Calibrating the volume between two tracks

[DonkerV]

Is there a way I could automatically calibrate the volume between two tracks.

Let's say I want track two to have a volume set at 80% of track 1... How can I do that?

Thanks.

DonkerV

[kozikowski]

You can do fine tuning with Effect > Amplify, but you're not doing it in percents. I mean, you can force that to happen, but you're not going to get the results you want. Ears hear in dB, not percent. If you want to produce half-volume (approximately), you will need to reduce the work about 18dB. This is a fairly standard setting inside the amplify tool. Just type it in. "-18"

In percentages, you will be reducing the work to 12% of its former self. Each 6dB is half. If you insist on the work 80% of its former self, that's only 2dB which most people can't hear.

Ears work in wacky ways.

Koz

[steve]

If you want the peak amplitude to be 80%, first use "Amplify" with the default settings (that will bring the peak level up to 100%)
Then, select the track and from the Effects menu click on "Nyquist prompt".
In the Nyquist prompt text box, enter this code:

Code: Select all

(scale 0.8 s)

and press "OK".
The tracks will be scaled to 0.8 (80%) of the previous amplitude.

[billw58]

Steve's method will make any given track have a maximum peak amplitude of 0.8.

It sounds like what you want is one track to have a maximum peak amplitude that is 80% of another track. There are at least two ways to do that.

1) Apply the Amplify effect to the first track, setting the maximum peak amplitude to 0 dB (100%). The apply Steve's Nyquist code to track two.

2) Select the first track then click on Effect > Amplify. Note the number that the Amplify dialog suggests for amplifying the track to 0 dB (for example it might read "Amplification (dB) 2.7"). Click the Cancel button in the Amplify dialog. Now you know that the maximum peak amplitude of track 1 is -2.7 dB. You could now convert -2.7 dB to percent, but you really don't want to go there (unless you have a scientific calculation that does logarithms and anti-logarithms). It is much easier to say "I want the second track to be 3 dB quieter than the first track". Continuing with that as an example, you want the second track to have a maximum peak amplitude of -2.7 - 3 = - 5.7 dB. Select the second track, click on Effect > Amplify and enter "-5.7" in the "New Peak Amplitude (dB)" box.

Note that I have carefully written "maximum peak amplitude" above. That's what the Amplify dialog detects. This may have little to do with the perceived loudness of the track. One errant snare hit, microphone pop, etc. can throw the whole thing off.

-- Bill

[kozikowski]

<<<Let's say I want track two to have a volume set at 80% of track 1... How can I do that?>>>

So it can be done. but it may not give you the results you want.

What's the actual job? School Project? Scientific experiment.

Koz

[DonkerV]

Thanks a lot guys. I will experiment with your methods.

I'm new at this. The project is just fooling around with the software.

I wanted to try to equalize the voice with the music.... the music goes up, the voice goes up and vice versa.

Just to check the results on different recordings.


Thanks again.

DV

[kozikowski]

There's software that takes care of that directly.

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

Chris's Compressor gently evens out the volume changes within a show similar to how a radio station does it.

Koz

[billw58]

I wanted to try to equalize the voice with the music.... the music goes up, the voice goes up and vice versa.

Oh, you want this to happen dynamically! The volume of one track to control the volume of another. Sorry, there's no way to do that automatically. If there was really good software to do that then mixing engineers would be out of a job.

I think what you may want is the Envelope tool. Adjust the volume of the music and/or voice tracks to your liking. Use your ears, not numbers.

-- Bill

[kozikowski]

<<<Use your ears, not numbers.>>>

Don't do it! It's a trap!

Billw just neatly opened up the Great Speaker Debate. What are you listening to the show on? Good Quality Headphones? Killer Sound System? If you're trying to mix on the little speakers in your laptop, you could get a lot of surprises when the work is played on a much larger system.

"Where did that buzz come from? I didn't hear that."

I did a sound check on a cheap pair of speakers we had in the building and it turned out to be all sizzle and bass and pretty much nothing in the middle.

They "had an accident."

Koz

[billw58]

Don't do it! It's a trap!
Billw just neatly opened up the Great Speaker Debate.

I assume you're being somewhat ironic with your first comment, Koz.

The point is, you can't do it by the numbers. There's no magic formula or algorithm that will tell you when the vocals are "loud enough". Of course, a good set of near-field monitors is what you want at your digital audio workstation, driven by an appropriate amp. Oh, and an acoustically appropriate room for them to live in. And clean AC. And no triac dimmers.

And you don't want to listen only on a killer sound system. People may be listening to your mix on their iPod, in their car, on a boombox, through their tinny laptop speakers, even. So you need to listen to your mix on all those systems, too.

It all depends on how far down this road you want to go.

-- Bill