Audio normalization

[SeismicGuy]

It would be nice to have a normalize option to smooth out loudness differences when you have a mix of background music, some of which can be louder or softer than the other clips.

[Barry Beckham]

It’s called Audio editing and Crossfade

[SeismicGuy]

Not so simple though.  If you have a number of audio clips and there are differences in the loudness between them, it would basically be trial and error going clip by clip.  Probably first decrease the loudest or increase the softest and then do the other in-between ones and keep moving the curser from clip to clip to check the effect until you are satisfied (I also posted this in the General Discussion section).  Alternatively, you can probably pre-process the clips in some third-party audio software to equalized the loudness and then move the processed clips into PTE.  The normalize option in the program I had been using that shall remain nameless was a very nice feature that let the computer do the work all within the program.  

[Barry Beckham]

How many audio clips are you referring to and what length would they be in total?

[SeismicGuy]

I looked back at some of the longer vacation travelogues I have created and there were 10 to 20 song clips used.  Sometimes I used the full length of the song and other times I would use trimmed clips to add a certain comic or dramatic effect for a series of slides.  For example in a trip to France and Belgium there were a series of images taken at the Normandy beaches.  So I downloaded some WWII video clips of the landing mixed in with my own photos and used Saving Private Ryan as the background audio for those several slides.  Going back and forth through 10 or 20 clips manually adjusting the volume would have been tedious and the "normalize" feature eliminated that hassle.

[JimH]

A workaround might be to publish the show, extract the show's sound into Audacity - normalize it in Audacity then import the sound as a single file back into the PTE show, deleting all other sounds - you would of course want to do this only when satisfied with the rest of the show. - I agree with you, a "normalize sound" option would be a good addition.

[rosy]

IMO Normalise in Audacity would not equalise separate clips, normalise to to reduce clipping. There is an noise reduction setting in Audacity but when I've tried it I wasn't very successful. The way I did it was to select all the tracks at the same time & use the noise reduction feature. But it didn't give an even sound. Another was is to set each track to the same DB level using the volume sliders, but this is hit & miss. You reall need to play your finshed track & note where the problems are then tweak each one, a laborious business.

Rosy.

[jkb]

The best way is to record at a decent level in the first place!!

I know this doesn't always happen, but once overloaded  & the peaks are clipped then there is nothing you can do about it.
It is the equivalent of blown out highlights in an image, once gone you can't recover.

If your sound level is too low, then normalise can lift the clip evenly - all it does is add the same amount to the whole clip, keeping all the peaks & troughs.
If only certain parts are low, then select each & lift those

This can be done in something like Audacity fairly quickly.

It is best to normalise to about -3db, -1db is the absolute limit
Never take it to zero

If PTE could include a VU meter in a future version that would be a big help

Jill

[AlexRoma]

it would also be interesting to be able to have balance control...
yes, I know, it can be done in audacity...
but having dynamic balance control (in some situations, for example sound effects) would be remarkable

[rosy]

4 hours ago, AlexRoma said:

it would also be interesting to be able to have balance control...
yes, I know, it can be done in audacity...
but having dynamic balance control (in some situations, for example sound effects) would be remarkable

Plus 1.

Rosy.

[rosy]

4 hours ago, AlexRoma said:

it would also be interesting to be able to have balance control...
yes, I know, it can be done in audacity...
but having dynamic balance control (in some situations, for example sound effects) would be remarkable

Plus 1 Rosy.

[SeismicGuy]

21 hours ago, jkb said:

The best way is to record at a decent level in the first place!!

I know this doesn't always happen, but once overloaded  & the peaks are clipped then there is nothing you can do about it.
It is the equivalent of blown out highlights in an image, once gone you can't recover.

If your sound level is too low, then normalise can lift the clip evenly - all it does is add the same amount to the whole clip, keeping all the peaks & troughs.
If only certain parts are low, then select each & lift those

This can be done in something like Audacity fairly quickly.

It is best to normalise to about -3db, -1db is the absolute limit
Never take it to zero

If PTE could include a VU meter in a future version that would be a big help

Jill

As I said my issue was that I often used background music from a variety of sources, mostly mp3 instrumental or sometimes vocal downloaded from various sources on the web.  These often have different gain levels and the automatic normalize feature, while doing nothing that could not be done manually, was a very nice one-step quick solution.