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How can I adjust the audio level when sharp sounds are much louder than the conversation?
I’ve got a home video event of my son as a baby, sitting in the high chair eating and banging his spoon on the tray. The talking of my wife and me is quite a bit lower than the sharp banging sounds. So when I normalize the audio track it just uses the sharp peaks and the conversation stays almost too low to hear.
What is the best way to bring up the conversation level on this event?
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6 Replies
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A compressor is probably the way to start. (Disclaimer) I am in no way an expert on audio.
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A compressor will work, most likely. But, “sharp sound” doesn’t really define anything. If it’s constant, then an EQ is in order vs a compressor, most likely. Or, an EQ-chained compressor that only hits that band.
A better description of “sharp sound” might help. Is it a percussive sound like a piece of steel hitting another piece of steel, or is it a badly eq’d sound that is like an icepick through the forehead? Both are “sharp” but would be treated differently.Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASSTCertified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor -
A compressor will work to bring the bangs down but only to the vocal level, but be sure to set attack and release to fast and make sure it’s not compressing during voices. Another way to get it better, if there aren’t to many bangs, zoom in on each one and use a level effect to lower them, even lower than the vocals. Then normalize it. Danny Hays
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The sound is more percussive, he’s quickly hitting a metal spoon on the plastic tray of the high chair.
I’ll try both methods suggested and see how it works.
As always, thanks for the help. These forums are an amazing resource for the clueless.
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Normalizing is/should almost always be, a last ditch process.
If you can isolate the sounds in a deeper sound editor such as Forge, you’ll have a much better end result. You can also set the compression to trigger above the threshold of speech, but this will still not eliminate, nor have too effective a control over a percussive attack.
If you have Forge, Audition, or similar, you’ll do better to surgically approach this issue.Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASSTCertified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor -
Hi Douglas,
I use normalize to get CD tracks the same volume and for poorly recorded (small wave form) audio files. Are there some forums you can point me to that can explain why I shouldn’t use this feature? I always thought Normalize just scans the file for the highest peak in amplitude and then raised the amplitude of the whole wav until the peak was at the level you set the normalize too. Does it change the sound other than level or is there another, better way to acomplish this. Thanks in advance.
Danny Hays
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