Increasing volume of a file to match another

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dopepoo
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:49 pm

Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by dopepoo »

Greetings all,

A pleasure to be here. I think Goldwave is a great tool and I have been using it for while. I have just encountered a situation where I am not sure of the best method to do something, so I thought I would sign up here in the forums and ask you veterans. :)

I have 20+ audio files which somebody has asked me to work on for them. Basically I am doing the equivalent of mastering - they wish for all the files to be of a similar volume, and compressed to the optimum size etc.

I have had some experience in Goldwave using the 'Match Volume' feature to get the average volume from each file and then normalise each of them to the lowest average to keep them consistent.

On this occasion however, I have one file out of the batch which has been recorded VERY quietly by the person. For comparison, here are some pictures. I am including these because I love technology and adding pictures. 8)

Audio 1 Image Audio 2 Image

As you can see, Audio 2 is drastically quiet in comparison.

So, my question is, what would be the best method for increasing Audio 2 to match Audio 1, without, if possible, causing clipping?

I am used to the notion of reducing several files to match a quiet file, but not increasing one file which is an exception.
Obviously to reduce all of the other files to that of Audio 2 would not be a good solution because the entire set would be barely audible. :)

I hope this makes some sense! I am a newbie for things like mastering, gain, dB, dynamic range etc. and I am trying my hardest to learn. So your patience and support would be massively appreciated. :)

Many thanks all, looking forward to hearing any information. :mrgreen:

Have a great day!

Jake
Gord
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 4:26 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by Gord »

Hi Jake.

The good news is that the really quiet file apparently has lots of headroom so if you want to increase its average volume then clipping is not likely to be a problem. The bad news is that with such low levels if there is any noise in that waveform it will be amplified along with the signal when you boost the volume.

If you've used the Match Volume effect before then you have probably noticed the "Final peak" values on the right side of the dialog. They show you the instantaneous ("peak") volume level that will result from adjusting the average volume to the level you specify. If those values are less than 0dB (and therefore aren't RED) then you won't be clipping the signal if you apply the effect.

Since you mentioned dynamic range, the quiet file won't have too much of that because it was recorded at such a low volume. Depending on the content of that file it may or may not be an issue, so try boosting the average volume first (saving a backup copy of the original for safety) and let us know if you have any further questions,
dopepoo
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:49 pm

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by dopepoo »

Hi Gord,

Many many thanks for your response. I really appreciate you taking the time out to discuss something which may well be above the call of duty of a simple 'Goldwave Support' query. :)

Ok, here is a screenshot of the Match Volume dialog when invoked from the quiet 'Audio 2' file:

Image

Perhaps I don't understand the Match Volume feature very well at all. :)

As you can see in the screenshot, the highest value in dB I can set without the text turning red is -37.78dB which equates to a 1.29% increase in volume. If I set the average value to -37.79 the text becomes black again.

So, again, probably me just not understanding, but does this mean that according to the Match Volume feature, I can only increase the volume of the recording by just under 1.29% without causing it to clip?

Either way, 1.29% is barely any change :). The average of Audio 1, the louder file, is -20.16dB which is what I would need Audio 2 to also be, in order to keep the levels consistent.

Any further information would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Jake
Gord
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 4:26 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by Gord »

Hi Jake.

You are reading the dialog correctly. What it tells us is that although the _average_ volume of the file is very low it contains some transients that would get clipped if you tried to increase the average volume more than ~1.3%. You can verify this by going into the Maximize Volume dialog and seeing what it tells you the _peak_ volumes are for each channel. It will also show you the time at which those peaks occur, so you can listen to that section and see if the peaks are defects (e.g., pops, clicks, etc.) that could be removed.
GoldWave Inc.
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Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by GoldWave Inc. »

The Auto Gain volume effect might be another feature worth trying.

Chris
dopepoo
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:49 pm

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by dopepoo »

Thanks guys. :)

I've had some pretty good results now using some of the tips you gave me.

I was playing with finding out average volumes, maximum volumes, compressing files down to reduce peaks, then using the max volume feature again to bring up the gain and check the average afterwards.

One last newbie question. :)

After using the Maximize Volume feature on an audio file, I then thought I would just see what happens if I boost the audio file again by 2dB more by just using the 'Change Volume' feature. When listening to the file, it is louder, but I can't discern any clipping anywhere. Is the clipping simply occurring at a frequency outside of range of my ear?

Thanks again :)
Gord
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 4:26 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by Gord »

dopepoo wrote:After using the Maximize Volume feature on an audio file, I then thought I would just see what happens if I boost the audio file again by 2dB more by just using the 'Change Volume' feature. When listening to the file, it is louder, but I can't discern any clipping anywhere. Is the clipping simply occurring at a frequency outside of range of my ear?
It's certainly possible that slight clipping may not be detectable by the human ear. However, it is damage to the original waveform and should be avoided whenever possible. It would be better to use the Compresser/Expander effect to reduce the peaks or boost the quiet parts, then run Maximize Volume again to ensure that you get the full range of volume without clipping.

Just out of curiosity, what are the peaks in that file? The screenshot in your original post looked like the whole file was very quiet, but your Match Volume experience suggested otherwise. Sometimes people have a really quiet file with a pop at the beginning or the end (e.g., from turning a microphone on or off) and removing that pop suddenly opens up a whole bunch of headroom. If the peak areas are actual sounds that you want to keep then I would second Chris' suggestion that you might want to experiment with the Auto Gain effect.
dopepoo
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:49 pm

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by dopepoo »

Thanks, yeah.

There were some pops and stuff in the file. Using the Maximize Volume feature (as you suggested), highlighted the location of each big peak. I just copied and pasted the time from there and used CTRL-G to go to that time.

But compressing the file reduced all of those anyway. It was a matter of experimentation to find a compression which was drastic enough to cut the peaks right down, but not cause the rest of the audio to sound heavily limited. :)

I learnt a lot. Thanks for all of your help.
mathyou9
Posts: 70
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:36 pm

Re: Increasing volume of a file to match another

Post by mathyou9 »

Basically what you did, but a little more "automated," I always use Maximize, then apply the "Reduce Peaks" setting in the Compressor/Expander. Then I keep repeating until the desired RMS value is achieved.
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