Evening out the volume on a playlist

[Bob Bell]

I have been asked to make several three and one half hour playlists of music from the 50's through 1980. Each song comes from a different source, and thus the volume levels vary. I made the playlists in iTunes (their Sound Check feature, which is supposed to correct this, is basically useless) and imported them into Audacity. I am very new to this program and have some very basic questions. On the first playlist there are 70 selections, carefully sequenced. I cannot see how i play one after the other. Is that possible? Initially I found that 'the terrible noise' I heard was because all 70 tracks were playing simultaneously!

Obviously what I want to do is to maximize the level on some tracks to match the louder ones. I understand that I cannot do a 'blanket' adjustment, but have to treat each tune separately. How do I do that? I normalized all the cuts as I imported them, thinking that that would be a start.

Thanks!

Bob

[steve]

(their Sound Check feature, which is supposed to correct this, is basically useless)

Sound Check has two parts. First the files must be scanned and tagged by Sound Check. then on playback, if the media player supports Sound Check, then the player adjusts the playback volume automatically. Both parts are required for Sound Check to work.

Also, assuming that Sound Check has similar features to Replay Gain, there will probably be an "album mode" and a "track mode". For what you want, you need to use "track mode".

I cannot see how i play one after the other. Is that possible?

Yes that's possible.
1) Press Command + A to select all
2) "Tracks menu > Align Tracks > Align End to End"

However, for the purpose of balancing the tracks, it may be easier to just use the track "Solo" button to listen to one track at a time. This allows you to skip from one track to another while playing. See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audi ... .html#solo

Obviously what I want to do is to maximize the level on some tracks to match the louder ones.

No, the other way round. If you try doing that then it is very likely that you will push some of the quieter tracks into distortion.

The way to do it is to first "Normalize" all of the tracks to 0 dB (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/normalize.html). You can process all of the tracks at the same time if you "Select All" (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/auda ... ction.html) and then apply the effect.

Then find the quietest track. Because you have brought all of the tracks up as loud as they will go without distorting, this track cannot go any louder. So now you need to reduce the level of other tracks to match this level. To adjust the level, use the track Gain slider (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audi ... .html#gain)

Finally, you need to export the tracks. To do this, use "Export Multiple" (based on "tracks"). http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/export_multiple.html

[Bob Bell]

Steve,
Thank you so much. I've been at this for ten hours now, so I'm going to give it a break, and start again tomorrow.
I'll keep you posted!
Bob

[cyrano]

As Steve said, it works in iTunes, but the songs don't get changed.

If you need to make a long playlist, you could have a look at Mixxx:

http://mixxx.org/

It's open source, free, available for Windows, Linux and Mac and has a lot of built-n features that are meant just for your application. And it uses the iTunes library. I don't know if it uses the volume correction, but it's worth trying it out.

[Bob Bell]

Cyrano,
Thanks for the Mixx tip. I have downloaded it and taken a quick look, and it does seem as if it may do what I want it to do. However, as I have so much time already invested in Audacity, I am going to follow Steve's recommendations today and see where I get.
Bob

[Bob Bell]

No, the other way round. If you try doing that then it is very likely that you will push some of the quieter tracks into distortion.

The way to do it is to first "Normalize" all of the tracks to 0 dB (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/normalize.html). You can process all of the tracks at the same time if you "Select All" (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/auda ... ction.html) and then apply the effect.

Then find the quietest track. Because you have brought all of the tracks up as loud as they will go without distorting, this track cannot go any louder. So now you need to reduce the level of other tracks to match this level. To adjust the level, use the track Gain slider (http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audi ... .html#gain)

All tracks have been normalized.

I tried to find the quietest track by going to View>Mixer Board and selecting all the tracks and playing them simultaneously. With the volume off - sounded nicer that way. Then I looked at the peaks registered on the meters and found one track lightly quieter. Yet when playing it solo, the output at the top of the Audacity window showed it to be just as loud as anything else. Is there a better way to determine relative volumes? Doing over 70 tracks by ear is not feasible.

Bob

[Bob Bell]

Screen Shot 2016-08-03 at 12.44.39 PM.png (29.34 KiB) Viewed 729 times

This happened as I blundered around trying to learn the program. How do I reverse it?

Bob

[steve]

This happened as I blundered around trying to learn the program. How do I reverse it?

Looks like you have "scrolled" over the track's vertical ruler. It can happen quite easily by accident if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel (or equivalent).
See here for the scroll / zoom gestures: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audi ... html#scale

The quickest way back to "normal" is "Shift+Right Click" over the vertical ruler.

[steve]

I tried to find the quietest track by going to View>Mixer Board and selecting all the tracks and playing them simultaneously. With the volume off - sounded nicer that way. Then I looked at the peaks registered on the meters

If you normalized the tracks, then they will all have the same maximum peak level - that's what normalizing does.
Peak level is NOT the same as "loudness". Loudness is subjective, not an absolute measure. The only really accurate way to determine whether one track is louder than another is to listen to them.

Is there a better way to determine relative volumes?

Listening is the best way. Because loudness is a matter of how we "perceive" the sound, it is the only really "accurate" way - and your idea of "loud" may be slightly different to my idea of "loud" (though generally people tend to agree more or less, so long as they do not suffer from hearing problems.

Doing over 70 tracks by ear is not feasible.

Well there is an "approximate" way that may be close enough. I wrote a plug-in that attempts to adjust the levels of tracks to about the same "loudness". In my tests it is usually fairly close, but you can let me know what you think. The plug-in is available here: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 58#p167758
The download to use is the link that says "New Version".
The only documentation for that plug-in is in that forum topic.

[Bob Bell]

The quickest way back to "normal" is "Shift+Right Click" over the vertical ruler.

That got it! Thanks Steve!