Hi podcast makers! Some thoughts about sound balance from an old hand. Human ears do not hear all frequencies at equal volume. So:
1) Music. Your music is probably too loud against the speech...

2) Deeper voices will sound quieter than higher-pitched ones. Male voices can be higher-pitched than female ones...

3) Voices recorded in poorer quality / less bandwidth may need to be lower in the mix, better quality ones higher. A phone call cuts through really well, so you can have it lower...

4) Close your eyes, don't look at the waveform or meter, use your ears, check your mix on small speakers or cheap headphones, maybe even on cheap headphones in traffic. Can you hear each voice equally well?

5) Some gentle compression can work wonders...

6) Consider overall volume: can someone who is hard of hearing hear all the voices at maximum level? Find someone with hearing difficulties to give your mix a spin on a typical phone/headphones set-up.

7) Consider asking remote contributors to use wired mic/headphones on a phone if they have them, or just talk direct into a phone rather than shouting at a laptop from a distance.

8) Golden rule, worth repeating: close your eyes, use your ears. This talk has been brought to you in association with Paul Hedges and others who taught me on my BBC radio ops courses at Wood Norton way back last century.

9) Keep podcasting! I've been so impressed that so many great pods, famous & not so famous, have continued to be made in lockdown against the odds. Delays and technical problems with remote guests mean it takes *way* longer to make an episode, not obvious to the listener. /ENDS