Solved Audio seems loud and the volume varies over the completed movie.

I have never been very good at producing my audio volume at a standard level. That is when I burn my project to a Blu-ray disk and play it through the TV it is about 20% louder than a commercially produced video at the same TV volume setting. I also suffer to a lesser degree volume variations clip to clip in the completed project. I guess you may say, learn to use you track volume controls and use the audio editing features of MSP13. Well I feel I do and I do use headphones, however the outcome is less that perfect. Is there a program I could use prior to rendering that could iron out ,level or whatever the project audio.

Hi Eagle Eye

Great question. This is something I struggle with myself. With all the videos I have uploaded to YouTube over the years, one of the main technical complaints I use to receive was about Audio Volume being too loud or too quiet. I am definitely not an expert in managing audio, but this is the basics of what I know.

In many projects a common problem is that different video clips have different levels of loudness, and the loud ones suddenly burst in and blow air drums.

The first thing I do is switch off (right-click) the Vertical Meters in the Audio Track Control box and drag box out wider, so I can see clearly the range of audio peaks. If I want to be super safe, I aim for the maximum audio peak to be around -12dB

The two basic tools that come to mind are Normalise and Compression.
Track Compression is added by default to all Audio Tracks in Vegas Pro and Vegas Movie Studio.
Press Track FX button in control box to access.
Experiment with the different Presets. Compression will soften the loudest parts (peaks) so that there's less dynamic range between the loud parts and the quieter parts.

If you have any clips that are way too quiet, you turn on Normalise.
Right-click audio segment, go to Switches and select Normalise.
Normalise will raise the audio level to match other audio tracks.

What I also do is create a small loop region around the loudest part of my project.
I then press the Loop Playback button and press Play.
Now I monitor the Audio Output Meter and make sure the levels don't peak too high.
You can change presets while the audio loops until it sounds good.

Regards
Derek

Thanks for your interesting reply. Some years ago I did discover 'Normalise' by accident and have used it to raise the sound track audio level on quiet parts ever since. I dont know how this achieves its output, as it should just have been recorded by the camera in the first place at that level? However I use it and accept it (head in the sand approach).
I will experiment with the suggestions you supplied thank-you and see how I go.
I have heard the term 'sound leveling' but I am not sure of what it means, nor how I would achieve it in MSP13, perhaps you or someone could explain? I suppose their is no plugin or such like that could help? :ermm:

Hi Eagle eye,

In addition to Derek's reply, which is pretty much what I do, I will add this.....

Although I have a bad condition of Tinnitus (from the war), I'm fortunate to be blessed with hearing that allows me to separate the good from the bad. Audiologist say the ear system has little to do with the mind interpreting sounds. Some are blessed at birth, others not so much. Apparently I have been blessed and even at my old age and condition still have a knack for determining tonal range and pitch. With that said, unfortunately my natural God given ability has never translated to the technical understanding of how to edit and manipulate audio with digital devices and software.

What I have found helpful is to start my sound controls at the camera. I have a camera with excellent audio controls and in addition to that I use an audio recorder. So, I have found when I pay more attention to sound quality and levels during the recording, I have fewer problems when I get to the NLE. The one thing that most helps during the recordings is a quality headset. There are three primary aspects which I'm concerned with. First of course is the quality. Second is how comfortable they are to wear (if I don't wear them, they obviously don't do me any good), and third how the muffs seal around my ears.

When I'm recording speech, such as an interview, I most often (especially at the start and during setup of the session) will have my left ear completely covered and sealed by the muff, and the right muff will be half way over the right ear, and I will set the recorder for monotone. When I do this I can hear in my left the audio I want to be clean, and from the right I can hear some of the clean audio through the headset, but also some of the ambient sounds. This allows me to get the mike and audio levels set much quicker. Once I think I have it, I will move both muffs to seal over both ears, so they acts as a monitor throughout the entire interview and if I can detect something out of sorts, I make adjustments (if time permits) to get it right at the event while recording, rather than have a mess to deal with later during editing.

Of course this isn't always easy, especially if we are shooting a run-n-gun type scene, but the idea is to get it as right as possible the first time. No different with the video, the better lighting, stability and camera move control we execute during the scene session, the less we have to fuss during editing.

I've only worked with a soundman once, and it was a real joy. If you are a OMS (one-man-show) like myself, it becomes a bit more complicated, as audio is an art of it's own, and I'm lucky to be considered, at best, a moderate hacker at audio. Anyway, hope this is of some help, as a different angle to the issue.

BTW, I have never been completely satisfied with my audio levels, although I think they are good and keep improving. And, when I get to the NLE, despite my attempt to get the audio right during the recording, I still spend more time listening, and listening, and re-listening to various parts of the audio tracks, sometimes over-and-over, often making very slight adjustments.

I have heard the term 'sound leveling' but I am not sure of what it means, nor how I would achieve it in MSP13, perhaps you or someone could explain?

@Eagle Eye The answer I gave is where my current knowledge ends. On my massive to do list, which is now stretching into my next lifetime, I've been keen to study an Audio Mixing course online, so I can go deeper into audio and learn some of the tricks Audio Engineers use to mix sound. One person who actually inspired me to create my website was Graham Cochrane. There are also many other guys like him on YouTube who have great knowledge to share.
therecordingrevolution.com/

Although I have a bad condition of Tinnitus (from the war)

@Eagle Six I can only imagine what the sounds of war would be like. I know my grandfather had the same problem from WW2. I also suffer from tinnitus. Night time is worst, when the world goes quiet, tinnitus gets really loud! My ears were permanently damaged at a rock concert in small pub, when audio guy did not mix sound correctly. Female singer hit a high note and ear drums blew out. Was deaf for a week. I then made everything worse at a U2 concert a few years back. My cousin and I worked our way to ground zero in front of the stage. It was like standing inside a Rolls Royce jet engine at takeoff. I'm never doing that again without ear protection! I'm sure most musicians must live in hell with bad tinnitus.

Hi 'Eagle Six' thanks for your reply. I use a SONY HXR-NX70p camera which has a reasonable mic and sound controls. As you pointed out getting great sound is always a bit of a balance between good management and good luck.
Really without being too pedantic I really just want to get my audio volume right for burning to Blu-ray and to level out the sound clip to clip. I realise this can be difficult and have spent a number of hours trying to achieve that. I had hoped for a easy solution. However I guess coupled with Derek's -12 audio target and the use of the Track FX and noise gates and perhaps a better set of headphones I may get the improvements I want. Thanks both once again.

I've also had problems with audio consistency, using Vegas Pro as well as Studio. When I watch BBC tv, I see and hear very smooth video and audio and for me that is the standard to aim for. I've found some difficulty in getting my dvds to look and sound the same as the final edit. On a number of occasions I have been happy with the computer edit, only to find problems with colour rendering and muffled / low / high audio sections on playback of the disc - prompting further tweaking of the edit to try and iron out the problems.
I should add that not all tv companies provide consistent audio - I watch the Motorhome and Caravan Channel on satellite and audio levels jump around quite a lot here!

AlanB wrote: I should add that not all tv companies provide consistent audio - I watch the Motorhome and Caravan Channel on satellite and audio levels jump around quite a lot here!

Hi Alan,

I agree, but what is more disturbing are the Hollywood Movies being released on DVD or Bluray, for me are the worse (for more than just the sound aspect). I don't currently have surround sound, and the audio on these feature films are so far off with them using sound to augment the drama of the visuals. This isn't new, it a very valuable although over used technique, that works better in the theatre, but for my home movie stereo system, it is poor. It also seem to be a trend in Hollywood to go for example directly from a high speed chase with bullets flying and expositions, and in less than a second to two actors whispering, then a second later the shock and Aw of deafening sounds!!! TV normalization isn't great, but I think feature films are really bad. Documentaries (most) are still keeping there sound level reasonably clean and have a better flow from the loud impulse to the shallow sounds.

AlanB wrote:-
When I watch BBC tv, I see and hear very smooth video and audio
But this view is not held universally and there have been numerous complaints about this over the past couple of years or so (in Radio Times and in the weekly programme dealing with viewers' comments and complaints.

Is this perhaps a rendering problem for you? I don't know if you have this option when rendering in the Studio versions but in Pro I open AC3Pro -- Custom --and in Audio Service set Dialogue Normalisation to -31dB while in Pre-Processing I set both Line Module Profile and AF Profile to None. This made a huge difference to the Audio when played from a DVD and evened out many of the fluctuations I had been experiencing (and, incidentally, I had also Normalised all my commentary events beforehand).

Hope this helps.

Richard

Thanks Richard,
I will try your suggestions. Incidentally, as far as BBC tv is concerned - I watched edited highlights of the Olympics recently and thought wow! that was so professionally done, vide and audio. For me that's the standard to aim at.

Regards,
Alan