keyboard shortcut to repeat a specific amplification value

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

Is there a way to create a keyboard shortcut in Audacity that will repeat a specific amplification value?

For example I’d like to be able to just repeat an amplification of -1 so I can gently affect louder spikes in my narration.

Audacity 2.1.2 for Mac OS X

2

amplification of -1 so I can gently affect louder spikes in my narration.

-1dB? That may give you a warm, fuzzy feeling, but nobody can hear 1dB. Are you trying to preempt peak problems in ACX audiobook narration?

I’d be investigating Effect > Limiter. You can get limiter to gracefully wack off all the sticking-up parts in a narration without affecting anything else noticeably and without being able to hear it. And without needing to crank through the performance word by word by hand.

But to specifically answer you, you can create a chain which is Audacity’s version of Batch.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/chains_for_batch_processing_and_effects_automation.html

Koz

3

If you apply -1 dB once in Amplify, then until you use another effect, COMMAND + R (Repeat Last Effect) will amplify by -1 dB.

This only lasts for the Audacity session. When you restart Audacity, you’d have to apply Amplify manually again first time before you can use COMMAND + R.


Gale

4

This plug-in will amplify by 1 dB:
onedb.ny (216 Bytes)
Instructions for installing: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/effect_menu.html#nyquist_effects
Note that in the Plug-in manager, before the plug-in has been installed, the effect is listed as “onedb” (in the “New” section). Once it has been installed, it is listed as “+1 dB”.

Once the plug-in has been installed, you can add a keyboard shortcut for it: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/keyboard_preferences.html

Also, as with other effects, after applying it, you can apply it again with the Command+R shortcut.

5

I corrected my post from CTRL + R to COMMAND + R as this is on Mac.


Gale

6

Thanks so much for chiming in, guys!

Koz. Chain seems to only offer changes to an entire file. Am I missing something? Also: And without needing to crank through the performance word by word by hand. How do I edit without listening to the file? I’m all for saving time if you have suggestions.

Gale, CMD+R only repeats the most recently used effect. So if Amplify was the only thing I was doing that would work great. But it’s not.

Steve, do you know of a plugin that does the EXACT OPPOSITE of +1db? I’m searching the forums now.

7

I’d be investigating Effect > Limiter. You can get limiter to gracefully wack off all the sticking-up parts in a narration without affecting anything else noticeably and without being able to hear it. And without needing to crank through the performance word by word by hand.

You seem to have sailed gracefully over the first part of that sentence. Did Effect > Limiter not do something you needed done?

You also sailed right over a following posting:

Are you trying to preempt peak problems in ACX audiobook narration?

So I think this would be a grand place to find out exactly what the job is. There is the possibility you may be doing a conventional job for which we have existing, automated tools, but manually, in the most painful way possible.

Koz

8

Correct. But why do you want to do it little piece by little piece?

As I said.

See the attached. It just needed changing to -1, as far as I can tell.


Gale
minusonedb.ny (219 Bytes)

9

As Gale wrote, it’s a very simple change.

The onedb.ny file is a Nyquist plug-in. which is really just a plain text file with instructions for Audacity and Nyquist (“Nyquist” is an audio programming language that is included in Audacity). The file can be opened and edited in any plain text editor (for example NotePad or NotePad++)

This is the line that does the work:

(mult *track* (db-to-linear 1.0))

track is a special symbol that represents the selected audio.
mult is a command that means “multiply”. Multiplying audio by an amount is how digital audio is amplified.
db-to-linear is a command to convert a dB value to a linear scale value.

So, for example, if you want an effect that will amplify by -3.5 dB, then the code would be:

(mult *track* (db-to-linear -3.5))