adjusting volume on recorded tracks

[yogurtpooh]

Hey, I am recording my voice in 10-20 second clips to record narration for a documentary... however, I find that it is hard to keep my voice volume the same throughout. Is there a way I can edit each chosen track to be all together at the same volume? thanks

[DVDdoug]

Typically, this is done with manual adjustments and compression.

I'd start with Amplify, setting the peaks of each file/clip to 0dB. Then if there are a few files that don't seem to match, you can adjust-down the loud-sounding files.... After "normalizing" the peaks to 0dB, you can't increase the volume without clipping (distortion), so you have to reduce the loud-sounding files to match the quiet-sounding ones.

Then, you can experiment with the Compressor effect, if you wan't to make the files more-even and louder sounding. (When used with "make-up gain", compression tends to make "everything loud".)

You can also try a FREE program called The Levelator. (It's supposed to be a simple "one click" solution.)

[kozikowski]

Not to be confused with Effects > Leveller which is a hard limiter/distortion generator.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Also, if you're on a Windows machine, you should make sure the Windows conference service isn't running and "helping" you set levels.

Windows Enhanced Sound
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 79&start=0

Koz