Audacity Forum

Hiya guys,

Real apologise here if this has been answered before, but I'm actually on a real deadline in editing a podcast right this minute, and for some reason, this weeks recording has simply thrown up 2 very different audio levels, one high , one low, now what it is , its also been recorded in mono as a single audio track.

So I guess you know my next question....is there a way, bar me picking through 2 and a half hours of a show, to get these levels anywhere near close together.??


Now if there isn't, would you guys recommend increasing the low audio, or lowing the high audio.?

really appreciate any quick answers, like I say I'm sat here now waiting, and trying to find me own fix.

thanks

I know you're in a hurry, but I'm reading this three times. Every time Fred talks he's hot and every time Jill speaks she's low? Did I get that? The compressor tool is your only hope.

Effect > Compressor.

It's a volume compressor and manager, not a digital compressor.

Pick a ten second segment where they're both talking and keep applying the tool with more and more severe numbers (and then undo) until the approximate level is right. It's never going to sound right, only better. The louder voice is going to get denser and denser as you go, but the volume will go down.

Koz

Appreciate the reply, I will give it a go.

And yes, basically one is around twice as loud as the other.

Just because I'm compulsive, twice the audio level is 6 dB and is a snap to fix. Twice as loud to your ears is 18 dB and that will be very amusing to try and fix.

You will be back later so we can figure out what happened, right?

Koz

Thanks again,
I tried the compressor, but it did sound a bit squiffy, so sadly I have had to grin and bare it and go through , best I could do,and just boost the audio on the low side, was real pain, but was OK.

What I will ask if anybody can answer,

I used to use audacity to record the main podcast we do, with 2 separate channels, being recorded on respective pc's,
now, we had a major problem the 2, either not syncing up at the start, but more importantly , the longer the recording editing went, the further out of sync it became.

so my question is, is there a way to match up the 2 separate audio files, to the correct time lines.

hope you understand.

Using Audacity 1.3.5, you can split each "side" of the conversation into individually speech snippets, then adjust them using the "time shift" tool. If person A is on one track, and person B is on another, it is relatively easy to match the volume levels by simply adjusting the volume slider of one or other tracks. If increasing the volume, take care to avoid introducing distortion by making it too loud.

This is generally caused by one of the computers (or both) having a bad sound card--read: Or Cheap. People get this when they record a rhythm track and then play that while they sing. Then they play the composite, it's out of sync.

What.

Yes, the record and playback parts of a cheap sound card may be driven with different--and just far enough off digital clock signals, so as you pile on composite tracks, they get farther and farther off.

Of course there are ways out of this. DAT was designed to eliminate this problem and SMPTE Timecode was produced so editors could get a good stable handle on time differences enough to fix it. Both of those cost thousands, not us$24 for a sound card.

Koz