If I want my audio to remain in the green, it has to be very quiet, my computer speakers will be at around 75% or more to comfortably hear it. I’ve been making podcasts for years, I’ve been following the same method, this just seems to be a problem since I upgraded to the new version of Audacity, I must be overlooking something. Also, despite using compression, at the usual 4:1 ratio, I still have some parts too loud and other parts too quiet. What’s going on?
The new version of Audacity has a new (& IMO better) compressor, (it has factory presets).
However the old compressor is still available under “legacy” effects.
Compression ratio isn’t everything: the attack and release times also control the effect.
Thanks. So why does it go into the red when I bring it up to a reasonable volume? That’s new to me.
You may have accidently turned down the playback volume slider: the white disc …
You should avoid clipping while recording. Leave some headroom and amplify later. Low digital recording levels are not a problem.
If you run the Amplify effect and accept the default it will normalize/maximize for 0dB peaks. But that’s based on the highest peak in the recording and the peaks don’t correlate well with perceived loudness.
The limiter (with make-up gain) is usually better for making it louder. Limiting is a fast-kind of dynamic compression. With make-up gain (or if you amplify after) it brings-up the overall average without hard-clipping the peaks.
After exporting you can check the LUFS loudness with the Youlean online loudness checker
He makes a free plug-in but I’m not sure if it currently works with Audaciy. There is another plug-in called dpMeter but I’m not sure if it’s working in the current version of Audacity either.
Audacity has Loudness Normalization which can set the LUFS level but it doesn’t check for clipping and it doesn’t report the current LUFS before running.
But if you know what loudness you are going for you can run it, and then run the limiter to “push down” the peaks before exporting. (Audacity will “show red” for potential clipping even if it’s not actually clipped yet.)
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Ahah, it was the limiter settings that needed to be readjusted! Thank you.
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