how to adjust average volume level to a given dB value? (.wav file)

[zee944]

Hello there,

First of all, forgive my poor wording, I'm not sure how am I supposed it explain my problem in English.
I'd be grateful if somebody would help me out a bit.

I'd like to adjust volume in a .wav file (or to precise, in MANY .wav files or in pieces of them).
All I want is to change the average volume to a given value, so just to gain or lower the volume.
I imagine there should be a way to say 'I want this piece of speech to have -3.52dB average volume', so just type in -3.52dB, and done.

Note that I don't want raise or lower the volume *by* -3.52 dB, I want to raise or lower *to be* -3.52 dB average.

BTW, I use GoldWave, but solutions with other tools (especially command line tools!) would be also appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

[Alex_ander]

Not sure GoldWave will do it for average volume (simple editors only do it for max peak value), but in Adobe Audition (formerly CoolEdit Pro) you can select the type of normalization (peak or average normalized value).
Here's detailed description:

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=329226&sliceId=2

[Soopafresh]

http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/normalize/normalize-0.7.7-win32.zip

[edDV]

Some calibration tones.

http://www.wavecor.co.uk/testdisk.html

http://hometheaterhifi.com/down/
http://hometheaterhifi.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-222.html

[racer-x]

In Goldwave it's called Match Volume. It can be set to the level you want (I use -14db usually) and can be used during Batch Processing.

[zee944]

Thanks for all of you!

racer-x, you've saved my life... it's a shame I didn't think of it, although I always used GoldWave for sound editing. Thanks again!