Audacity first time user

[AudioStudies]

I am about to try Audacity for my first time. Can anyone recommend any tips or tricks to help with the learning curve? Also, are there other softwares similar to Audacity that are worth investigating? The first task I want to accomplish with Audacity is to set my some wav files to the same volume level. Is that hard to do?

 

[Jimbob54]

I am about to try Audacity for my first time. Can anyone recommend any tips or tricks to help with the learning curve? Also, are there other softwares similar to Audacity that are worth investigating? The first task I want to accomplish with Audacity is to set my some wav files to the same volume level. Is that hard to do?

I thought you didnt want computers in your system?

 

[Patrick1958]

I am about to try Audacity for my first time. Can anyone recommend any tips or tricks to help with the learning curve? Also, are there other softwares similar to Audacity that are worth investigating? The first task I want to accomplish with Audacity is to set my some wav files to the same volume level. Is that hard to do?

Top menu - Effects - normalize

 

[AudioStudies]

I thought you didnt want computers in your system?

I have one system that is computer based; also need to change volume on wav files for saving to media to play in the other systems

 

[Jimbob54]

I have one system that is computer based; also need to change volume on wav files for saving to media to play in the other systems

Then be warned- my understanding in volume levelling is that the software reads flags that are embedded on/ around the music file. If you are playing a file that Audacity would play 2dB quieter as a wav file on a player elsewhere, its not going to do it.

Unless the other player can read some kind of tag you can change in Audacity.

This is based on using other software though.

 

[AudioStudies]

Then be warned- my understanding in volume levelling is that the software reads flags that are embedded on/ around the music file. If you are playing a file that Audacity would play 2dB quieter as a wav file on a player elsewhere, its not going to do it.

Unless the other player can read some kind of tag you can change in Audacity.

This is based on using other software though.

Is there a way around this problem? Perhaps setting all wav files to maximum volume?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

IThe first task I want to accomplish with Audacity is to set my some wav files to the same volume level. Is that hard to do?

Nothing to it. Just double-click on the waveform, then Effects -> Amplify. A box will appear and the "Amplification" figure automatically shows how many dB before clipping. Click OK and it will perform the effect. If you don't want to go the full amount, delete that figure and put in the number you want.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Jimbob54]

Is there a way around this problem? Perhaps setting all wav files to maximum volume?

What is it you are actually trying to do? Switching on volume levelling in a software player , Audacity included, is easy as others here have said. You want volume levelling on other players that you play WAV files on- then you need to ask about those players.

Im also not sure you can embed tags on WAV files but I'm sure someone knows that better than me

 

[AudioStudies]

What is it you are actually trying to do? Switching on volume levelling in a software player , Audacity included, is easy as others here have said. You want volume levelling on other players that you play WAV files on- then you need to ask about those players.

Im also not sure you can embed tags on WAV files but I'm sure someone knows that better than me

My playback devices in other systems include a Cambridge Audio 851N and a Tascam SS-250N. With the Cambridge I want to play wav files from USB drives, and the Tascam from SD cards (but it can also play from USB). They both work great for playback of albums where the volume remains appropriate, but I have made some of my own compilations (playlists) that include wav files taken from various albums. When going from one song to another in these playlists, it is no surprise that the volume changes, and it is not a severe problem -- because I just grab the remote and change the volume. But it would be nice not to have to turn down the volume so damn much when Mr. Bojangles comes on . . . I have not found in either of the product manuals a way to set the volume of a bunch of wav files (playlist) to the same level

 

[Jimbob54]

I dont know about the tascam

But there is a comment on the cambridge site, so I would suggest having a dig around the settings on the device and in the app and config web page. :

Features I didn’t know I was getting!
I bought this from the Guildford branch and it’s proved to be a great purchase. Easy to connect to my B&O speakers and to my LAN, I was streaming from all my devices within minutes. Sound quality is excellent - I’m hearing aspects to my music which I hadn’t noticed previously. And features I didn’t realise I was getting - volume levelling for one. Thanks to the team at Guildford for recommending it and for their support.

 

[AudioStudies]

comment on the cambridge site,

Wow, thanks - I will try to get to the bottom of this . . .

 

[AudioStudies]

Adobe not wanting to open my Audacity manual, getting an error message indicating could be wrong file type. Anyone else encounter this before, and what is the fix?

 

[Fluffy]

Long time audacity user here. You can ask me anything.

On the topic of volume matching – a simple amplification will amplify or lower the whole volume of the file, and I t can be a coarse way to try to match the volume of different files. But if you want the perceived volume to be consistent over files of different artists and genres, you need to analyze them in a more sophisticated way, that takes in account properties such as dynamic range and spectral distribution. You can use a free software like Orban loudness meter ( https://www.orban.com/meter ) to analyze a file to get its overall loudness. If you analyze multiple files and get, for example, a loudness of -6 LKFS for one and a loudness of -12 LKFS for the other, you can then go to audacity and lower the first one by -6 db to get them closer to the same perceived loudness.

If you want to do this to many files, you'll probably want some kind of automatic process. That’s not something Audacity is capable of, as far as I know. Adobe Audition has an excellent functionality called Match Loudness, that automatically analyze and amplify batches of files according to how you set it. there might be other stand alone and/or free programs that also do this, I never delved too deep into this.

 

[AudioStudies]

volume matching – a simple amplification will amplify or lower the whole volume of the file, and I t can be a coarse way to try to match the volume of different files.

I may try the coarse way, because I don't have that many I want to change. If I change the volume this way in Audacity, do you think when I play back the files on my hardware devices (with Audacity out of the loop) that they will recognize the volume changes I made in Audacity? Or conversely, will some of the potential problems that Jimbob54 mentioned be issues?

 

[Jimbob54]

Long time audacity user here. You can ask me anything.

On the topic of volume matching – a simple amplification will amplify or lower the whole volume of the file, and I t can be a coarse way to try to match the volume of different files. But if you want the perceived volume to be consistent over files of different artists and genres, you need to analyze them in a more sophisticated way, that takes in account properties such as dynamic range and spectral distribution. You can use a free software like Orban loudness meter ( https://www.orban.com/meter ) to analyze a file to get its overall loudness. If you analyze multiple files and get, for example, a loudness of -6 LKFS for one and a loudness of -12 LKFS for the other, you can then go to audacity and lower the first one by -6 db to get them closer to the same perceived loudness.

If you want to do this to many files, you'll probably want some kind of automatic process. That’s not something Audacity is capable of, as far as I know. Adobe Audition has an excellent functionality called Match Loudness, that automatically analyze and amplify batches of files according to how you set it. there might be other stand alone and/or free programs that also do this, I never delved too deep into this.

What I think OP wants to do (as well as normalize volume within Audacity playback) is modify wav files such that any player will play them at his selected adjusted volume.

My understanding is the second player has to have a volume levelling function that would also read the vol tags embedded. If not, no dice. Follow on from that, is it then possible to change the vol. level tag on the wav file in Audacity such that any other player playing that file subsequent would adjust according to new level.

 

[AudioStudies]

What I think OP wants to do (as well as normalize volume within Audacity playback) is modify wav files such that any player will play them at his selected adjusted volume.

My understanding is the second player has to have a volume levelling function that would also read the vol tags embedded. If not, no dice. Follow on from that, is it then possible to change the vol. level tag on the wav file in Audacity such that any other player playing that file subsequent would adjust according to new level.

Thank you, for saying it better than I ever could have . . .

 

[Fluffy]

Are you talking about using ReplayGain or actually changing the gain of the audio itself?

 

[AudioStudies]

Are you talking about using ReplayGain or actually changing the gain of the audio itself?

the gain of the audio itself, so that when I copy the wav files to USB flash drives and SD cards, that I can play those media from my hardware devices (Cambridge Audio 851N and Tascam SS-R250N) without streaming or having any computer software involved after the wav files are copied

 

[Jimbob54]

Are you talking about using ReplayGain or actually changing the gain of the audio itself?

He wants to put a selection of tracks (wav) from different albums on a memory card, put them in a player and not have excessively loud or quiet tracks when shuffling. Thought applying levelling /RG in Audacity would carry over to any playback device.

Means without adusting volume dial on the player. So replygain/ volume levelling except he doesnt know if his players have RG/ levelling function.

 

[daftcombo]

Though one. If you plan to play various tracks from various albums, some will be compressed, some not, so even if you normalize everything to peak at, say, -0,1 dB, the compressed ones will seem to sound louder than the others.