Audio Volume

[Tyler2000]

When I take video from my camcorder and edit it with Pinnacle Studio 8, I find it difficult to get the audio, the music and sound effects to stay at the same volume. If I save all the audio as a wav file, is there a program I can use to keep the volume at the same level without distorting the audio quality? Could I do it with Audacity?

[Soopafresh]

You want to run Compression on the WAV track - I'm refering to the SOUND EFFECT called "Compression". It is the same technique that radio stations use to keep the volumes of all of their shows the same. And yes, you can apply Compression in Audacity

[Tyler2000]

Thanks. Is the effect the 'Dynamic Range Compressor'? Should I change any of the settings or leave them as they are?

How does this work? There has to be some sounds louder than others, otherwise music couldn't fade out.

And how is this different than the normalize effect?

[Soopafresh]

Try The Dyamic Range Effect with the settings half way up. Obviously, work on a backup copy of your WAV file.

As I understand it, Dyamic Compression makes the quiet stuff louder and the louder stuff more quiet - so the volume stays more level. Normalization seeks to ensure the loudest passage in a file never goes above 0db.