# Audio Editing Checklist for Beginners

Editing is where amateur audio becomes professional audio. The recording gives you the raw material; the edit removes the mistakes, evens out the levels, tames the hiss, and delivers a file that sounds consistent from the first second to the last. Beginners often skip editing because it looks technical — this checklist breaks it into 20 ordered steps anyone can follow.

## The 20 editing steps

1. Duplicate the raw file first — never edit your only copy of a recording.
2. Listen through once and mark sections to cut, keep, or fix with labels or markers.
3. Cut mistakes, long pauses, and filler words first — structure before polish, always.
4. Remove background noise: capture a noise profile from your room tone and apply it gently.
5. Trim leading and trailing silence, but keep natural breathing room between sentences.
6. Even out levels with clip gain or normalization so quiet and loud parts sit together.
7. Apply EQ: high-pass filter below ~80Hz, tame muddiness at 200-400Hz, add a touch of presence at 3-5kHz.
8. Add light compression (ratio 2:1 to 3:1) to even out the dynamic range without squashing it.
9. De-ess if S sounds hiss harshly — a small reduction goes a long way.
10. Fix mouth clicks and plosive pops individually; re-record any spot that resists fixing.
11. Add intro and outro music as a low bed, roughly 20dB under the voice.
12. Use fades everywhere: short fade-ins and outs on music, crossfades on every cut.
13. Balance multiple speakers or guests to the same perceived loudness.
14. Listen to the mix on two devices — headphones plus a phone speaker — before finalizing.
15. Check loudness: podcasts ~-16 LUFS stereo (-19 mono); YouTube ~-14 LUFS.
16. Keep true peak below -1 dBTP so platform encoding never distorts your audio.
17. Export a WAV for your archive and an MP3 (128-192kbps) or AAC for publishing.
18. Name the export clearly and embed metadata: title, artist, and artwork for podcasts.
19. Listen to the final exported file once — exports can and do surprise you.
20. Save the project file and back up both the project and the export.

## How to use this checklist

1. Work strictly in order: structural cuts (1-5), cleanup (6-13), then loudness and export (14-20). Effects before structure wastes time.
2. Go gentle on every effect — you can always add more processing, but you cannot undo over-processing.
3. Use steps 14 and 19 as your quality gates: if it fails the two-device test or the export listen, fix it before publishing.
4. Save numbered versions as you go (edit_v1, edit_v2) so you can always step back.
5. After three or four projects, the list becomes instinct — keep the download handy until then.

Every professional editor follows essentially this sequence; the only difference is speed. Twenty steps, in order, turn a rough recording into something people actually enjoy hearing. Download the checklist below and edit your next project with it open.

## Frequently asked questions

**What software should a beginner use for audio editing?**

Audacity (free, open source) handles everything on this checklist and runs on any computer. If you want a gentler learning curve with good defaults, most podcast hosts also offer simple web editors. Do not buy expensive software until free tools limit you — for most beginners, they never do.

**How loud should my podcast or video audio be?**

Match your platform: podcasts target around -16 LUFS for stereo (-19 for mono), YouTube normalizes to about -14 LUFS. True peak should stay below -1 dBTP so encoding does not distort. These numbers sound technical, but every major editor shows them in its loudness meter — just mix until the meter agrees.

**Why does my audio sound different after exporting?**

Usually one of three things: the export format compressed it harder than expected (use higher bitrates), the loudness was normalized by the platform, or you monitored on headphones and the export revealed issues your headphones hid. Always listen to the actual exported file once before publishing — step 19 exists for exactly this reason.

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