Audacity Forum

I wish to normalize all the tracks in a single folder
How is this possible?
I am new to Audacity, and not a computer genius, so
answer me in the language I am accustomed to---1st grade.

Unless normalize appears in the list of things you can do in the Chains multiple recursive activity tool, no. Plus, I think Chains is only available in Audacity 1.3.

Koz

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... references

Koz

kozikowski wrote:Unless normalize appears in the list of things you can do in the Chains multiple recursive activity tool, no. Plus, I think Chains is only available in Audacity 1.3.

Koz

I have 1.2.6....is 1.3 stable?

What is the Chains multiple recursive activity tool?
Is it explained in simple terms in the manual?

trahcwolf wrote:I have 1.2.6....is 1.3 stable?

Probably more stable than 1.2.6

trahcwolf wrote:What is the Chains multiple recursive activity tool?

No idea about the "recursive activity" bit, I think Koz made that up. "Chains" is a method of being able to do some processing on batches of files, or to semi-automatically run a series of commands. It is quite limited, but can be useful.

trahcwolf wrote:Is it explained in simple terms in the manual?

No, not yet - but there is a nice picture here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... dit_Chains and a brief mention in the Audacity wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ffectsTips
It is pretty simple to work out - just play with it a bit.

Audacity 1.3 is fifteen seconds away from becoming Stable 2.0. You can have 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine as long as you only use one at a time. Audacity 1.3 Projects will not open up in 1.2.

The two most modern Macs will no longer run 1.2. Far from being "unstable," I use 1.3 for everything.

<<<What is the Chains multiple recursive activity tool?>>>

That's engineering-speak because I couldn't remember the phrase Batch Processing. Batch, for example, in Photoshop, lets you apply a visual correction to multiple pictures one right after the other. For some reason, Audacity couldn't call it "Batch Processing," so we got "Chains." Chains lets you apply some action to multiple sound files. Unfortunately, where in Photoshop, you get to design your own Batch, in Audacity, you only get the tools that the programmers made Chains Friendly. There aren't many.

I've never used Chains and I can't find any information on it.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:Chains lets you apply some action to multiple sound files. Unfortunately, where in Photoshop, you get to design your own Batch, in Audacity, you only get the tools that the programmers made Chains Friendly. There aren't many.
I've never used Chains and I can't find any information on it.

Yes, that part of the manual has yet to be written. So I'll give a stab right now.

You need to have a project window open in order to access the Chains menu items in the File menu, so open a new project if needed.
Go to File > Edit Chains. Under the left column click "Add" and name your new chain. Click "Insert" and double-click "Normalize" in the list. Click "Edit Paramters" - the Normalize dialog appears. Uncheck "Remove any DC offset" and click OK. Click OK to add the effect to the chain. Click on "-END-" then "Insert". Double-click on "Export WAV" (or Export MP3 or Export OGG or Export FLAC - your choice). Your list should be Normalize then Export then -END-. Click "OK" to end editing chains.

Go to File > Apply Chain. Click on your new chain, then click on "Apply to Files". All the files you want to filter should be in the same folder. Navigate to that folder and select all the files then click "Open". Each file will be loaded into Audacity and processed then exported in the format you chose in the chain. The processed files will be saved in a folder named "cleaned" in the same folder as the file - so the original files are not altered.

-- Bill

I believe this is what I need to concentrate on

What I am attempting to do is take a batch of songs currently in the same directory and normalize them all
Batch processing, or chain, should do the trick, but...
They're all at various levels when played back at the moment
Doing it manually has produced results that are not only time consuming, but basically a waste of time

I'm not sure if Audacity places the results in the original directory or not...what I am getting is
no perceptable alteration of volume at all

The program looks good enough and is fun to use. I just fear I will have to shell out some heavy
bucks for a program that does what I am after...like Soundforge...
Only doing projects like this once ina great while, which is why there was hope for an inexpensive route

<<<Doing it manually has produced results that are not only time consuming, but basically a waste of time>>>

Not surprising. Normalize doesn't affect show loudness except as an accident. Both Normalize and Amplify change the Whole Show At Once so that the one loud peak goes to a set voltage level (in dB or percent, depending on how you set Audacity) and it drags the rest of the show up and down to do it. It will not correct for volume changes within the show or between shows and it tends to be taken over by one drumbeat, loud vocal note, or cat hair pop in the case of a record.

You probably really want Chris' Compressor from here...

Chris's Compressor
http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

That is a musical dynamic compressor that will adjust loudness so that several shows match and it will correct for loudness variations within a show.

However, I'm pretty sure you can't batch it.

Koz

Thank you. I will try it out.
Also, thanks for such a quick reply.


Just looked at it.
I like the idea behind the program, yet when I click to download the Audacity plugin, there's a screen of words instead of a download link.
Certainly that's the program, yet I have no clue how to make a screen full of words become a plugin. Help for idiots like me would be greatly appreciated.