Volume Matching

[storm5510]

Greetings to everyone. This is my first time here. I have been a GoldWave user since 2001 and I've never had any problems with it.

To my subject: I have been attempting to assemble a small group of music clips for a special purpose. I have a custom value in the "Match Volume" feature. When I play these back, as group, the sound levels are everywhere. Some I can barely hear and others way too loud. So, it seems there is something more I need to do. Any recommendations?

Thank you.

[GoldWave Inc.]

Try using Effect | Volume | Loudness available in recent versions of GoldWave. That uses are far more sophisticated (and standard) algorithm to adjust volume levels.

[DougDbug]

I'm not sure why the Volume Matching effect isn't working better for you, but there are a couple of tricky things about volume matching.

The best way is usually by ear -
1. Maximize Volume on all of the tracks.
2. Listen to all of the tracks and if they are not equally loud after Maximizing, choose the quietest-sounding one as your reference.
3. Adjust the louder-sounding tracks down (the Change Volume effect) by-ear to match the reference.

Or you can do something similar measuring the LUFS loudness* from Tools -> Amplitude Statistics -
1.Maximize Volume on all of the tracks.
2. Find the LUFS loudness of each track, write it down, and choose the quietest one as your reference.
3. Use the Loudness effect to bring-down the louder tracks to match.


* LUFS is better-matches human perception than the "average" method used by the Match Volume effect.

[storm5510]

Thank you for the replies.

I just updated to 6.41. I was still using a slightly older version which did not have the features mentioned here. I will have to study it a while. There is a lot more in there. I will get back to you...

[storm5510]

After studying the update for a while, I came up with a workaround. The LUFS feature will get the wave forms close, sometimes. Other times, not.

I created a custom setting based on Reduce Peaks in the Compressor/Expander. There is a scale on the left side of the wave form display, 0.0 to 1.0. I set my custom to target just below 0.6. It does a good job. There are mathematical differences in the volume outputs. However, it is so subtle that I cannot detect the different with my ears.

[DougDbug]

In general, dynamic compression reduces the dynamic range (AKS dynamic contrast) by making the loud parts quieter and/or the quiet parts louder. That does make everything trend toward the same loudness. It's most-often used with make-up gain to make "everything louder".

If you're shooting for a certain perceived loudness, you may need to make some adjustments after compression.

"Limiting" is a kind of fast-compression. "Automatic Volume Control" or "Leveling" is a kind of slow-compression.

"Loudness matching" is different. It doesn't make any adjustments in the middle of the song/performance. It makes ONE adjustment to the whole track so the dynamic contrast of the original is not reduced... The loud parts of the song remain (relatively) loud and the quiet parts remain (relatively) quiet. ...That may be why it's" not working" for you.

The LUFS feature will get the wave forms close,

LUFS tries to measure the perceived loudness. Loudness perception is complicated and looking at the "waveforms" is not very good for that.

[FloraJay]

Hi..the VU meter method is a great start. BUT there many other factors in play here. The acoustics of the venue is one; your volume levels may sound perfect at one gig but the next gig it might sound totally different because of this. This goes especially for wah and also for drive sounds. The seconds factor is the sound in the mix of the band. When dialing these volume levels at home it may sound perfect but they can be totally screwed up when you use them in a band situation. So all this makes it very hard and complicated to match your levels.

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