volume balancing

[kevin32]

In my voice recordings, sometimes my voice sounds lower in volume in some places, and higher in volume in other places. The only way I know to balance this out is to go to each spot and adjust as necessary.

Is there an option in Audacity where I can select the whole track and it automatically adjusts the volume so that the recording sounds more balanced all the way through? Thanks.

[kozikowski]

You can mess with the compressors in Audacity, but the grand master of doing volume management like that is Chris's Compressor.

Chris's Compressor
http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

It's a look-ahead volume compressor that does a good job of hiding itself -- you can't tell it's doing anything while it's working, but all the problems go away.

I've only used it with commercial and pro voice tracks, so you might run into problems if you have background hiss or other noises in your performance.

It's unfortunately true that "compressor" means two things. Data compressors find ways to make computer files smaller by either clever management of the data, or outright throwing parts of it away.

Volume Compressors manage the loudness content in a show. There are settings in Chris's Compressor that allow it to simulate the compressors in the local NPR FM station.

Koz

[kozikowski]

None of these happen in real time. The tools are applied after you already capture the show to fix it. Audacity is a post production program.

Koz

[kevin32]

Thanks kozikowski, I'll check these out.