Sound boost - "clever" idea

hbwerner wrote on 10/5/2004, 3:42 AM

Well, maybe not so clever, but it works. I have a 2 hour movie that I've done extensive editing on with lots and lots of variation in volume by using the blue line on the audio track. However, I found that there were a couple of clips which were still too soft even with the blue line at the top of the track. I explored boosting the overall level with the slider at the left in the track header, but then I'd have to readjust the volume in all the other clips in the movie. Instead, I moved those low volume tracks down to the next track down, and boosted the slider all the way up on that track. Gave me a 7.6 db boost which did the trick. Just thought I'd share this one.
Bryan

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/5/2004, 4:47 AM

Another option that may help sometimes is Normalize. If you right-mouse-button click on an audio event and choose Switches / Normalize, this will raise the volume of the entire clip so that the loudest point is now 0dB. If the entire clip is below, say, 15dB, you get get a 15dB or better boost this way.

Unfortunately, if there is even one instant of sound that is louder than the rest (for example, a sneeze in the middle of someone whispering), it will normalize to that loudest sound. So if most of the track is -25dB and the sneeze is -1dB, you'll only get 1dB of gain from normalizing and the rest of the track will now be -24dB. Problems like these can still be handled easily by Splitting the clip just before and just after the loud sound first, then Normalizing each section individually.

hbwerner wrote on 10/5/2004, 8:51 AM

Thanks! I never realized you could normalize just a single clip - I always thought normalizing applied to the entire track. I tried it and it works well!