How do i reduce audio level in just one clip??

ronatsony wrote on 11/2/2004, 11:14 AM

I have a bunch of old .avi files i'm putting together to burn. most have very low level audio, but 4 clips are taken of waterkiers from the rear of the boat. they have VERY loud & distorted engine noise.

I need to edit the audiio in these clips, either individually before they are brought into MS4 or within MS4. I tried to Insert/Audio Envelopes but neither of them reduced the volume enough. When i right click on the voice track, and choose Open in Audio Editor, i am told i do not have one installed.

So folks, please point me in the right direction. Where do i get an Audio Editor that will work with MS4? or better yet, how do i do what i need to do within MS4?

Thanks for the great help you folks provide--it has really helped this newbie,
ron

Comments

IanG wrote on 11/2/2004, 1:30 PM

Audacity is a nice, freeware audio editor. You can integrate it with MS by going to Options / Preferences / Audio and browsing to the location of the .exe. Right clicking an audio clip will give you option to use it.

To reduce the volume in MS you can add a volume envelope by clicking on the audio tack and typing "v". This will dosplay a horizontal blue line. Double clicking a point on the line will add an anchor point. You can then alter the volume by clicking between anchor points.

If you add a cross fade to the noisy clips you can right click on the transition and select the way you'd like it to behave. You can make volume changes less obtrusive by fading them in gradualy - if you want to go to extremes, don't forget that you can trim the audio and video separately and do an L-cut so that the audio is fading in before the video.

Ian G.

gogiants wrote on 11/2/2004, 1:32 PM

When you say that the audio envelope didn't reduce the volume enough, do you mean that you were unable to silence it entirely?

It is possible to bring the volume down to zero for just the segment of audio in question. (Create 2 points on each end of the offending segment, then drag the envelope line down to zero.) Also, make sure you're using the audio envelope and not the pan envelope. (Sorry if any of that was obvious stuff you have already tried.)

If instead you mean you're trying to "undistort" or otherwise remix the engine sound, then I personally won't be much help!

IanG wrote on 11/2/2004, 2:02 PM

Oh, sorry, I didn't notice you'd already tried a volume envelope.

Ian G.

ronatsony wrote on 11/3/2004, 7:21 AM

thanks for the pointers. I was trying to reduce the volume in a few clips and i did not know how to set the begin and end points--i did not want to reduce the volume in the whole movie. I also expected to see the peak and valleys reduce as i moved the blue line down. it also seemed to not reduce the level enough.

since your help, i played with the individual clip, before it is as brought in to MS as the whole movie, and everything works. after i save the clip, with the Audio Envelope reduced 20db, and bring it back in to MS, the visual envelope is almost a straight line.

so mission accomplished.

thanks,
ron