I am a beginner trying to start a YT Channel. My first interview is done, with an Introduction and an “extroduction.” But the voices on the interview are too low, and the beginning and the ending are too loud. To correct this, I am still trying to become proficient with Audacity. The instructions said that if I can’t get ffmpeg libraries (and I can’t), I should convert my file to a supported file, such as WAV. I did this. I didn’t know at the time that this stripped the video off and only converted the audio. This will be fine, as I feel certain that when I drop the new, cleaned-up audio file into the video file, it will overwrite the old programming. So I’m not too worried about that. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)
But I have to lower the audio in the Intro and Extro and raise the audio for the interview, and this is causing me fits. When I started, I used the selection tool to target the beginning, and I successfully turned the music down, using Effect>Amplify. After this, things got a little hairy. Ideally, I would have liked to go to the end of the video and do the same thing on the Extro–turn the music down. Then I would have liked to return to the video interview where it appeared in between them and, using the same Effect>Amplify, brought the audio up. I wish it had turned out that way.
I couldn’t figure out how to move around on the track, and after I finally concluded that Audacity only moves one way, it presented me with a track where the markings were uniform and I couldn’t sort out (visually) where the music stopped and the talking began. I am going to convert my file to WAV again and again go through this process. I would appreciate any tips you could give me, especially about successfully moving around on the track.
Most video editors can do some audio editing so depending on what you’re doing you may not need to extract the audio and use a separate audio editor.
I think what you’re looking for is the [u]Envelope Tool[/u]. The “trick” with the Envelope Tool is to leave the end-points unchanged and fade-up or fade-down so there are no sudden jumps in volume. You’ll need to zoom-in appropriately.
I finally concluded that Audacity only moves one way
No, you can “move around” and zoom-in and zoom-out and select and work on any part of the audio.
it presented me with a track where the markings were uniform and I couldn’t sort out (visually) where the music stopped and the talking began.
You normally have to listen (just as you have to look at the video when editing video). If you select part of the audio it will play the selection.
The instructions said that if I can’t get ffmpeg libraries (and I can’t),
It’s really not that bad but the Audacity team doesn’t directly distribute FFmpeg because of license & patent issues. All you have to do is download and run [u]ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.exe[/u] and it will get installed and you’re ready to go.
Depending on your video editor you should probably export as WAV. Most video editors will re-compress the audio (and video) so if you export to a lossy format your audio could be going through 3-generations of lossy compression.
How did you do the interview?
Really bad matching can be somebody trying to record a Chat, Conference or Skype. Those are super difficult to get right because the app software is fighting you every step of the way.
There are tricks to live interview.
Koz
stripped the video off and only converted the audio.
Audacity is not a video editor and you need a video editor to put the new sound back in.
Since you’re doing video, it’s handy to do all your work in the video sample rate of 48000 (lower left) and not 44100. Set that forever in Audacity Preferences > Quality. Leave the Sample Format at 32.
Koz]
Have as many parts of the show in separate tracks as possible. As you may be finding out, Audacity can’t split a mixed performance into individual voices for editing. Correcting a badly matched, mixed sound track can be a career move.
Keep everything on separate tracks including music if any, and Audacity will push everything into one mixed show when you Export the final sound file.
Audacity will not Save a sound file. It saves Projects which are combinations of files and folders. You want to save a Project if you expect to open up the show later and continue editing. Audacity Projects will not save UNDO.
You may also be finding out what a pain it is to do everything in Stereo (two blue waves). You can do that later if you want, but it’s probably good to start out in mono—everybody gets one blue wave.
Export each individual performance as a perfect quality WAV sound file as a backup. It’s a new user mistake to shoot something, edit it and export the show all from one single, continuous Audacity Project. If Audacity goes into the dirt during the edit and loses your show, you should be able to open up all the backup WAV files and just keep going.
Koz