Audacity Forum

Hi. I have a concert recording from old laserdisc and it sounds great but I want to make songs volume more even and keep nice dynamic range it has also.
Some songs, especially at the beginning, are way more quiet than similar songs later in set-list. Maybe they were performed that way I don't know but it would be nice if I could make them more even.

My question is: What are the best compressor settings for my case or should I use some other plugin?

- if I set threshold too high it would compress it too much
- if I set threshold low and increase ratio I get more what I want but changes in volume within song are sometimes apparent in short intervals

Could someone please explain what each option changes and when it should be used?

Some songs, especially at the beginning, are way more quiet than similar songs later in set-list. Maybe they were performed that way I don't know but it would be nice if I could make them more even.

That's fairly easy, so let's start with that one. (They probably were performed that way... There are loud songs and quiet songs, and live music tends to be much more dynamic than studio music.)

You can select an entire song and use the Amplify effect to increase or decrease the volume of the entire song without damaging the dynamics within the song.

But, some quiet-sounding songs may have normalized (maximized) peaks and they can't be increased without clipping/distorting, so here's the approach I'd recommend:

1. Normalize all of the songs independently. (You can use the Normalize effect, or the the Amplify effect will default to whatever change is needed for 0dB "maximized" peaks.)

2. Listen to all of the tracks and choose the quietest sounding track as your reference.

3. Adjust down the other tracks (by ear) to match the reference, or for the desired relative loudness.

(I recommend doing this as the last step after any other compression or adjustments.)

Hi. I have a concert recording from old laserdisc and it sounds great but I want to make songs volume more even and keep nice dynamic range it has also.

You do realize that dynamic compression is by definition a reduction in dynamic range, right?

My question is: What are the best compressor settings for my case or should I use some other plugin?

- if I set threshold too high it would compress it too much
- if I set threshold low and increase ratio I get more what I want but changes in volume within song are sometimes apparent in short intervals

Here's where things get tricky. Pros use a variety of compressors and settings, and of course they have a lot more experience than most of us...

You might try using the Envelope Tool to "manually" adjust the loud/quiet parts. The trick with the Envelope tool is to always start with no volume-change and fade-up or fade down with no sudden-instant changes.

You can also try the Limiter effect (a kind of fast compression) and/or the Leveler effect (a kind of slow compression or "automatic volume control").

There is also a popular plug-in called Chris's Dynamic Compressor.

Those are just things to try... "It's easier to break things with a hammer than to build things with a hammer", and that's true with audio tools too...

I don't want to normalize all tracks independently because songs are gapless and I do want to add a little compression.
If someone can explain what is each option represents in practical situations.
What is long attack time for and what is short?
When to set release time higher?
And stuff like that

Instead of becoming a compression expert, you should try Chris' Compressor. Chris wrote it so he could listen to opera in the car. He had the same problem you do. One violin wailing plaintively in the south forty followed by the full orchestra and chorus blasting away at full volume.

https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/chriss ... -audacity/

Effects > Compress dynamics. I either use the default settings or increase compression from 0.5 o 0.77. That's it.

I use it regularly to force an uncontrolled podcast to behave in my ears while I'm hiking. I adjust it to be similar to the broadcast compressors. That's why you never have to adjust your car radio. That's not accidental.

Koz

A nice article on the subject:
https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep09/ ... deeasy.htm

It is easiest to view attack and release at their extremes and with regard to the combinations:
1. long long
2. long short
3. short long
4. short short

Experiment with those extreme settings and you will see what I mean.
For instance, the first one would be ideal to even out different sections of the song or a entire album, a dynamic normalization of sorts.

Robert

What are the best compressor settings...

So by now it should be obvious there is no one set of adjustments or one tool. Anything you do automatically with global compression settings will probably not sound very good somewhere in a long performance or across multiple performances. You are remixing the show. You are taking the place of the Producer and Master Mixer humans who sat in a nice quiet room with a large sound console and made the laserdisk.

That's why the first suggestion was The Envelope Tool which lets you adjust volume, manually, note by note if you want, over the whole show. The more automatic you make it, the more likely you are to get mistakes and odd compression sounds.

Koz

Thanks for all replays. I tried all combinations on compressor but I wasn't satisfied completely. I'll try envelope tool and chris's dynamic compressor. I might also try adobe audition for even more compressor options.

as Doug suggested previously, try using the Envelope Tool

Envelope Tool is good but does it have some sort of numeric indication to see the exact numbers (time and amplitude)?

Bero1707 wrote:Envelope Tool is good but does it have some sort of numeric indication to see the exact numbers (time and amplitude)?

No that is a "feature request". However you can use the Audio Track Dropdown Menu to change the Vertical Scale to Waveform (dB) then look left at the scale. You can also zoom the vertical scale as described in the link.


Gale