: air conditioning hum, keyboard clicks, street noise, room reverb, or the general ambient noise that every recording picks up.
Noise reduction works by sampling a section of "silence" in your recording (a moment where no one is speaking but the background noise is present) and then using that sample as a reference to subtract that noise pattern from the whole track.
In Adobe Audition, this is called the Noise Reduction effect. In Audacity, it is built into the Effects menu. In Descript, it is a one-click AI process. In iZotope RX, which is the industry standard for audio repair, it is the Spectral Repair module.
A few cautions:
EQ is how you shape the tonal character of a voice or sound. It lets you boost frequencies you want more of and cut frequencies that are causing problems.
For spoken voice in a video, a common starting point:
These are starting points. Every recording is different. Use your ears more than the numbers.
Compression evens out the dynamic range of your audio. It reduces the volume difference between the loudest peaks and the quietest parts of speech. This makes the audio easier to listen to because you are not constantly reaching for the volume control.
For spoken word in a video, a moderate compression ratio (3:1 to 4:1) with a fast attack and medium release is a good starting place. You are not trying to squash the life out of the audio. You are tightening up the dynamic range so the listener's ear does not have to work as hard.
Most video editing software includes a basic compressor. For more control, a dedicated plugin or tool like Adobe Audition, GarageBand, or a channel strip plugin in your DAW gives you more precise settings.
After noise reduction, EQ, and compression, set your final output level. For video content published online, the standard target is around -14 LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) for platforms like YouTube and -16 LUFS for podcasts.
If you are editing in a video editor with a basic audio section, a limiter or simple gain adjustment to get your peak levels around -3 to -6 dBFS is a reasonable target.
Use a loudness meter if your software has one. If not, set levels by ear relative to other professional videos in your category.
If your video includes background music, intro/outro music, or sound effects, these need to be mixed so they support the voice without competing with it.
Background music during narration should sit at least 15-20 dB below the voice track. Use volume automation to duck the music down when someone is speaking and bring it back up during pauses or transitions.
If you are using licensed music, make sure you are working within the terms of your license, especially if the video will be monetized.
The industry standard for audio post-production in video workflows. Audition integrates with Premiere Pro via Dynamic Link, so you can send audio from your video timeline directly into Audition for detailed work, then return it without re-importing.
Best for: professional editors who need full control.
The go-to tool for serious audio repair. RX has tools for removing specific sounds, like a cough or chair squeak, de-clicking, de-breathing, and restoring damaged recordings. It is not a basic tool, but for problem audio it is in its own category.
Best for: audio that needs significant repair work.
Descript offers AI-powered audio cleanup with a single click: Studio Sound, which applies noise reduction and enhancement automatically. It is not as precise as Audition or RX, but the results are genuinely impressive for a one-click solution.
Best for: creators who want fast results without deep technical knowledge. We cover Descript and similar tools in our best podcast editing software guide.
DaVinci Resolve is a free professional video editor with a full audio post-production suite called Fairlight built in. For teams that want a free, capable tool, Resolve handles video editing and audio post in one application at a professional level.
Best for: teams that want a free, all-in-one solution.
For Mac users, GarageBand is free and includes EQ, compression, and noise gate tools that work well for basic voice editing. Logic Pro is the professional step up from GarageBand and adds more precise control and a larger plugin library.
Best for: Mac users who want audio-focused editing tools.
Echo or reverb: This is the hardest audio problem to fix in post. The reverb repair tools in iZotope RX work, but they have limits. Prevention (recording in a treated space with soft surfaces nearby) is significantly more effective than post-production repair.
Plosives (the pop on "p" and "b" sounds): Use a de-click or de-essing plugin to reduce plosive energy. A high-pass filter can help, but dedicated plosive repair in RX is more surgical.
Background hum (electrical/AC): A notch filter at 60 Hz (US/Canada) or 50 Hz (Europe/UK) and its harmonics cuts electrical hum cleanly without affecting voice quality much.
Clipping (distortion from audio that's too loud): Clipped audio is the hardest to fix. iZotope RX has a De-clip module. The results depend on how severe the clipping is. Mild clipping can be repaired. Heavy distortion usually cannot.
Uneven volume between speakers: Use clip gain adjustments to level-match different speakers before applying overall compression. This is especially common in remote interview recordings where one person's setup was louder than the other's.
For creators and small teams, learning the basics of audio editing, noise reduction, EQ, and compression, is worth the investment. These skills pay off across every video and podcast you publish.
For B2B teams running a podcast as part of their content strategy, the calculus is different. Every hour your team spends on audio post-production is an hour not spent on business development, client work, or strategy. At some point, outsourcing post-production is the smarter move, not because the skills are hard, but because time is the actual constraint.
Our podcast editing and post-production guide covers this tradeoff in detail, including how to evaluate when a done-for-you production service makes financial sense.
Knowing how to edit the sound of a video is a core skill for anyone publishing content in 2026. Clean audio signals professionalism, respect for your audience's attention, and attention to craft.
The process is learnable. The tools are accessible. And the results are immediately noticeable.
If you are running a B2B podcast or video series and want a team that handles every part of post-production, including audio editing, mixing, show notes, and distribution, Podsicle Media does exactly that.
Schedule a Call with Podsicle Media and let us handle the production while you focus on the conversations that grow your business.
