Hello! Just to give some background on the situation… I’m a Left 4 Dead 2 modder, and I used audacity to clip and amplify an audio file (.wav)
If I play it through audacity or through windows media player, it sounds louder than before. If I use it in my L4D2 mod, it is still quiet and the sound is easily drained out by other sounds. Is there any way to make it louder? (without noticeable clipping)
NOTE: I have the most recent version of Audacity.
It’s not unusual for Windows Apps to have their own volume controls, so nobody is shocked that a sound is different in each app.
First step is to make it safely loud with Effect > Amplify [OK]. That doesn’t change the show in any important way except it gets louder or softer.
If that’s still not enough, then you have to start distorting the show with volume compression.
Effect > Compressor
and
Chris’s Compressor
… are two ways to do that. They change the relationship between quiet parts and loud parts, with the usual intention of making the whole thing louder without serious damage. After you do that, then the show is no longer identical except for size. It’s significantly different and so distortion has been added – desirable in this case.
Effect > Compressor is built into Audacity. You can get Chris’s Compressor here:
http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/chriss-dynamic-compressor-plugin-for-audacity/
Koz
Before I seeked help from the forums, I already successfully used amplify and compress. My problem is that it sounds loud and everything when I play it back, but in L4D2 the audio sounds completely unchanged. I don’t think it’s at a different volume level than Audacity and Windows Media Player, because no matter if it was made louder or not in Audacity it sounds like I applied no editing.
Perhaps L4D2 is still using the original audio file and not the new one.
Rather than trying to “update” the file, try it this way.
Rename the original file. If the original file was “command.wav”, rename it to “command-old.wav”.
Import the renamed file into Audacity.
Edit the audio as required.
Export a new file with the required file name (“command.wav” in this example).
L4D2 the audio sounds completely unchanged.
It’s not that unusual for programs or systems to enforce their own automatic volume controls, either.
Delicate adjustments to a radio broadcast show are a complete waste of time because the broadcast transmitter sets volume, as an example.
Koz