Vegas pro 12 : sound normalisation.

DiDequ wrote on 6/2/2014, 3:19 AM
Hello.

Can we normalise sound tracks to a preset level (-3db in my case) ?

Yesterday, I shot dancers performing, using 2 microphones :
1 recording the stage
1 recording the audience.
Because I prepared everything, I 've got original soundtracks. These are normalised at -3db.
But the camera soundtrack is not normalised. Sometimes, the speaker introduces dancers with a loud voice, sometimes she speaks mildly.

I know how to use a volume curve, how to change volume, but beeing able to normalise would be a good starting point.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

DiDequ wrote on 6/2/2014, 4:04 AM
I found the answer : Preferences -> audio tab.
I do not know why, my setting was -0.1db.
Geoff_Wood wrote on 6/2/2014, 5:36 AM
That would probably be because -0.1dB is a very useful default for most purposes.

It sounds like a bit of compression would be a good starting point to sort out your level imbalance problems.

geoff
richard-amirault wrote on 6/2/2014, 7:02 AM
But the camera soundtrack is not normalised. Sometimes, the speaker introduces dancers with a loud voice, sometimes she speaks mildly.

Normalizing the track will not help this. When you normalize you raise the level of the track equally so that the maximum level (of what ever is loudest on the track) reaches the level set. The difference between the low levels and the high levels does not change.
musicvid10 wrote on 6/2/2014, 8:14 AM
Rather than debate definitions, there are limiters, rms normalize, and Wave Hammer in Sound Forge. All are forms of dynamic range compression. The RMS method may be the easiest to understand by beginners.
DiDequ wrote on 6/2/2014, 8:49 AM
brighterside wrote : Normalizing the track will not help this. When you normalize you raise the level of the track equally so that the maximum level (of what ever is loudest on the track) reaches the level set.

Of course, I cut the loud sequences, to be able to normalize all of them separately. So, it does help me.
I use Audacity for nomalisation in those events.
musicvid10 wrote on 6/2/2014, 9:09 AM
"Normalize" can mean either gain or compression.
It can be either, or both. No use debating.
rraud wrote on 6/2/2014, 10:34 AM
Vegas uses 'peak' normalization, so if there's even one loud peak around 0dBFS, the process would be negligible at best, as MV stated, Wave Hammer or other compressor & volume maximizer is recommended. Note: Excessive 'hammering', will induce distortion.. so a little goes a long way.
DiDequ wrote on 10/9/2014, 10:30 AM
Ok, I found how to normalize to a preset level (-3db in my case).

Now, if I render a wave file with vegas, open it with audacity, use the normalize effect to -3 db, save it, there is no difference anymore between the 2 files.

To achieve this :
1 preferences have to be set to -3db
http://dominotes.fr/vegas/normalize/n1.jpg

2 set the volume of the audio track to -3 db
http://dominotes.fr/vegas/normalize/n2.jpg

3 Menu Edit -> Commutators -> Normalize
http://dominotes.fr/vegas/normalize/n3.jpg

4 The master bus must also be set to -3 db
http://dominotes.fr/vegas/normalize/n4.jpg

With these settings, the resulting wav file is normalized !

This works with Vegas 13.