Audacity Forum

Nope, NORMALIZE does not do a thing. The second portion is still the same, much louder than the first part.

OK I got it now. I didn't know the NORMALIZE would work on just a selection. And then I had to notice that the normalization level you select is an absolute number, not a REDUCTION from the current db level.

It would be a nice feature if you could select one area and have the app automagically determine the correct dB of Normalization to apply to a second selected area, in order to equalize the two. Doing it by eye & ear is a bit of trial & error.

The Low file is about -20, the High file was -6.

New weirdness. I have saved a file where my first two play sequentially, at a good volume level.

Now I am pasting a 3rd file onto the end of that. Except that every time I do it, it does not paste the 3rd file. It copies the 2nd file to the tail end -- at the original really loud volume level. WTF is going on here?

Equalizer wrote:OK I got it now. I didn't know the NORMALIZE would work on just a selection. And then I had to notice that the normalization level you select is an absolute number, not a REDUCTION from the current db level.

If you want a reduction control, use "Amplification (dB)" in Amplify.

Have you tried reading the Manual:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/amplify.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/normalize.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/am ... alize.html/

Equalizer wrote:It would be a nice feature if you could select one area and have the app automagically determine the correct dB of Normalization to apply to a second selected area, in order to equalize the two. Doing it by eye & ear is a bit of trial & error.

You can use Amplify to see the peak in any selection. The peak is the negative of whatever value "Amplification (dB)" says in Amplify. If you know the quieter section has a peak of -20 dB, choose a "New Peak Amplitude (dB)" of -20 for the louder section.


Gale

Equalizer wrote:New weirdness. I have saved a file where my first two play sequentially, at a good volume level.

Now I am pasting a 3rd file onto the end of that. Except that every time I do it, it does not paste the 3rd file. It copies the 2nd file to the tail end -- at the original really loud volume level. WTF is going on here?

You cannot import at the cursor. Import the third file, double-click in its blue waves to select it, Edit > Copy, click where you want to paste then Edit > Paste.

Gale

It seems the problem is that the 3rd file is Stereo; at least after a while I was getting an error "you cannot paste stereo onto mono" or some such. So I turned my receiving file into Stereo.

BUT the Pasted file put itself below the first file, instead of afterwards... So I guess I learned how to "mix" tracks, accidentally...

Audacity doesn't have Paste-Import. You have to import the clip and then use the editing tools (cut, paste, copy) to push the two tracks together.

Also note that many tools stop working if you're in Pause instead of Stop.

Koz

Also note that both Amplify and Normalize work on peaks not volume, and over the whole show . So if somewhere in the show there is one very loud sound (gunshot, snapping wood, vinyl record pop), neither tool will do anything. The show is already as loud as it can get.

Koz

Both Amplify and Normalize seem to work on a selection for me...

Or do you mean they take their parameters from the entire track?

cyrano wrote:Both Amplify and Normalize seem to work on a selection for me...

Or do you mean they take their parameters from the entire track?

By "whole show" Koz means the whole selection. You could be zoomed in on part of the selection and not see the peak that prevented Amplify or Normalize having any effect.


Gale