Mix narration and music with Auphonic’s automatic ducking

Auphonic’s multitrack system identifies speech and music across separate recordings. Ducking lowers a chosen track when a speaker is active elsewhere in the mix.[2]

Try this original editing brief: make a 45-second introduction to a local walking tour. Let an instrumental phrase establish the mood, give the meeting point clearly, then leave a few seconds for the music to finish. Use your own recordings or material you have permission to edit.

This is a documentation-based workflow, checked on 29 October 2026. No audio was processed for this guide.

An Auphonic account is required. Its free plan provides two processing hours monthly, permits multitrack productions under 20 minutes and adds a jingle. Each job uses at least three minutes of credits. Paid credits remove the jingle.[4]

Build the first mix

1. Prepare two 45-second files, one voice and one music, with the same starting point. Keep silence before and after the narration.
2. Create a Multitrack Production in Auphonic’s web app. Upload one file per track and name them Voice and Music.
3. Open extra track settings with the slider icon. Set Music’s Fore/Background to Duck this track; leave Voice at Auto. Keep denoising off on the music track.
4. Under Output Files, add WAV. Leave cutting disabled for this exercise, start processing and download the completed mix.

If music competes with speech, adjust Level of Background Segments. Ducking Fade Time controls how quickly the level falls and returns.[1]

Listen for the introduction you intended

For the imagined tour, can you repeat the meeting point after one listen? Does the opening establish the mood before the announcement arrives? Does the ending feel complete? Ask someone unfamiliar with the script to listen once, then tell you where they would go.

Revise the existing production with unchanged inputs to avoid another credit charge. Reprocess before comparing the download.[4]

Keep the version that makes the invitation easy to follow. Name the saved file for its purpose, such as mill-walk-introduction.wav, and play that file once more before sharing it.

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