Audio Leveling – whatever it’s called

[Brad Leigh]

It’s called a compressor and Vegas has it.
B

i7 2600 3.4 Ghz 8Gig Ram , Win 7 Pro, Vegas Pro 12

[Simon Laidlaw]

You might also want to try the ‘Normalise audio function’ (found by right clicking the audio envelope then going to the switches menu).

This detects the audio in an envelope and increases / decreases the loudest part to to a maximum of 0 DB.

This is too loud for broadcast and you still need to ride the levels a little bit but it gives you a good platform to start from.

http://www.cutmustard.tv

[Paul Beller]

you never know what happens where, how attack and release will affect your recording. maybe that is stupid but i tried few different tricks and i was never fully satisfied with it. i am not sound engineer, so it may also be lack of knowledge but no matter if it is 3 minute clip or 2 hrs conference – i always level sound manually, so i am sure every second of it sounds exactly the way i want it to sound.

[James Houghtaling]

OK, thanks all. What I hear are two options: Normalize and Compress. And yes, I’ve seen them but no I have not tried them. Which is used when or do I apply both?

Situation: Reasonable audio level but occasional applause that spike the meter?

Situation: One loud talker and one soft talker?

Are there any tutorials out there on the use of either of these tools?

Thanks again, great responses!

—————
My Hardware:
Core i7 2.67GHz; Nvidia GTX580, 12 gig RAM Win7 64bit.

My Software:
Vegas Pro V11 with Boris Continuum Complete 8, VASST Ultimate S; Bluff Titler; AE5; PhotoPaint and other stuff.

[Bob Peterson]

Normalize is not very useful. If you have one loud noise, that loud noise will limit the volume increase that normalizing will produce. The quiet sounds will still be relatively quiet. The compressor does what you want although you may have to experiment a bit with the settings. Start with one of the presets, and adjust to suit your preferences. The compressor will get you a lot closer to a consistent volume. I ignore it if clipping occurs on something like clapping since no one will hear the clipping within the clapping sound. Once you are happy with the compressor setting, you can listen to the audio to find any excessive volume levels. A volume envelope can then take those out.

[Simon Laidlaw]

Agree with Bob.
It does sound like the normalise solution would not be the best for you here. Compressor gives you greater control but it is more time consuming.

Think of normalise as a quick fix for web video and compressor as the elegant but slower broadcast solution!

Whatever you pick you’ll still need to ride the volume on the timeline. You’ll be pleased to hear that Vegas has easily the most intuitive volume adjustment of any of the big NLEs

http://www.cutmustard.tv

[James Houghtaling]

Thanks guys.

—————
My Hardware:
Core i7 2.67GHz; Nvidia GTX580, 12 gig RAM Win7 64bit.

My Software:
Vegas Pro V11 with Boris Continuum Complete 8, VASST Ultimate S; Bluff Titler; AE5; PhotoPaint and other stuff.