Audacity Forum

I have two files that have been recorded at vastly different sound levels.
I have cut & pasted them into one file
How do I adjust the sound levels
1) to simply equalize them both together
or what I really need to do in this case is
2) the low sound level file cannot be changed (it has binaural beats, near subliminal content, etc) so I want to SELECT the louder part and reduce it "by ear" until it is ok.

I read the manual "equalization" page but that's a complicated looking thing & I tried it but can't isolate the louder half.

I found the Mixer Board but don't know how to SELECT only a portion of the file to change.

I have tried reducing the level of the loud file using the Mixer Board, & then saving it before pasting it into the lower sound level file, but it always ends up very loud. Weird.

Starting with the original two shows, set volume, equalization and range at each one individually before you edit into a composite show. Once mixed into a show, it's almost impossible to clean and do production on one voice without affecting the other, or without damaging the edit transitions.

Pamela software for recording Skype has an advantage of recording the local and the remote voices as separate files. This lets you clean and filter one voice without affecting the other. Then you mix into a final show.

There's no good alternative. Even if you carefully select each word, the spaces between the words will have clicks and pops at the cut or selection points

Koz

There is also a way to edit that doesn't involve cutting and pasting onto one timeline. You can use the Envelope and Time Shift Tools to cut up two tracks one above the other.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tools_toolbar.html

When you want to hear track two, you mute track one or move it out of the way. The advantage of doing it this way is the two tracks are still two tracks and you can select one without the other. Audacity will smash everything into one composite show when you export.

Koz

Ya'll misunderstand. These are Mono tracks. The "soft" portion comes first, then I inserted a few blank seconds, then the "too loud" was pasted in after it.

I have reduced the db by 30 or 30 on the loud one and Saved it, re-opened it, selected All, then copied, then pasted it onto the end of the soft file, and it still remains very much louder than the soft on.

Oh, I should add I'm using OSX 10.6.8 and Audacity 2.0.5. The SoundForge.net site is down so I can't get the newer one right now.

Equalizer wrote:Oh, I should add I'm using OSX 10.6.8 and Audacity 2.0.5. The SoundForge.net site is down so I can't get the newer one right now.

SourceForge stopped hosting us without warning a few weeks ago, just as well considering their long outage.

You can obtain Audacity from us at http://audacityteam.org/download/mac.


Gale

If I install the newer version, will I also have to re-download and re-install the plug-ins like LAME etc?

I think the answer to my first question is "Normalize" ???
>
How do I adjust the sound levels
1) to simply equalize them both together
>

But 2) is what I really need to be able to do; reducing the louder file to match the softer file without changing the softer file.

Equalizer wrote:If I install the newer version, will I also have to re-download and re-install the plug-ins like LAME etc?

LAME is a library. No you should not have to re-download LAME.

If you merge the new Audacity folder into the old, choose "Keep newer". This retains any files in your existing Audacity folder that are not in the new installation and updates files that are in the new installation.

Gale

Equalizer wrote:what I really need to be able to do; reducing the louder file to match the softer file without changing the softer file.

I don't understand what is stopping you doing that. If the loud part is in one part of a track, click and drag to select the loud part. For that loud part selected on its own you can then use Amplify or Normalize.

Gale