Dear Anyone - noob alert! As normalising is, as far as I know, making the sound levels of MP3s the same, is it possible to normalise ONE MP3? Wouldn't it need a second MP3 (at least) to base its sound levels on? Second part of a 2-part question coming up. I'm a wannabe computer music writer - at the moment I'm terrible but I'm improving slowly! I have probs. getting my tunes to a decent overall sound level without getting clipping and all sorts going on. If I got them so the sounds comprising the tune were OK in relation to eachother, but the overall tune was still too quiet, could I convert it to an MP3, bung it through MP3gain along with an MP3 that's the sound level I want and let MP3gain normalise my too quiet track to the louder MP3 track without getting distortion/clipping etc? Yours respectfully - I hadn't heard of MP3gain before! ulricburk
Why would you want to use mp3 ? Just normalize the file that you captured (probably WAV/PCM) in an audio editor.
Not quite - it's more like trying to get the sound level for a file CONSISTENT. The software analyzes the waveform and determines the files "average" volume. It then recalculates all the wave data to move that average to a "standard" figure (I think about -6 db) while ensuring there's no clipping of any peaks. That's why files get similar volumes at the end (or close to it) - not because they're being compared to each other, but because they both get targeted to the same final volume level. Trev
And a great light of understanding dawns.... Thanks, Trev. I'd been wondering for ages why you could normalise ONE MP3!! And Davexnet - gawd, this'll make me sound dumb - I've never come across anything that can normalise .WAV files. I'm recording each instrument as a separate .WAV, bunging 'em into AUDACITY and adjusting their relevant volumes. If I try to get TOO much volume out of them at this point I get distortion, but when the track is as finished as I can get it, it's still major league too quiet. So I had the brilliant (to me!) idea of turning it into a MP3, normalising it then converting it back again. I've heard of MP3 normalisers, but never .WAV normalisers! If you know software, preferably free, that lets you normalise .WAV files - please, with cherries on top, can you tell me what it is? I know Audacity's got GAIN, but that tends to distort the finished file too, why, I don't know, I just know it does! Normalisation seems not to - but of course, as you've converted it to an MP3, there's a loss of quality involved. Yours hopefully ulricburk
Are you telling me that Audacity doesn't have Normalize ? It doesn't make any sense. Normalize is a basic editing function. I just grabbed this from a web guide: "Normalize (if needed) Normalize can increase the volume of tracks with low volume. Use this with good musical judgment. Don't make music with soft dynamics louder than it should be. * Choose Edit > Select > All * Choose Effect > Normalize * Leave the settings and click OK "
Dear Davexnet. Well, I'll be (censored!!) I've had Audacity for 3 weeks now and I never saw it had Normalise. AND it works on .WAVs, just tried it. Thanks for spotting that for me! Yours, feeling dumbass... ulricburk.
