Audacity Forum

Hi.
I'm sure this question is answered somewhere, so I apologise in advance, I am searching for it myself,
but finding the answer is a bit time-sensitive, so I thought I would ask for help as I search.
If there is a link to a tutorial, feel free to pm me and delete this post.
Problem :

In short, I have two voices on the same mp3 track [it is an interview I have done with somebody for the business-part of a general music course I am doing].
One voice is much louder than the other.
[my voice, to be specific. It is kind of booming, and I would say annoying]
I was wondering , if it is possible.....
How do I balance the voices so that the volume of each voice is similar ?
So that there are no outstanding volumes?

I am seeming to remember something to do with the envelope tool on a general tutorial I watched a while ago....

If you can either tell me how, or point me to a tutorial that answers this, I would love that and it would help me a lot.

I'd be first out of the gate with Chris's Compressor.

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

Crank up the first number, compression to 0.77 or so for use. Chris is a look-ahead dynamic compressor and it makes remarkably good assumptions of where the various volume levels during a performance are supposed to be.

So you were holding the camcorder during the interview and you had the bad form to use the build-in microphone instead of using a talent mic? That can work if you're on sticks (tripod) and the built-in microphone is a shotgun. You then sit to one side and at some distance and quietly ask the questions. This is assuming you don't have a camera operator.

The raw, uncomfortable form of rescue is to zoom into each word or sentence, select it and apply tools like Amplify and Equalize. Repeat through the whole interview. That's the fast version. A slower, but more graceful version is to use the envelope tool. Select Envelope -- two white arrows and bent blue line -- and two control rubber bands will appear in the timeline. Punch control points into the line and drag them around.

This is an example of a cross-fade executed with Envelope.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/CrossFade.jpg

This will effect volume, but not equalization.

Koz

You might like to check out The Levelator. It was made for just this kind of thing.
http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

--
Ragnar

Dudes! Kozikowski and ragnar,
Thank you so much!

I'm sure either of these plugins / programs will work more than fine.
I'll let you know how I get on [although that might be more than a week from now, since I might be selling my laptop to somebody tomorrow. Might not have time to experiment tonight.]
I won't forget though!