Audacity Forum

Is there a way to turn up the volume evenly, on the entire project as a whole?

I know I can turn up each individual track in various ways; but can I turn up everything by exactly the same amount?

My goal is to get a louder final product: a louder MP3, if you will.

<<<My goal is to get a louder final product: a louder MP3, if you will.>>>

You know this is already ringing alarm bells, right? You don't want to fix a technical problem, you're trying to fix an aesthetic one.

Starting with the longest track, select it (click in the panel to the left) and then Shift-Select the shorter and shorter tracks. Effect > Amplify. Accept the defaults > OK.

That's the highest volume you can adjust before the highest one hits maximum.

If that's not enough, then you can do a bit better by selecting each track or song and apply the tool again.

If there's still no joy, you may be stuck with one of the compressors or volume managers. They distort the show so it appears louder -- some times much louder. This volume compression is one of the main reasons your guitar performance in front of a microphone is usually much, much quieter than the same song on a Music CD. You can't actually play like that. The music was adjusted in a studio post production to appear loud.

Koz

chillowack wrote:I know I can turn up each individual track in various ways; but can I turn up everything by exactly the same amount?

if you have multiple tracks selected and you use the "Amplify" effect, each track is amplified by the same amount.

chillowack wrote:My goal is to get a louder final product: a louder MP3, if you will.

If you mix down all of the tracks to a single track and then apply the Amplify effect, then you will get the highest peak amplitude before distortion. If you want it to be louder than that then you are into the loudness war and will need to use compression and limiting.

<<<if you have multiple tracks selected and you use the "Amplify" effect, each track is amplified by the same amount.>>>

Carefully. If you select the shortest track first, only the short duration in all the tracks will be corrected.

Koz

Ctrl+A to select All.

If all the individual tracks are amplified to 0 dB, then when they play together, the mix will exceed 0 dB and will distort (clip).

Thank you both for your help.