Please forgive me if this topic has been brought up before. I am old school and learning to use audio editing software like Wavepad (which for this old dog is easier to use than Audacity) to clean up music CDs to listen to in my car. My question is for people who have been doing this, what is the easiest way to level volume on multiple music tracks (from different sources) that vary in volume in order to sound the same? Is it best to use amplify, normalize, auto gain?

Please try to be specific as to what settings and steps I need to do.

PS- If there is an even easier software audio editing device than Wavepad, I am game to try it.

Thank you much.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-07-21 18:59 by Sighunt.

Since you're not using Wavepad, what are you using?

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GasLightStreet
Since you're not using Wavepad, what are you using?

I am using Wavepad. I was just making a point that if there was easier software than Wavepad, I would try it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-07-21 19:38 by Sighunt.

The thing is, it is almost impossible to do what you want to do. That is because each recording has high and low volume spots in it, and if you use equalization it uses those and makes them more or less equal but that makes everything else either high or low volume in comparison. It is rare to find different recordings with similar characteristics unless they have all been "brickwalled" using compression. Dynamic recording differ so much it is difficult. So the best you can do is get in the range of equality for the main segment of the music and let the rest either clip (not a good idea especially in the digital realm) or go so low that you may entirely drop out the soft passages. It is one of the real paradoxes of putting together disparate material to make it all sound the "same".

Others may have better insights but that is what I have gained from 40 years of fooling around with recording technique.

jb

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Sighunt

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GasLightStreet
Since you're not using Wavepad, what are you using?

I am using Wavepad. I was just making a point that if there was easier software than Wavepad, I would try it.

Oh. The way I read it you were alluding to the various kinds of programs when you said "learning to use audio editing software like Wavepad".

Pay Bob Ludwig to master your tracks.

Experiment by using different commands during burn. "Normalize" sounds like a reasonable place to start. If it doesn't work go on to the next possibility. Maybe use a re-recordable CD so you can use it over and over for these tests. Otherwise you'll go through a few CDs before you figure it out. When I used to burn my boots with different songs from different sources the program I used ( I can't recall which one it was but it was the most popular one for burning CDs ) had a command that said something like "normalize volume of all files" or something like that. It did the job.

I was faced with the exact same problem in creating a large playlist for the iPOD. This may sound absolutely crazy, but I used my ear to detect a difference in volume which by the way can detect a 3 dB difference aka double / half volume. Of course, its by no means exacting but when you are faced with several hundred recordings from different CD sources what other choice do you have. Trust me when I say this took me a very, very long time to do this. I used wavepad and itunes, which can display the volume level if you are working with MP3 files or Apple Lossless files. The iPOD does offer a means of balancing the levels automatically using Sound Check but I never was keen on the outcome.

The end result was surprisingly quite good.

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Boognish

Pay Bob Ludwig to master your tracks.

Even the Stones cannot afford that (nowadays) ....

As STTD mentioned, Your ears are the first set of tools.
listen and analyse what you have and what's the difference.
then you can go to use some tools to try and average the difference.
i like to use the Waves, Multiband Compressor or Izotope mastering tools.

oh, and I have no idea if that works with Wavepad.

I use Cakewalk by Bandlab, it’s free but needs a bit of learning.

There is a visual representation of the wave file you can ‘raise or lower’, plus add the visual UV meters. It works for me.

I then ‘export’ back to FLAC

As above, it can be time consuming, however, If your adding sources from different shows, using ears (wave visual representation) and visual (UV Meters) it can be a good listen

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Bungo
Experiment by using different commands during burn. "Normalize" sounds like a reasonable place to start. If it doesn't work go on to the next possibility. Maybe use a re-recordable CD so you can use it over and over for these tests. Otherwise you'll go through a few CDs before you figure it out. When I used to burn my boots with different songs from different sources the program I used ( I can't recall which one it was but it was the most popular one for burning CDs ) had a command that said something like "normalize volume of all files" or something like that. It did the job.

I think it Nero what you used

__________________________

Some of these things work if you are using recordings with the same general dynamic range, but if not, results will always be disappointing unless you compress them all to the same general level and then go from there. Of course that means brickwalling, which is one reason that technique is so popular: its quick and easy and totally fcuks up the sound of it.

jb

Thank you all for your expertise! Truly talented people on this board.