Level volume in tracks

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Larrycleve
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:23 pm

Level volume in tracks

Post by Larrycleve »

I'm trying to level the volume for Flac files. The options in the effects menu don't match what's shown in the Goldwave manual online. As an example the options for Auto gain in the program don't match what's shown in the manual.

Is there any updated manual that explains the options? I tried options at random and came up with a garbled unlistenable mess. I tried some other options with a clear sound but the volume varied widely. Any help would be appreciated.
DougDbug
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Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Level volume in tracks

Post by DougDbug »

Are you trying to even-out the volume of a recording, or are you trying to match the volume of multiple tracks?

Auto-Gain or "automatic gain control" (AGC) or "automatic volume control (AVC) tries to even-out the loud parts and quiet parts of a recording and it usually doesn't work very well. Usually what happens is there's a quiet or silent part and the gain gets cranked way-up. Then a louder sound comes-along and you get blasted with loud distortion until it gets automatically turned-down. It's usually better to do it manually, and for that you can use the Volume Shaping effect.

And whenever you turn-up the volume the background noise also gets turned-up.

Auto Gain is a kind-of slow dynamic compression.

If you want to match the volume of quiet & loud-sounding songs without changing the volume in the middle of a song, there are different solutions for that...
Larrycleve
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:23 pm

Re: Level volume in tracks

Post by Larrycleve »

" Usually what happens is there's a quiet or silent part and the gain gets cranked way-up. Then a louder sound comes-along and you get blasted with loud distortion until it gets automatically turned-down." That's exactly what happened which made it unlistenable. (I'm not sure if that's even a word).

What are some of the other solutions? I'm trying to batch level the volume of 428 tracks.
DougDbug
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Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Level volume in tracks

Post by DougDbug »

I'm trying to batch level the volume of 428 tracks.
So, if you want to adjust the level of each track separately look into ReplayGain or WAVgain, or Sound Check With Apple applications.

ReplayGain and Sound Check are player features so your player has to support it. The file is pre-scanned and then "tagged" with an up or down adjustment and the volume is adjusted at playback time before playback of that track starts. It's one adjustment to the whole file so the dynamics aren't affected... Quiet parts of the song remain relatively quiet and loud parts remain relatively loud.

With WAVgain the actual audio data is changed so it works with any player software. You'd have to convert the files to WAV, then back to FLAC. Both are lossless formats, but your embedded metadata (tags) might be affected. (MP3Gain works similarly so it also works everywhere.)

Assuming these are music files, many (most?) files are already normalized/maximized, including the "quiet sounding" tracks. That means the quiet tracks can't be boosted without clipping (distortion). For that reason ReplayGain (or any linear volume adjusting method) uses a lower target volume and most songs are made quieter.
GoldWave Inc.
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Re: Level volume in tracks

Post by GoldWave Inc. »

If you are trying to make the volume of separate files sound similar, you'd need to use the Loudness effect with Batch Processing. If you are trying to even out the volume within a file, you'd need to use the Auto Gain effect (or Shape Volume). Can you provide more information about the discrepancy between the manual and the effect settings? When choosing the "Help" button for the Auto Gain effect, the settings in the manual are correct. Perhaps the web browser is not taking you to the correct place in the manual?
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