Equalising Volumes with Audacity?

[frappawotsit]

Hi,

I have 3 seperate audio sources (MP3) from microphones which are all at different levels. I want to set them all to the same volume so that as my home video switches back and forth between sources, there is no noticable difference in each of the volumes.

Can this be done with audacity?

cheers.

[redwudz]

Sure, though that sounds like Normalization instead of Equalization. I have done it a few times with Audacity. When you save out your modified audio, I would give it a new name and not overwrite your source audio until you have it the way you want it.

Some documentation and support here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/

[frappawotsit]

Your probably right regarding "normalisation" not equalisation, I have no idea of the correct technical term, i was just trying to describe the result i want to achieve.

thanks though.

[redwudz]

I tried it with a 5.1 audio sample I had laying around. I put in the Left, center and one of the rear channels, all different levels of the same audio. Selected all and normalized them to very close to the same output levels, so it seems to work well enough.

[frappawotsit]

I tried it with a 5.1 audio sample I had laying around. I put in the Left, center and one of the rear channels, all different levels of the same audio. Selected all and normalized them to very close to the same output levels, so it seems to work well enough.

I'm probably being lazy here.... but could you give me a rough idea of how exactly you do the "normalise" procedure?

Sorry, i don't have the first clue about Audacity...

-cheers.

[MOVIEGEEK]

First click on the left side of the file then go to Effect->Amplify.
I would use MP3Gain because it will batch normalize and is lossless.

[redwudz]

What I did was to 'Import' all the audio tracks, then 'Edit>Select>All', then 'Effect>Normalize>OK'.
Then I left clicked each track and 'Export Selection As...', to keep each track separate.

This should give you a set level output for each track. You don't have to do all 3 at once, but it was easier for me to see the effect on each for comparison purposes. I usually save as WAV format if I'm going to convert to AC3 with ffmpeggui later for DVD use. But for MP3, I just leave it in that format.