Is this possible?

[Kat]

A friend asked me to record an old cassette recording of a church service onto cd for her. I have recorded it onto my hard drive but the problem is the sound. This is an OLD recording that was recorded with a cassette recorder and is recorded in mono. When it is played, the singing will blast you out of your chair but when they start talking, I have to adjust the volumne a lot or put my ear up to the speaker to make sure it is still playing. Now that it is recorded onto my hard drive, is there a way I can make the voices louder all at one time? I know that I can select sections at a time and amplify it but I just thought I would ask if there's an easier way to do it? Also, if I have to do it sections at a time, is there a way to find out the volumne level of the loud singing so I can amplify the voices close to that level? This way I will have them closer so she won't be constantly adjusting the volumne. I hope I'm making myself clear. Thanks for your time.

[steve]

1) Make a copy of the file so that you are not working on the original (in case you completely mess up).
2) Upgrade to the latest version of Audacity 1.3

3) If there is background rumbling or other low frequency noise, use the high-pass filter set at about 100Hz
4) If there is noticeable hiss, use the noise removal effect http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... se_Removal (do not be too severe with this - it is better to have a little bit of hiss than jangling distortion caused by using this effect too much).

5) You could try using the "leveller" effect which is built into Audacity, or for better results, you could try the somewhat more complicated plug-in "Chris's Dynamic Compressor" http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

[Kat]

Steve, I tried to download the plugin you suggested but all I get is the following:

;nyquist plug-in
;version 1
;type process
;name "Compress &dynamics..."
;action "Compressing..."
;info "Does dynamic (volume) compression with lookahead.n'Compress ratio' is how much to louden the soft parts.n You can soften the soft parts with values < 0, and invertn loudness with values > 1 (lower max amp when you do).n'Attack' is how fast the volume drops to anticipate a loud section.n'Release' is how fast it rises after a loud section.nHigher 'width' values give slower changes in volume.n'Exponent' determines the shape of the attack and release curves.n Higher values flatten out the low point of the curve andn increase the slope farther out on it.nRaise 'floor' to make quiet parts stay quiet.nRaise 'noise gate falloff' to make quiet parts (beneath 'floor') disappear.nLower 'maximum amplitude' if you experience clipping."
;control compress-ratio "Compress ratio" real "" .5 -.5 1.25
;control right-width-s "Attack width" real "~s" .34 .1 10
;control right-exponent "Attack exponent" real "" 4 1 6
;control left-width-s "Release width" real "~s" .51 .1 10
;control left-exponent "Release exponent" real "" 2 1 6
;control floor "Floor" real "dB" -32 -96 0
;control noise-factor "Noise gate falloff" real "factor" 0 -2 10
;control scale-max "Maximum amplitude" real "linear" .95 .0 1.0

This is a short example of what I get. I have tried to download using Firefox and Internet Explorer but I get the same results. Do I need to change a setting? Thanks!

[steve]

You probably need to right click on the link and "Save As"
What you see is the plug-in. It is just a text file with a ".ny" extension.
When you have downloaded it you need to find your Audacity plug-ins folder and put it in there, then restart Audacity.

[Kat]

Steve, thank you for your help! That is exactly what I needed! It is working soooo good! I apologize for being so long in letting you know the outcome. I have been trying to access this web site since Friday afternoon and all I ever got was a blank page until today. Thanks again for your help!

[steve]

Thanks for letting us know Kat.
Yes, the forum server has been a bit temperamental - sometimes hitting the "refresh" button on your browser will get you connected, but other times you need to come back later and try. (the forum is on shared hosting, and without a budget to pay for better hosting...)