Audacity Forum

i have an MP3 file and the drum beats are far too loud.
can audacity fix this problem?
simple instructions required!
thanks all
win 7/64

No. As a general rule, you can't take a song apart into instruments. So we can't split apart the drums from the rest of the song. If we could, the rest of the process is no problem.

That and MP3 files are awful for production because the sound quality goes down each time you edit them.

You might try the compressor tool. Effect > Compressor. If the drums are the major part of the show, that may be able to take the volume down a little and not affect the music.

Went to a concert with your camcorder? If you did, you'll have multiple problems. Very loud drums and bass overload the microphone and cause distortion and holes in the rest of the instruments.

Koz

Thanks Koz
made the audio using a built in sound in pinnacle studio 12

problem is... i have no idea how to set the compressor. but nothing seemd to work.
could not find it in the help files.
also tried hard limiter ... but again random stabs did not work!
really i just need to limit the volume spikes - i guess.
thanks

file attached - it is the drum beat ALL the way thru!

I can't help it, either. They're too integrated into the structure of the song. You are a prime candidate for Overdubbing/Multitrack. You do the song in two passes. the first pass is without the drums and the second pass, you put the drum track in. That gives you drums on their own track and you make them as loud and soft as you wish.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/man ... rdubs.html

Once you get it set up and working, you'll want to do all your songs that way. The ability to remix in post production is gold.

Koz

thanks
but pinnacle wont do that.
surely in audacity there is a way of limiting all the volume spikes???

"Fast Lookahead Limiter" (it's in the LADSPA plug-in pack: http://audacityteam.org/download/plugins )
Input Gain: 3
Limit: -8
Release time: 1.0

Making the effect much stronger than this has a bad effect on the remaining sound.

thanks
do i just click the exe file and then audacity can find them?
thanks

Double click the .exe file and the plug-ins will be "installed" (extracted and copied to your hard drive).
Restart Audacity and the new plug-ins should be found automatically. They will appear below the dividing line in the menus.
The plug-in pack is a 3rd party product (not made by Audacity) so a few of them don't work in Audacity.

thanks