Stereo / 2 track normalisation

mdsh wrote on 6/10/2003, 1:23 PM
I'm working on some projects where the rushes are shot on DVCAM with two mono tracks. This is captured via firewire into Vegas 4.0c. For most of the time track 1 is an FX mike and track 2 is a radio personal mike on a featured person.

I'm editing the sequences together with the FX mike, so selecting channel 1 only for each block.

Some sections have the audio too quiet so I generally select normalise in the audio block properties and then reduce the audio level on each block to get the FX at the correct level. This does not work if the audio on the other track, the radio mike, is loud. In that case I cannot see an easy way to increase the gain of a block.

It appears that the normalise always takes into account both audio tracks even though only one is selected for use in the timeline. I think this is a bug – or at least a problem that SF have not thought through fully.

How do others manage in a situation like this?

Comments

JohanAlthoff wrote on 6/10/2003, 5:14 PM
I guess I'd strip them into two separate WAVs for that, since they are not truly stereo anyway... That would probably take care of the problems.

I do agree that the issue should be resolved, though.
mdsh wrote on 6/10/2003, 5:26 PM
Thanks for replying.

I think that stripping the audio out of the DV AVIs is:
(1) going to take for ever and
(2) I'll never accurately get them back in sync.

I have hundreds or thousands of shots in the media pool already and the prospect of having them all with separate unlocked audio is quite depressing.
drbam wrote on 6/10/2003, 5:32 PM
If you have Sound Forge (or a similar audio editor) you can split the tracks into 2 separate files but they will remain exactly the same length (unless of course you edit the length in some way). After naming and saving them, bring them into your project and line them up with your current stereo file. Once in place, mute or delete your original.

HTH,

drbam
MJhig wrote on 6/10/2003, 5:59 PM
I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but if you have one "stereo" track, you can simply right-click on the header and select "Duplicate Track", in the first select all the events > right click > Channels > Left only, in the second (new) Right only. You should be able to apply any process independently now at the track level.

If you already have two tracks with a channel in each or after using the above method why not insert volume envelopes where you can control the volume much more accurately than normalizing. Use the "Lock envelope to events" function so if you move any the envelope goes with it.

MJ
Weevil wrote on 6/10/2003, 6:23 PM
Yep you are right, Vegas seems to apply normalization to the full stereo file even if you only have one of its channels selected.

Sound Forge will let you normalize each side of the stereo file independently of the other.
MJhig wrote on 6/10/2003, 6:37 PM
Not if you separate the channels to separate tracks as I described above. I just tried it (in VV3) and it normalizes each track independently.

MJ
mdsh wrote on 6/11/2003, 8:45 AM
> If you have Sound Forge (or a similar audio editor) you can split the tracks into 2
> separate files but they will remain exactly the same length

Yes, I know that, but I'm not going to be using the whole of the shot. just a small section of it. If I have to edit a section of the video only into the timeline from the trimmer and then try to edit across the exact matching sound... Well you can see what a nightmare that would be and, to all intents and purposes, is imposible - or at least totally impractical.

Thanks for the suggestion though ;-)
mdsh wrote on 6/11/2003, 8:56 AM
> I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but if you have one "stereo" track, you can
> simply right-click on the header and select "Duplicate Track", in the first select all the
> events > right click > Channels > Left only, in the second (new) Right only.

I'm not infront of Vegas at the moment (I'm at an Avid employer today) but I'll give that a go to see if it achieves what I need later.

> If you already have two tracks with a channel in each or after using the above method
> why not insert volume envelopes where you can control the volume much more
> accurately than normalizing.

I tend to get the FX leveled with normalisation, block gain reduction mixes on a few tracks then later, when I add voice overs and sync, I'll use volume envelopes to dip the level behind the voice. Its just an old habit but can be useful when the voice doesn't quite fit a hole - and also its how all dubbing mixers I've worked with like the sound if its being externally dubbed.