Stereo Channels, partial normalizing

I have several recordings of myself playing solo piano. They were originally recorded to cassette and later digitized.

One of the stereo channels is consistently and significantly quieter than the other channel.

I’ve read the Wiki article on amplification and normaliztion and know how to normalize the channels so that the peak level on each channel is the same. What I’d like to do, however, is to correct most of the discrepancy between the two channels but to leave some of it. (The mic for the louder channel was slightly closer to the bass end of the piano, although both mics were equidistant from the piano as a whole.)

Is there a way to increase the volume of the quieter channel but not to bring it all the way up to the volume of the quieter channel? (If there is no way to do this, I’ll normalize the channels independently so that they have the same peak level.)

I use Audacity under Windows 7 and XP.

Yes. Split Left and Right with the tools on the left drop-down, and then apply amplify (or any tool) to one track or the other.

Did you try Normalize, Independent? You might like it.

Amplify does the one absolute peak in the whole show and Normalize one or two peaks – you select. Neither of them changes the character, timber, tone, or any other quality of the work.

Koz

Koz, many thanks for your quick and helpful reply. I followed our instructions and successfully made a number of changes to a practice audio file – so I know I can now do it. :smiley: