...adjusting volume for different tracks....

Nick_H wrote on 12/3/2002, 6:27 PM
Hi All,

After reading much on this forum I took the plunge and bought VF based on many good comments from forum users. I am not disappointed, even for a newbie I am up and running quite quickly and am concerned I may become addicted ;)

It is also interesting to see how some peoples questions start off quite basic in nature and over time become , certainly to me , most complicated as thier knowledge grows. That is a credit to the forum and all those who help :)

Unfortunately I am still very wet behind the ears as my question will show.
I am creating a 10 minute project on which I have a combo of narration , video and music. However I note that the music tracks differ in volume and I find no easy way to increase the volume of only some of the tracks on the music timeline without increasing them all.

Clearly , in my excitement at this new fangled "stuff" I am missing something so any help would be appreciated. I attempt to use fader on the volume line however seem to increase all volume on the line.

Thanks for any guidance :)

Cheers

Nick

Comments

Former user wrote on 12/3/2002, 6:58 PM
I think you many different cuts of music on the same track, rather than different tracks. If that is the case, you need to use the Audio Envelopes. Enable these, I forget where they are offhand, then you add NODES at the beginnings and end of music fades, This allows you to adjust the audio on certain portions rather than the whole track.

Dave T2
Nick_H wrote on 12/3/2002, 7:35 PM
Thanks for the speedy response Dave.
I found what you meant and have been able to adjust. There does seem a need to sometimes reduce the volume of some and then increase to the max the volume of others as the range can differ markedly.

Thanks again for your help.

Nick
IanG wrote on 12/4/2002, 2:28 AM
Nick

Where are you getting your tracks from? If they're MP3s you've got from different sources you might want to think about normalising them. It's not a problem I've experienced, but I gather it's quite common with MP3 enthusiasts. Have a look at MP3Gain if you think it might help. I'd expect there to be wav normalising programs as well, but a quick search didn't turn up a free one!

Ian G.
Chienworks wrote on 12/4/2002, 7:10 AM
VideoFactory has normalization built in. Right-mouse-button click on the audio event, choose Switches -> Normalize. The volume of the file will be increased so that the largest peaks are as loud as they can get without distorting. If you do this for each of the audio clips in your project then they will all probably be much closer to similar volume. You can then reduce clips individually if they are too loud. Hover your mouse pointer near the top of the audio event and it will change into a pointing hand with a double-headed vertical arrow. Drag the mouse pointer down and a blue Gain line will appear. You can raise or lower this line to adjust the volume of the clip.

Audio envelopes are useful for adjusting the volume during the clip, but can get confusing if not needed. They do have the advantage however of allowing you to increase volume as well as decrease it; the Gain control can only be used to decrease. But, if you have normalized all the audio events first then there should be very little need for increasing volume.
Sarasdad wrote on 12/4/2002, 7:21 AM
thank you so much for that answer.
Grazie wrote on 12/4/2002, 11:01 AM
Chienworks you've done it again! I just had a "Doah! So THAT'S how you do it!" moment.

I'm sooo.... glad you are keeping an eye on us.

Grazie
Sarasdad wrote on 12/4/2002, 11:05 AM
THAT'S WHAT I MEAN!
Nick_H wrote on 12/4/2002, 8:22 PM
...excellent advice. Thanks all for your help.

Cheers

Nick