I’ve been collecting Ambient tracks off Amazon after hearing them on sites like Somafm.com/drone zone. But I’ve run into an issue where some tracks play loud, while others are extremely low. I’ve even sent these tracks in question to the artiest in order to have them remaster then thinking that because many of these tracks are not or have not been remastered. I find myself turning the volume up on one track and down for another… Using your software, Is there a way to adjust all of my tracks so that they all play at the same sound level?.
Using your software, Is there a way to adjust all of my tracks so that they all play at the same sound level?.
Yes, but it can get tricky…
There is a limit to how “loud” you an go. Digital files can’t (or shouldn’t*) exceed 0dB. You can use the Amplify or Normalize effect to adjust for 0dB maximized peaks. But the problem is, peaks levels don’t correlate well with perceived loudness so if you normalize/maximize all of your files some will still be louder than others. …Many quiet-sounding songs are already normalized.
Audacity also has a Loudness Normalization effect which can match loudness. But, that effect doesn’t check the peaks so it can push the peaks into clipping (distortion). And if a song/track has loud & quiet parts you might not agree that two different tracks match in loudness.
**If you have a small-manageable number of tracks here is a procedure you can use -
- Run the Amplify effect and accept the default to normalize/maximize all of your tracks.
- If they don’t sound equally loud choose the quietest track as your reference.
- Adjust the other tracks down to match (by ear) as necessary.**
Although Audacity’s Loudness Normalization effect can set to a particular loudness level, unfortunately it doesn’t have a built-in tool to to measure loudness. dpMeter and Youlean Loudness meter are free 3rd-plug-ins that can do it. With these tools you can use a similar procedure as above, but with measurements rather than by-ear.
Unrelated to Audacity, but for larger collections there are [u]ReplayGain[/u] related solutions. Apple has something similar called SoundCheck. ReplayGain has to be supported by your player and the volume is adjusted at playback-time. It uses a pre-defined loudness target that works with most recordings (so you don’t choose your own reference). WaveGain and MP3Gain use a similar algorithm but they make “permanent” changes to your files so they work with any player.
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- There are formats that go over 0dB and Audacity itself uses floating-point internally so it virtually has no upper (or lower) limit. But analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters are hard-limited to 0dB.
Afternoon DV here’s a for instance, if you go to Amazon and search for Russ Ballard’s - Voices this track is extremely low and this is not how I remembered it when I first got the CD. So does that mean whom ever uploaded it to amazon for resale left it in a vinyl format and it’s not been digital remastered?
So does that mean whom ever uploaded it to amazon for resale left it in a vinyl format and it’s not been digital remastered?
It could be a different master. It could even be a totally different recording (made in a different studio or at different time). But, usually all of the digital formats are from the same recording and same master. If it’s a modern vinyl record, the vinyl is usually made from the same master too, although some additional “adjustments” may be made to accommodate vinyl limitations. Older analog recordings may, or may not, be remastered for CD/digital.
Amazon wouldn’t have anything digitized from vinyl.* People do upload “vinyl rips” to the Internet but that’s a copyright violation so you won’t find it on the legitimate websites.
All of the popular streaming services use loudness normalization but they boost the levels into clipping so some recordings still-end-up quieter than others. Amazon normalizes (streaming, not downloads) but I don’t know about somafm.
Voices this track is extremely low
There is a “stereo widening” effect that makes a “center-channel vocal remover” when played-back in mono. That would be a deliberate effect applied by an audio engineer (or by an audio amateur 
)… It’s not something that happens accidently. There aren’t many mono-playback systems so that mostly happens when played back on a mono cell-phone speaker. But there is a kind of playback-system defect that give the same result on a stereo setup.
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- I have a CD with some very old recordings (maybe the 1920’s). That’s before tape recorders were being used in recording studios so they were digitized from a disk and I can hear some crackling noise on at least one of the songs.
If a track has a large dynamic range, then the overall “loudness” must be relatively low, because the loudest parts cannot go over 0 dB peak.
To make multiple tracks the same “loudness”, you must ensure that none of the tracks go over 0 dB peak - in other words you have to allow a lot of headroom.
If you use “Loudness Normalization” with default settings on all of your tracks, then they should all sound about the same loudness, but you may find that they all sound rather quiet compared to commercial recordings. Commercial recording tend to make tracks as loud as possible, which does not allow for much dynamic range. (See “Loudness War”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war)
Solved the issue, I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T-FSS1RR-M and in the top left corner of your software I was able to increase the loudness to voices which is what I wanted to do. I believe I increased the gain by +14 as if I increased the gain above =15 the bass would distort. Did some other small adjustments and I’m pleased with the outcome. Thanks you for the product I’ve bene unset with Amazon for selling these type of low quality mp3’s.
Been working diligently overnight correcting (adjusting the gain) on all the tracks that seem to be play extremely low. Things couldn’t be better now that I found the cure to the low quality tracks as offered by amazon. I’ve even complain to amazon about this without any reconciliation. But I still have access to several artist who don’t mind remastering their tracks. I may end up adjusting the gain on my wife’s music as some of her friends are having the same issue. At some point these music/mp3 players have changed in a way that they will not play older music off CDs. Seems the tracks must be in an MP3 or MP4 format. In fact my wife country music cd wouldn’t play through the mp3 player anymore, but will still play via cd player on a portable radio. what is this?
here’s the end result. I’ve just concluded that 89% of those songs I’ve acquired from Amazon music are of an inferior quality. Thus I’ll never purchase tracks from Amazon again. I’ve bene doing fine with acquiring tracks direct from the artist, or using sites like Archive.org or Bandcamp as these tracks are direct from the artist which maintain a higher standard of quality. Attempting to adjust all those tracks from Amazon has become a very tiresome job and I’m not happen with the results. Though I was able to correct the Russ Ballard tune, most of the rest I wasn’t able to correct.
Lesion learn so avoid buying music from Amazon Music.