Audio question

[SeismicGuy]

I suspect there is an answer but not yet obvious.  In my slide shows I generally have a number of songs for background music, all of them mp3.  When doing this the "volume"  often differs from one song to the next, either due to the way it was recorded or the songs themselves (one song might be just quieter by nature compared to the one before).  The program I was previously using had an option at the end to "normalize" all the music clips so that they sounded equally loud.  Is there something similar in PTE or is the workaround just to reduce the volume on the loudest clip?

Doug

[jkb]

you can't normalise in PTE, use something like Audacity to do that.

With PTE you will just have to adjust the volume of teh individual tracks.

Jill

[SeismicGuy]

Looks like I can also adjust the volume to above 100% for the quietist clips if I enter the number since the slider only goes up to 100%.  Normalize would be a nice feature for upcoming versions so that you don't have to jump in and out of different programs.

[stranger2156]

The volume level on different tracks can be easily adjusted to the timeline by moving the volume indicator with the mouse (from 0 to 200%). For deeper settings, there are specialized programs, one of which is indicated above. Sometimes I had to give up some programs, for the reason that in the race for multifunctionality (not inherent in their original functions), they turned into clumsy and slow monsters.

Paul

[SeismicGuy]

Doing that is what I was referring to as the "workaround" but it takes some tinkering--making an adjustment, listening to hear if it was accurate enough, tweaking again if necessary, etc. and you would need to be playing around with each of the clips separately going back and forth to check that they were all kind of same loudness.  A normalize feature would let the computer quickly make those determinations for you and probably more accurately.

[jmG-06100]

You can automatically adjust the sound level ("normalize" the track) by using the free, open source, AUDACITY software from www.audacityteam.org/

It is a fantastic software for editing sound tracks, remove noise, rearrange parts of songs, change the duration of a song while keeping the same pitch, etc.  Quite fun to use the many "sound effects" provided.

[davegee]

Is there a facility for automatically lowering the volume of the background music while increasing the volume of an audio comment?

DG

[jmG-06100]

Dave

I cannot answer specifically the question, since my usage of Audacity is still that of a beginner.

However, there is a feature for "Spectral Selection and Editing", with an example how to remove a "whistle" as explained in https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectral_selection.html

[davegee]

The Volume control in Project Options/Audio can be used to Globally Normalise/Equalise an Audio Track (Zero to 200% with respect to other audio tracks) while still allowing for localised equalisation via the Envelope.

DG 

[rosy]

Just to clarify normalise, normalise in audacity is to remove / reduce clipping. Clipping is where the waveform goes outside the normal waveform & causes distorted peak sounds. See Audacity  "Enter the value for the maximum amplitude you would like the processed selection to have. The initial default setting is -1 dB, but you can change this. Your choice of settings will be remembered for next use of Normalize any time you change it. A level of -1 dB is just below the maximum amplitude (0 dB) possible without clipping, but gives a little headroom for effects and distortion-free playback on all equipment. Enter a more negative value (for example, -3 dB) to normalize to lower amplitudes.

Entering a positive value is disallowed and causes the "OK" and "Preview" buttons to be disabled.

Rosy

[macian]

This may help.

 

Noise reduction and optimising audio in Audacity

 

*N.B. Item 3 refers to adjusting the Filter Curve for specific tasks. My settings for that are to optimise MY voice.

For music, you may just go for the default settings.

 

1. Select a wave-free section containing noise

Effect > Noise reduction…> Get Noise Profile.

Effect > Noise reduction…> OK

2. Effect > Compressor > Settings

Threshold -18 dB

Noise floor -40 dB

Ratio   2:1

Attack Time 0.20 sec

Release  “ 1.0 sec

3.* Filter curve.

4. Effect > Limiter > Limit to -3.00 dB

5. Effect > Normalize

[davegee]

All good info, but I believe that the original intention of the OP is to avoid going into Audacity or any other software to achieve the "normalisation/equalisation".

DG

[denisb]

Hello,

 

AUDACITY 2.4.2 as new Loudness Normalization : effect >> loudness Normalization, and ajust the loudness you want.

 

 

You can also use a loudness meter like TB_EBULoudness

and decide the amplification you need either in Audacity or in PTE

 

Denis

 

 

[SeismicGuy]

5 hours ago, davegee said:

All good info, but I believe that the original intention of the OP is to avoid going into Audacity or any other software to achieve the "normalisation/equalisation".

DG

Exactly right.  I looked back through my longer projects and there are anywhere from 10 to 20 audio clips from different sources.  Sometimes I use the entire clip (song) and sometime I would trim them to be linked with just a number of slides.  In any case no matter what method you use it would be a pain jumping back and forth along the audio track to try and manually coordinate the volumes.  It was nice to let the computer do the work for me much quicker and more accurately.