Hello, I am running latest Audacity on Windows 7. I have a downloaded podcast that I like to listen to at night (helps me to fall asleep). The problem is, when the people are talking sometimes they will laugh or say something louder than other parts. What I would like to do is make it so all parts are of the same volume with no louder parts. I know a little about normalization and tried that but it didn’t seem to work. If anyone knows how to do this and can tell me in detail, that would be greatly appreciated.
Normalization and Amplify are sisters and they both do the same thing. Globally turn the volume up and down. That’s it. Once for the whole show. Normalization has the better name of the two. It just sounds cool.
You should look into Chris’s Compressor. Chris wrote a volume leveler so he could listen to opera in the car. I use it to even out podcasts so I can listen on headphones without blowing my ears out.
I change the first variable value Compress ratio from the default 0.5 to a stiffer 0.77. When I do that, the processed show sounds exactly like the local FM station and its stiff broadcast compressors.
Chris doesn’t like to stop at the end. So when you use it, make sure you have some extra stuff at the end of the show for Chris to “chew on.” After compression is done, you can cut the extra work off. I usually leave one trimming edit out so the show is too long and then compress.
When you install it, it will show up as Effect > Compress dynamics.