Podcast audio, in plain words
Bitrate
How much data an MP3 uses per second. Speech sounds fine at 96 kbps mono; stereo music is usually 128 kbps. Vandcast exports either.
Chapters
Named points in an episode that podcast apps show as a list you can jump through. Vandcast writes them into the MP3.
Ducking
Lowering the music while someone speaks and bringing it back afterwards, so the voice stays easy to hear. Vandcast does it per music clip.
Fade
A gradual rise or fall in volume at the start or end of a clip, so it does not start or stop abruptly.
ID3 tags
Information stored inside an MP3: title, show, artist, episode number, year, description and cover art. Podcast apps and hosts read them.
LUFS
Loudness Units relative to Full Scale: a measure of how loud audio sounds over time, not just its peaks. Podcast apps expect about -16 LUFS, so episodes play at a similar volume.
Mono and stereo
Mono is one channel, stereo is two (left and right). A single voice needs only mono, which makes a smaller file.
Noise floor
The level of background sound in a recording when nobody is speaking: room hum, a fan, traffic. A lower noise floor means a cleaner recording.
Noise removal
Reducing background sound so the voice stands out. Quick clean and studio voice run on our side; AI noise removal sends the audio to an AI service.
Peak and true peak
The highest level the audio reaches. Keeping it below 0 dB avoids clipping, the harsh distortion when a signal is too loud.
RSS feed
The web address podcast apps read to find your episodes. A podcast host makes it. Vandcast does not make a feed yet.
Template
An episode saved as a starting point: the music, cover and details stay, the voice goes, so the next episode starts ready.
Want to hear it rather than read it? Start free