Six Audio Techniques To Better Audio in DaVinci Resolve 20 [Updated]

[Updated: Jan. 24, 2026. I wrote this in 2024, but, after using Resolve for audio editing for the last two years, I’ve changed some opinions and settings. This article was extensively re-written.]

I decided to edit my 2024 NAB interviews using DaVinci Resolve. First, because I need the practice; second, because I want to use speech-to-text (which requires the paid version); and, third, because I really like what Resolve can do to improve audio; both on the Fairlight page and final export. However, there’s a big difference between “knowing what’s possible” and “knowing how to do it.”

This became especially true after talking with Blackmagic’s audio gurus at the annual NAB Show in 2025. What I learned made a big difference in the sound of my projects. As I update this article in 2026, I’ve been using the Fairlight page in Resolve for two years. Here’s what I’ve learned.

While every human voice is different, our voices all fall into consistent frequency ranges that we can modify and enhance to make each voice sound it’s best. Resolve provides a variety of tools to help us achieve this.

NOTE: All effects shown here work in both the free and Studio versions of Resolve.

SECRET #1 – CLEAN AUDIO FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

If you only learn one secret, this is the one to learn. All my projects are posted to my website and social media channels. While you can send anything to YouTube, it will sound best if you meet their audio specs for levels and formats.

Resolve makes this SUPER easy – but almost impossible to find.

First, create your mix the way you want – clean up mistakes, add effects, boost levels – the works. Then go to the Deliver page (shortcut: Shift + 8).

On the Deliver page, select whatever export options you need, then go to the Audio tab (top red button), check Normalize Audio. Then, click Optimize to Standard (middle red arrows) and set Standard to YouTube (lower red arrow). This raises all audio levels to meet YouTube’s specs, without messing with your mix. (Normalizing raises or lowers all audio levels by the same amount.)

During export, Resolve will measure (first pass), then adjust (second pass), audio levels so that they sound the way you want AND meets all of YouTube’s specs. This is a huge time-saver and, as I listened, all my mixes were nice, clean and loud, with no distortion.

NOTE: You can apply this normalization setting on the Edit or Fairlight pages, but the Deliver page is faster. You can limit the effect to just Track 1 (checked) or all tracks (unchecked).

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SECRET #2 – SHAPE THE SOUND OF A VOICE

The human voice is a lovely thing, but, for dialog, we can make it better using EQ (Equalization). This adjusts specific vocal frequencies to make a voice sound warmer, sexier, more inviting, and/or easier to understand.

Male voices tend to be pitched lower than female voices, which means we need to use gender-specific settings.

Fairlight makes it easy to apply EQ settings. Double-click the EQ icon (red arrow) for the track you want to adjust.

NOTE: As a rule, I put all male voices on one track and all female voices on a second track. That makes it easy to apply different EQ to each type of voice. (Fairlight supports adding thousands of tracks, so feel free to organize your voices however you want.)

When the EQ screen appears, select the Dialog-Basic option from the top left menu, then make the changes illustrated above to create a custom setting for male voices.

To save a setting, click the Plus icon (red arrow), then click Create New to create a new setting, or Update to apply changes to an existing setting. I have one custom setting for male voices and a second for female.

These are the settings for a female voice. Again, click the Plus icon to save your settings.

In both cases, we are boosting the Gain 3-5 dB for lower voice frequencies to warm the voice, then boosting Gain 4-6 dB for higher frequencies to make consonants easier to understand. I also added a notch around 800 Hz to clean up muddiness.

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SECRET #3 – BOOST TRACK DYNAMICS

“Dynamics” is the term we use to describe audio levels.

Most of the time, we record audio on set a lower levels than the ultimate mix to avoid any risk of distorting the audio in the recording. So, now in the mix, we need to boost it to make it sound clearer, while still making SURE we don’t distort the audio. This setting does exactly that.

Double click the blue Dynamics icon shown in the screen shot above for the track you want to adjust, select the Default setting from the top left menu, then create a custom setting. This applies to both men and women. Save it as you did a custom EQ setting above.

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If levels are not loud enough – or too loud – adjust the Make Up slider. In this screen shot I’m boosting output gain 4 dB. While this works fine for my voice, feel free to raise or lower this based on your clips.

SECRET #4 – COMPRESS DYNAMIC RANGE IN DIALOG

Dynamic range is the “distance” in audio level between the softest and loudest spoken passages. Sometimes, like in drama, you want a lot. Other times, in interviews, documentaries and news, you don’t want much.

Frequently, we need to reduce the dynamic range – the distance between loud and soft –  so that we can hear the speaker clearly, without losing the character of their voice or distorting their audio. The actor may be whispering on set, but if we don’t make it louder the audience will never hear what they are saying. It needs to sound like a whisper, but not at the audio level of a whisper. The Multiband Compressor is the tool we need.

The Multiband Compressor reduces dynamic range by separating audio into four specific frequency ranges. Then, it raises the level of softer sounds, without changing the level of louder sounds. This retains the perception of dynamic range, but the distance between soft and loud is greatly reduced. In other words, the audio sounds louder, without changing the loudest level.

NOTE: Lower (bass) frequencies give a voice its character and warmth. Higher (treble) frequencies make a voice intelligible. Lower frequencies tend to be louder, higher frequencies are softer.

Click the Plus icon (red arrow) in the Channel strip for the dialog track to which you want to add audio compression. Then, navigate to Dynamics > Fairlight FX > Multiband Compressor.

BIG NOTE: Generally, only compress dialog. Never compress music (which is already heavily compressed) or sound effects. You should also not compress the master mix. Just use compressors on dialog tracks.

Holy Smokes! What a scary interface!

Rather than go into excessive detail, here are the settings I use for a male voice. Drag the white bars at the top left and right to adjust crossover settings. This divides a voice into four bands: Below human speech, low vowels, higher consonants, and above male speech.

NOTE: Yes, this reinforces changes made by the EQ settings. The benefit to the compressor is that it boosts these levels a bit more while making sure that levels don’t distort.

Here are my settings for a female voice. Women’s voices are one octave higher than men’s. So we need to change the cross-over frequencies. Save each of these as a preset by clicking the Plus icon in the top left corner, which is what I did here.

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SECRET #5 – CHANGE AUDIO EFFECT PROCESSING ORDER

As you might suspect, just like visual effects, the order in which audio effects are processed makes a difference in the final result. And, given what we are doing, the default setting is incorrect.

Click the Order text to change the calculation order to EQ DY FX.

This processes EQ settings first, dynamic settings second, then Effects settings last. In general, you want limiters and compressors to be last thing processed in the audio chain.

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SECRET #6 – USE A LIMITER TO PROTECT YOURSELF

It is critically important that the sum of all audio levels in your mix not exceed 0 dB. If it does, your audio will distort. Applying a Limiter effect to the output bus (generally Bus 1) removes errant peaks that we didn’t catch earlier.

Select Bus 1, or your output bus, then click the Plus icon (top red arrow). In the pop-up menu that appears, choose Dynamics > Fairlight FX > Limiter.

Unlike music, which is mixed extremely loud (-0.1 dB, generally), video levels don’t need to be that high. I prefer limiting all peaks to -3 db, without adding any additional gain. In other words, the Limiter doesn’t change my mix, it just prevents peaks from distorting.

SUMMARY

Yup, my brain exploded when I learned this stuff, too. But, when I went back home and started applying these, my audio got a whole lot better. Which is why I’m sharing it with you.

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