Need help with classical music editing

[KStorm]

I presently use Audacity unstable to transfer some of my classical music cd collection to mp3 format(after I have ripped it to flac first) and normally I listen to it on the go, but with most classical music, the softer sounds are barely heard due to extraneous noise outside. What I'd like to do is to be able to manipulate the files with effects that will bring up these softer sounds yet leave the louder sounds unchanged. What is the effect(s) I should use, and what settings might I want to use with it? Thanks for all your help.

[kozikowski]

Without question...

http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

It shows up in the effects lists as "Compress Dynamics." He designed it to do precisely what you want to do.

Koz

[zzzZZZ]

effects that will bring up these softer sounds yet leave the louder sounds unchanged.

I'm sorry but it's too hard to get what you exactly want...
ordinary ways to bring silent part up is somehow compressing or limiting the louder part first and then bring the level of whole music up.
but, yep, in that way surely the louder part is NOT intact.
I've not seen any effector like that, and maybe there is no (maybe not manageable).

so, if i were you... (in case you don't figure how).
i'll go the ordinary way but carefully set the compressure or limiter not to ruin the louder part. probably linear-limiter (soft-limiter) is better, because compressures add some kind of "taste" in "attack" region of envelopes.
the point is to set "threshold" far much lower than -12dB and "ratio" much smaller than 1:1.2, so that the abrupt change of louder part stays least. please effect on hearing. then normalize the whole track.

good luck with that.

[kozikowski]

I set Chris's Compressor for a compression number of 0.8 instead of the default 0.5 and it mimics exactly the effect of the local Los Angeles NPR FM station broadcast compressors.

Ever wonder why you never have to constantly adjust the volume during the show when you're listening to the radio in the car? That's why.

If your music starts out life on vinyl, then you're going to have the additional problem of groove noise pumping and click removal, etc. etc. Still, nobody has ever been able to generate a better volume control result using the stand-alone compressors and limiters inside Audacity.

You can try it using the adjustment techniques listed in the above post. Write back and tell us how it went.

Also write back if you can't figure out how to download Chris. He's a lot better at sound production than he is file management.

Koz

[KStorm]

Without question...

http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

It shows up in the effects lists as "Compress Dynamics." He designed it to do precisely what you want to do.

Koz

The default settings work perfectly. I really appreciate it!