Tag: Mixing and Mastering

Mixing & Mastering the Sound Policy Podcast

I mixed and mastered 13 episodes of Sound Policy, FM’s podcast, for Bravo Charlie Delta: edited tracks in, a finished master out.

In March 2026, Josh Backer at Bravo Charlie Delta asked if I could help with some podcast audio sweetening for one of their clients. The client was FM and the show was Sound Policy, FM’s podcast about the risks modern businesses face and the strategies to overcome them. I turned the first episode around in a day, and between April and September, 13 episodes went out with my mix and master on them.

FM, formerly FM Global, is a Fortune 500 mutual insurance company headquartered in Johnston, Rhode Island. Founded in 1835, it insures the property of large businesses around the world and specializes in loss prevention.

HOW IT WORKED

Each episode was recorded, cut by the show’s editors and reviewed by FM, legal team included, before it came to me as a set of edited tracks. I did the final mix and master, what film and television call the re-recording mix, and sent a finished master back to the editor for FM’s approval, on a two week cycle.

Some episodes came in clean and some didn’t, from a reflective room on the host’s microphone to a remote guest whose recording arrived with much of its detail missing, and tracks with crosstalk between microphones; sorting that out is part of the job.

“Timing of service and the quality of the product are great from my POV.”

Josh Backer, Bravo Charlie Delta, to the show’s post-production team, July 2026

LISTEN

  1. How resilient is your country? Breaking down the 2026 data (April 7)
  2. How AI and technology could transform insurance claims (April 21)
  3. What manufacturers need now to build resilience (May 5)
  4. Manufacturing resilience in a changing global landscape (May 26)
  5. Risk, resilience, and salty snacks with Utz Quality Foods’ Staci Smith (June 9)
  6. The growing cost of hail (June 23)
  7. Inside FM’s new report on power generation losses (July 7)
  8. Why FM’s chief investment officer calls the market this year ‘anti-fragile’ (July 22)
  9. Digging into losses in the mining industry (August 4)
  10. Four qualities of a well-protected data center (August 18)
  11. Risk, resilience, and the hidden cost of disruption (September 1)
  12. How power markets are evolving, with Marsh’s Mike Kolodner (September 15)
  13. Designing resilience into digital infrastructure (September 30)

For what working together looks like, see Podcast Mixing and Mastering: What Happens Between the Edit and the Release.

CREDITS

Mixed and mastered by Andrew Freeborn Creative for Bravo Charlie Delta
Sound Policy is produced for FM by Bravo Charlie Delta

If your podcast needs mixing and mastering, I’d love to give it a listen: creative@andrewfreeborn.com

Podcast Mixing and Mastering: What Happens Between the Edit and the Release

What podcast mixing and mastering does for your show: what to send, what changes, and what you get back, ready to publish.

Most people can’t tell you what’s wrong with a badly mixed podcast; they just stop listening. A voice that’s suddenly louder than the one before it, a room that rings after every sentence, music that buries the guest… none of it is dramatic on its own, and all of it adds up to a show that’s work to listen to. Mixing and mastering is the step that takes that work away.

I’ve been recording, producing and mixing podcasts for about a decade, most recently 13 episodes of Sound Policy, the podcast from FM (formerly FM Global), and this is what working together looks like.

WHAT YOU SEND

Your finished cut of the episode as separate tracks, one per microphone, with the music and any sound effects, your editor’s rough mix, and notes on anything that’s bothering you.

THE AUDIO EDIT

This is where things get fixed before anything gets mixed. Bleed from one microphone into another comes out, and anything that needs surgery gets it: background noise, hum, clicks, a room that rings. I use the iZotope RX tools for this work.

THE MIX

In film and television, the final mix where dialogue, music and effects come together is called the re-recording mix, and a podcast needs the same job done. Every voice comes out clear and even, and the music sits under the conversation instead of fighting it.

WHAT YOU GET BACK

A finished master with balanced tone, maximized volume, and K-scaled output for the specific streaming platforms it’s headed to, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. It’s ready to upload or to drop back into a video edit, with revisions if something needs a nudge. On Sound Policy, that meant a finished master back to the editor and on to FM for approval every two weeks; you can hear the results in Mixing & Mastering the Sound Policy Podcast.

If your podcast needs mixing and mastering, I’d love to give it a listen: creative@andrewfreeborn.com