Your Questions Answered About Audio Ducking: Meaning, Uses & More

Download Article

Learn what audio ducking is, how to use it, and why it's in your iPhone settings

Co-authored by Hannah Dillon Reviewed by Luigi Oppido

Last Updated: June 20, 2024 Fact Checked

Download Article

Audio Ducking Overview

|

Using Audio Ducking on iPhone

|

Audio Ducking for Audio Production

|

Video

If you've heard of audio ducking but weren't sure what it was, how it worked, or why it was necessary, you wouldn't be alone. Audio ducking isn't commonly known by name, but almost everyone has probably heard it. In this article, we'll go over the basics of audio ducking, explain how it works on your iPhone with VoiceOver, and explain how you can manually do audio ducking on your audio projects.

Audio Ducking Basics

Audio ducking is an audio production technique that balances the volume of audio tracks by lowering one track (usually background music) when another track (like vocals) is playing. iPhones have an audio ducking setting in their VoiceOver feature that does just that.

Section 1 of 3:

What is audio ducking?

Download Article

{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/5\/50\/What-Is-Audio-Ducking-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-What-Is-Audio-Ducking-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/5\/50\/What-Is-Audio-Ducking-Step-1.jpg\/v4-728px-What-Is-Audio-Ducking-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\u00a9 2024 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not<\/b> licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. \n<\/p> \n<\/p><\/div>"}
Audio ducking is a technique that balances the volume levels of different tracks. If you have multiple audio tracks playing at the same time, audio ducking is the process of lowering one of those tracks so the other track can be heard more clearly.
- One example of audio ducking you likely have heard before is when the music in a track gets quieter once someone starts speaking. The music is "ducking down" so as not to obstruct the other audio track (in this case, the speaking).
- Some common uses for audio ducking are as follows:
 - Making ample space for spoken words: When adding a voiceover to a video, presentation, podcast, or other audio project, audio ducking can be used to highlight spoken words by lowering the background music. This helps ensure the voiceover can be heard clearly.
 - Balancing vocals and background music: When a singer is singing, you want to make sure they can be heard over the background music. Audio ducking can be used to lower the instrumental track enough so the singer's voice can be heard clearly.
 - Creating immersive audio experiences with sound design: By strategically lowering the volume of a track during specific moments, you can make your listeners feel more immersed in the audio experience you've made.
 - Emphasizing sound effects: If your audio has a lot of sound effects, you may want to use audio ducking to slightly lower the background audio so the sound effects come across clearly.