Hi Peter,
> 1. How do I decide how much to increase the volume by? It seems to >me th=
at normalising to a particular level will have haphazard >results because i=
t all depends on the loudest sound in the >recording. Should I pick a typic=
al piece and adjust till its peaks >are at some particular level? If so, wh=
at level? Or should I be >listening to some sort of reference track and doi=
ng it by ear? What >I'd like to avoid is the listener having to dive for th=
e volume >control because it's too loud or soft.
Besides what others have already mentioned, also consider that different na=
tural content will sound better at different levels - This makes it diffic=
ult to apply a standard approach based on numerical analysis. Subjective co=
mparisons using your own (or others) ears will usually yield the best resul=
ts. Whether your use a reference track or not, decide on an appropriate vol=
ume settings for output to your monitors or your stereo system and keep tha=
t setting as default for consistency.
> 2. If the above will result in clipping of the loudest parts, what >shoul=
d I do about them? Audacity has a Compress function which looks >like it mi=
ght help bring them down a little without affecting the >quieter parts. Is =
there a better way? (An example of the problem >would be where for a few se=
conds a bird sings just a couple of >metres from the microphone.)
I am currently faced with a similar dilemma in one of my recordings. I had=
not considered using a limiter, but maybe I will give that a try. My other=
option was to treat the sections as three discrete tracks and save the clo=
se-up section as a nice species example.
>
> 3. Is there a standard length for fade in times? I randomly picked >about=
10 seconds for one, then discovered that too long a fade in >tricks the li=
stener into turning up the volume, only to discover in > a few seconds that=
it has to be turned down again.
Yes, you are right. Long fades at the beginning can do that, however someti=
mes a longer fade at the end can work well. Sometimes events in the materia=
l will dictate the length and shape of the fade. Audition has an option for=
using spline curves. This works very well, because you can start with a si=
mple linear fade and then add points and pull them into a most complementin=
g sinusoidal fade. Not sure what other programs can do.
> 4. I've noticed that the default vertical scale in Audacity runs >from -1=
to +1 (linear?) whereas in Sound Forge it's in dB. Is there >any reason to=
pick one or the other?
I don't have Audacity on my system at the moment. Maybe someone else will l=
ook into that.
John Hartog
rockscallop.org
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