About MikeLoss

Recording a podcast throws a surprising amount of arithmetic at you before a single word is spoken. How big will this episode be once it is exported, and will the host accept it? If the script runs to a few thousand words, how long will the finished episode actually be? What bitrate is a raw stereo recording, and how many megabytes a minute is that? Is the mix hitting the loudness a platform expects, or will it get turned down? How much louder do you get when you lean a few centimetres closer to the microphone? And why does a small spare room sound boxy no matter how good the mic is? None of these are hard on their own, but working them all out by hand, for every episode, is where the fun of making a show turns into a chore.

MikeLoss exists to take that arithmetic off your plate. Instead of long guides you have to read end to end, the site is built around a set of small, single-purpose calculators, each aimed at one decision in the recording and publishing process. The Audio File Size Calculator estimates the megabytes an episode will take from its bitrate or WAV settings and run time, for MP3 as well as uncompressed WAV. The Podcast Episode Length Estimator turns a script's word count and your speaking pace into a run time, or adds up your planned segments, so you can hit a target length before you record. The Audio Bitrate Calculator works out the uncompressed bitrate from sample rate, bit depth, and channels, in kbps and megabytes per minute, so raw file sizes stop being a mystery. The LUFS Loudness Target Calculator compares your measured loudness to a platform target such as -14 or -16 LUFS and gives the exact gain change, with a true-peak check so a boost doesn't clip. The Mic Distance & Gain Calculator uses the inverse-square law to show how moving toward or away from the mic changes your level in decibels, and the make-up gain to keep it even. And the RT60 Reverb Time Estimator estimates a room's reverb time from its dimensions and surface absorption with the Sabine formula, so you can tell whether a space needs treatment for clean-sounding voice.

Beyond the calculators, the blog and learn section cover microphones, recording gear, editing, and the reasoning behind the numbers the tools produce, and the Sound & Broadcast Museum is a browsable collection of the microphones, recording formats, studios, and broadcast equipment that shaped recorded sound, with every entry, image, and fact drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

A few things worth stating plainly. MikeLoss is an independent site, not affiliated with any microphone maker, audio-software vendor, or podcast host. It is supported by advertising, which is how the tools stay free with no account required. Every result the tools produce — a file size, a run time, a bitrate, a gain figure, a decibel change, a reverb time — is a general estimate built on the numbers you enter and on standard audio formulas, not a professional engineering measurement. For anything that has to be exact — final loudness, true-peak levels, and hosting limits in particular — confirm with a proper meter in your recording software and your host's own specifications before you rely on it. If something looks off in a tool or an article, or you think a calculator is missing that would help, the contact page is the place to say so.