Audio too high and Sound forge... at DVinfo.net

Philippe Gosselin · November 11th, 2003, 05:27 PM

Hi ,

Did a wedding and the sound was just recorded too high (mainly due to the trumpetist they invited).

I'm getting around Sound forge fine so far but i haven't found a way to lower the peaks without lowering the audio level altogether.

Any tips

thanks a lot

Phil

Martin Garrison · November 12th, 2003, 04:17 AM

If you want to even out the levels you have two options:

(1) Keyframes, or Rubberbands or whatever Soundforge calls it when you adjust the amplitude of the wave over time.

(2) Compression. I'm sure Soundforge has a compressor, make sure the "make up" is zero and lower the threshold and increase the ratio until the trumpets get squeazed into place. This may distort the sound of the trumpets, but it won't sound like they are clipped. Just make them sound "thick".

Now if the trumpets did clip, that's another story. Audition has a great feature called clip restoration, that automatically redraws clipped peaks, but I don't know the Soundforge equivalent.

Philippe Gosselin · November 12th, 2003, 04:44 PM

Wow , Thanks Martin , for a newbie you look like you know your way around ;)

That was solid gold info BTW but i couldn't find those "rubberbands" type of thing to edit so the closest function that i found was to "normalize" the whole stream.

Still isn't perfect though , there is still a lot of distortion ( dunno if i have the proper word for the effect but it sounds like my speaker are about to explode when the sound reaches a certain level).

As for the compression i'm still looking for that option ;)

Thanks

Martin Garrison · November 12th, 2003, 05:08 PM

Depending on the type of normalization, it could be a form of compression. Although probably not as clean as using a compressor plug in. One type of normalization just brings the level up until the peaks are right at 0. Another analyzes the power out put and performs a compression that tries to even the percieved loudness.

If your sound is distorting as it gets loud, then you've peaked somewhere. Probably in the camera. My suggestion is to highlight the areas of the waveform where your sounds get really loud and apply a fade or amplitude decrease to just those areas. This won't get rid of the sounds of distortion, but it will minimize them in relation to the rest of your audio.

If I had a copy of soundforge, I might be able to help more, but the demo I down'oaded a while ago has expired.

Speaking of demos, you may want to download Audition's and see if the "clipped peaks" noise reduction effect helps. To use that effect just bring the over all level of the piece down to give some headroom and apply the effect to the whole track. It will look for peaks and attempt to redraw them. Depending on the level of distortion, this may not fix your problem.

Gints Klimanis · November 12th, 2003, 05:15 PM

Martin,

What is the name of the Audition demo product?

Martin Garrison · November 12th, 2003, 05:44 PM

Adobe has an Audition 1.0 30 day trial on their website.

Audition is the wave editor/multitrack sequencer formerly known as Cool Edit Pro.

November 11th, 2003, 05:27 PM	#1
Philippe Gosselin Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Montreal , Canada Posts: 197	Audio too high and Sound forge... Hi , Did a wedding and the sound was just recorded too high (mainly due to the trumpetist they invited). I'm getting around Sound forge fine so far but i haven't found a way to lower the peaks without lowering the audio level altogether. Any tips thanks a lot Phil

November 12th, 2003, 04:17 AM	#2
Martin Garrison Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 173	If you want to even out the levels you have two options: (1) Keyframes, or Rubberbands or whatever Soundforge calls it when you adjust the amplitude of the wave over time. (2) Compression. I'm sure Soundforge has a compressor, make sure the "make up" is zero and lower the threshold and increase the ratio until the trumpets get squeazed into place. This may distort the sound of the trumpets, but it won't sound like they are clipped. Just make them sound "thick". Now if the trumpets did clip, that's another story. Audition has a great feature called clip restoration, that automatically redraws clipped peaks, but I don't know the Soundforge equivalent.

November 12th, 2003, 04:44 PM	#3
Philippe Gosselin Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Montreal , Canada Posts: 197	Wow , Thanks Martin , for a newbie you look like you know your way around ;) That was solid gold info BTW but i couldn't find those "rubberbands" type of thing to edit so the closest function that i found was to "normalize" the whole stream. Still isn't perfect though , there is still a lot of distortion ( dunno if i have the proper word for the effect but it sounds like my speaker are about to explode when the sound reaches a certain level). As for the compression i'm still looking for that option ;) Thanks

November 12th, 2003, 05:08 PM	#4
Martin Garrison Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 173	Depending on the type of normalization, it could be a form of compression. Although probably not as clean as using a compressor plug in. One type of normalization just brings the level up until the peaks are right at 0. Another analyzes the power out put and performs a compression that tries to even the percieved loudness. If your sound is distorting as it gets loud, then you've peaked somewhere. Probably in the camera. My suggestion is to highlight the areas of the waveform where your sounds get really loud and apply a fade or amplitude decrease to just those areas. This won't get rid of the sounds of distortion, but it will minimize them in relation to the rest of your audio. If I had a copy of soundforge, I might be able to help more, but the demo I down'oaded a while ago has expired. Speaking of demos, you may want to download Audition's and see if the "clipped peaks" noise reduction effect helps. To use that effect just bring the over all level of the piece down to give some headroom and apply the effect to the whole track. It will look for peaks and attempt to redraw them. Depending on the level of distortion, this may not fix your problem.

November 12th, 2003, 05:15 PM	#5
Gints Klimanis Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 2,222	Martin, What is the name of the Audition demo product?

November 12th, 2003, 05:44 PM	#6
Martin Garrison Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 173	Adobe has an Audition 1.0 30 day trial on their website. Audition is the wave editor/multitrack sequencer formerly known as Cool Edit Pro.