The same four steps, done in the wrong order, produce breathing noise and a harsh voice. Done in this order, they produce a clean, even, publishable voice. The sequence is the skill.
Most creators own all the right tools and still get mediocre audio, because they run the tools in the wrong order. Processing is a chain - each link receives whatever the previous link did to the sound. Here is the order that works, and the reasoning behind every position.
Example workflow panel. Steps done out of order amplify each other's problems - order is the whole trick.
Every audio process changes the sound the next process receives. Do them in the wrong order and they fight: boost the volume first and the noise gets louder before the cleaner sees it; compress first and the compressor actively raises the noise in your pauses, because evening out volume is its job. The chain below is the order used in the video's workflow, extended with the light finishing steps an editor adds afterwards.
Run the cleanup on the raw recording first - for this channel's method, that is SoundAi Vocal Remover: load the file, let it separate the vocal from the background noise, and save the cleaned audio. At this point your voice is at its natural level and the noise is at its natural level, which is exactly the relationship the tool was designed to read. Do not loudness-boost or compress before this step.
With the noise gone, small tonal fixes are safe. The usual two: a gentle cut of the lowest rumble (a high-pass around the bottom of the voice) and, only if the voice sounds dull, a small presence lift. Keep moves small - a few dB, not ten. Heavy EQ on a voice is like heavy filtering on a photo: everyone can tell something was done.
If some sentences are much louder than others, a light compressor evens them out so listeners stop reaching for the volume control. Use it gently - its side effect is raising quiet parts, which includes any noise the cleaner left behind. This is the second reason cleanup must come first: compression after cleaning lifts almost-clean quiet parts; compression before cleaning lifts the noise itself.
Set the final loudness at the very end, once. Platforms normalise what you upload anyway (YouTube plays back around -14 LUFS), so chasing extreme loudness buys nothing and risks distortion. A clean, even voice at a sensible level is the professional result - and if you change anything earlier in the chain, redo this step, because every earlier step moves the final level.
See the before and after with your own ears - the complete SoundAi Vocal Remover process, step by step.
▶️ Watch Full VideoAfter. Raising the volume first raises the noise by the same amount and gives the cleaner a harder, distorted picture of it. Clean at the natural level, then set loudness once at the end.
No - they are optional finishing steps, not requirements. If the cleaned voice already sounds clear and even, adding processing only adds risk. Use EQ for a specific tonal problem and compression only when the volume genuinely jumps around.
Aim for an integrated loudness around -14 LUFS, which is where YouTube normalises playback. Louder uploads are simply turned down by the platform, and pushing a voice master too hard on the way in can add distortion for no benefit.