raise volume without clipping?

[oscabat]

I recorded several songs on Audacity 1.3.7 and converted them to mp3. They are all playing at a far lower volume than other songs on Windows Media Player and online. I have the max amplitude about as high as it will go without clipping (which is -2dB). Given that I'm already done recording, is there any way on Audacity or another program to raise the playback volume that doesn't lead to clipping (the idea being, so people won't have to turn their volume way up whenever they hear my songs)?

[kozikowski]

If you recorded your performance live, then no, it probably didn't go through many thousand dollars worth of studio and commercial volume compression. However, you can do that in post.

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

This compressor only runs in Audacity 1.3 and it's a pretty amazing loudness manager. I change the top compression number to .77 and it simulates perfectly the presentation loudness of our local radio stations--almost no matter what I started with.

Koz

[oscabat]

When I click on the link to download the Audacity plugin source, I don't get anything downloadable, just a bunch of code, unless I am completely missing something.

[steve]

Right click on the download link and choose "Save As..."

Alternatively, just click on the link, let the new page load (lots of computer text stuff) then save the page in plain text format.

The downloaded file (whichever way you download it) must be saved with the file extension ".ny"

Make sure that your computer is set to show file extensions, otherwise you could end up with a file called "compress.ny.txt" and this will not work. The file must be called "compress.ny"

Move the file into your Audacity plug-ins folder.

[oscabat]

Ha- that was easy; thanks.