I use Windows 7, SP1 | Audacity 2.0.5
When attempting to get a song which was playing noticeably quieter in Winamp (5.666) than the ones preceding it as well as the ones following, I thought I’d try the Amplify… effect:
This looked hopeful until I listened to the now seemingly amplified song - there was no audible difference whatever. What did I do wrong/how does one go about raising the perceived loudness/volume of a track?
Thank you.
Did the song sound noticeably louder when played in Audacity immediately after amplifying?
Thanks steve.
No, as I said in the OP: This looked hopeful until I listened to the now seemingly amplified song - there was no audible difference whatever.
Sure I listened to it; I was anxious to see if had finally found the solution to what has been a problem for the looongest time - moste titles are tolerably equal in terms of loudness(?) volume(?) but once in a while one will be so loud as to have the neighbours pounding the walls while another (like Dylan’s ‘I threw it all away’ in the example) can barely be heard.
I had used several third-party programs portending to normalize volume across all my music tracks, but they hadn’t worked, and so I had more or less given up on it.
In that case it would appear to be a problem with your playback system. From looking at the pictures that you posted, the amplified waveform should be noticeably louder.
Check your sound card settings to see if it has any effects enabled that could be automatically “levelling” the playback.
Also. ensue that you don’t have Skype or other voip programs running in the background (they can mess with recording and playback levels).
No, I had been experimenting with this option before in my attempts at volume normalization ‘across the board’, but scrapped it as that method engendered problems of its own.
I forget what they were right now, but I am satisfied that that did not solve the problem.
The image in your last post shows the settings for the “headphones” device, but the default device is shown as DFX speakers. Have you checked the settings for DFX speakers?
Uh…no, that’s not it either:
as you can see, the DFX Speakers Properties dialog doesn’t even have the Enhancements/Loudness Equalization tab.
You could force the effect to reveal itself. Put a song on the timeline, select the whole thing by clicking just above MUTE. Effect > Fade Out. Play it. The song starts out normal volume and fades to dead silence. Somewhere in the song, the system will have to make a decision to “give up.” It will be interesting to hear what it does at that point (attach).
Koz
OK, thx. I will in a half hour as I was ‘otherwise engaged’ just now. Stay tuned;)
Done and done. It happened to be John Hiatt’s ‘Cry Love’. It ‘gave up’ right where I would have expected, where the green arrow points:
And? Look, good buddy, is it kidding me you are? Because these suggestions have all been ‘shots in the dark’ and if you are not exactly sure of what you are doing, let’s call it quits.
I’m a busy guy with tons to do.
Yes, shots in the dark because what you are reporting does not make sense. If the waveform is made significantly bigger vertically, then it is louder. So what’s happening on your system to defeat basic physics?
Well If you don’t know then I sure don’t. I asked a straightforward question and I would never have asked if I had any idea why the Amplify effect does not, in my case, amplify.
That is - to look at the before-and-after screenshots I posted in the OP, all looks hunky-dory. But the thus amplified track does not sound any different than the original.
I am as baffled as anybody else. And I did take the precaution of deleting the original un-amplified file before trying the amplified one to avoid a snafu. I have done this before, have used Audacity almost from the get-go, and never had a problem that could not be straightened out in this forum.
'Tell you what steve and koz - let’s call it a day for now and I’ll continue fiddling with this tomorrow on my own and if I find the explanation - there has to be one barring magic and I don’t believe in magic - then I’ll come back and let you know how it went.
How’s that? Thank you both for hanging in there with me so far.
It ‘gave up’ right where I would have expected, where the green arrow points:
Did it stay one volume all the way down or did it slowly fade?
I would never have asked if I had any idea why the Amplify effect does not, in my case, amplify.
Well, there is one other possibility. People have posted with fake, impossible or contradictory questions just to see what we would do.
Koz
Koz, you ask: Did it stay one volume all the way down or did it slowly fade?
it slowly faded from full volume until there was just vinyl rumble.
You also say: Well, there is one other possibility. People have posted with fake, impossible
or contradictory questions just to see what we would do.
I would never do that. I’ve had some 35 posts over about 5 years before this one, and if I were some
kind of troll or evildoer, it would have been obvious long ago.
So never fear, I’m on the up-and-up with a genuine liking for Audacity and a genuine desire to have it
behave as intended or else straighten things out in this excellent forum.
I most likely made some kind of mistake today as this has worked for me before, but give me until
tomorrow and I’ll experiment some more. Meanwhile I fished the original, weak-sounding file out of
Recycle Bin so I’ll leave it for now, sleep on the matter (it’s 8 pm here now) and get a fresh start tomorrow.
See you then, and thanks for the assistance.
I were some kind of troll or evildoer, it would have been obvious long ago.
Not if you were really good at it. I think it was Poirot who said, “If I committed a crime, mon ami, you would be unaware a crime had been committed.”
You have extraordinarily unlikely conditions.
Sound and the blue waves are not welded to each other. They’re separate processes. I guess it’s remotely possible you have damaged tools. Re-install Audacity and when it asks you if you want to also reset settings and preferences, say yes.
Koz
As far as I know, DFX applies its effects to all sound devices. I am not quite sure whether the DFX Speakers virtual device is merely an “enabler” device or what its exact purpose is, but I suggest you simply take DFX out of the equation by turning off its green Power button http://www.fxsound.com/support/dfx/manual/current/parts/index.php.
Then play that track you amplified in Audacity.
Gale
I’m fascinated by not knowing what the goal is. If it is a service or tool trying to independently set volumes, what’s its goal? It’s not blindly trying to keep the overall volume constant. That would have destroyed the ramp test.
I guess we don’t know what happens if Amplify is applied so as to reduce the volume. Also, if you increased the volume of a test performance and exported it, does it import to a fresh Audacity at the new or old level?
Correct me, but this is a one-off problem. Never before heard.
My opinion is a broken Audacity. Reinstall and reset Preferences. Even if that fails, it’s one thing marked from the list.
Koz
That’s not the right question…
THAT is the question.
“Amplify” is “to make the waveform bigger vertically” (increase the “amplitude”), and we can all see that it has done that. The “mystery” is, why does the amplified track not sound louder. As gale hinted, DFX looks to be a possible explanation http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4187-dfx-audio-enhancer.html
Let us know how you get on.
DFX looks to be a possible explanation
But again, what is DFX doing? What is its purpose? I can’t think of a useful process that would produce this error.
“Carefully capture the Audacity export and swap the original file in its place and not tell anybody.” Doesn’t sound reasonable.
“Capture the Audacity export and compare it to the original import and pick the lowest one.” Even more unreasonable.
“Capture the Audacity live playback and assume it’s wrong.”
I like Audacity made no actual changes to the work. It changed the blue waves only. That’s why I want to see an actual export and re-import to a fresh launched Audacity.
Koz