what software is good for wav normalization

[changintimes]

hi everybody,

this is my first post in this forum,

within the past week i have been obsesively experimenting with free pc audio editors, rippers and burners, (creating compilation cds for friends and family),

just wanted to get ideas from some audio enthusiasts and experts on what the best way is to volume level wave tracks,

it seems that if i create cds with the auto volume level feature of Windows Media Player, that the completed cd does not work so well in cd players, the cd players have trouble reading the first few tracks,

so i set out to manually normalize wav tracks,

i like wavepad and audacity,

mp3gain seems great for mp3 files,

what do you think ???

thanks,

larry

[Monkey Mouse]

I use Soundforge 8 to do exactly what you are describing. Also works great on vinyl to wav conversions.

[TimOBrien]

Second thumbs-up for Soundforge (but, he said in a hushed tone, getting away from anything Microsoft is bound to help) :-)

[Brickyard]

I also Use Sound Forge, I used to use Samplitude which will do the same thing but since getting Sound Forge I use it all the time and nothing else now, its a great program! Highly Recommended.

[changintimes]

does anybody notice what i am talking about, with the volume leveling in Windows Media Player ?

why do the cds that the Windows Media Player creates with volume leveling, not play correctly in a cd player ?

and Soundforge sounds great, someday maybe i will get it, but for now it is a bit expensive for me, since i just became an audiofile last week,

i'm just a beginner using free wave editors for personal enjoyment,

but it's nice to know what the professionals like,

[TimOBrien]

Welllllll, if you are looking for shareware and freebies, go over to Hitsquad:

www.hitsquad.com/smm

(always a great place to start looking for audio software)

[changintimes]

okay, since i'm a beginner and not sure if i want to become a professional yet,

[langdonious]

Hey guys. I'm looking for a software that'll take about 9000 .wav files and normalize all of them to have the same volume, pitch, tone, etc without having to go through one by one and tweak all of them individually to make them all sound the same. SoundForge works great file by file but when it takes 10-15 minutes of tweaking one file to get it to sound like the other it will take me eons. Any ideas?

[AndyH]

Many programs do batch processing. You create an action script and tell it to run against your list of files. This assumes that you want to do the same thing to every file; that no files to be processed need individual attention to details. The only one I've worked with it CoolEdit, which is now Adobe Audition, but I'm sure there are others with this kind of facility.

[MrHope]

Hey guys. I'm looking for a software that'll take about 9000 .wav files and normalize all of them to have the same volume, pitch, tone, etc without having to go through one by one and tweak all of them individually to make them all sound the same. SoundForge works great file by file but when it takes 10-15 minutes of tweaking one file to get it to sound like the other it will take me eons. Any ideas?

Try this: http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/autotune.htm

Also, CoolEdit 2000 has a batch script mode that can normalize files.

[jmail]

My Nero Burning ROM (and my old CD Creator...) has an option to have all the files that are burned to the disk to be "normalized"... However, since normalization uses the wave file peaks to determine its levels, you can still end up with one song sounding louder than the next, due to the use of compression and limiting on one file, but not another, when they were commercially made. Therefore, even though the Metallica song is a rock-ballad and seems like it would be a quieter song on the CD, it'll still blast you out of the seat when compared to a CCR toe-tapper, by virtue of the fact that CCR used minimal compression and/or limiting, but Metallica pours it on heavy, "crunching" the dynamic range down...

That explanation is probably clear as mud...

In other words, if you use something automatic, you'll probably still end up with what you already have. Spend some time on it, and it be better. But, 9000 wave files... I'd be dead before I'd be able to finish a one-by-one routine...

[AndyH]

This program makes an effort to automatically "equalize" the perceived volume of a batch of files. Many people have been satisfied with its efforts.

http://www.delback.co.uk/volbal/

[langdonious]

Thanks for input everyone! Come to find out, jmail is on the money. Even normalizing on the average isn't making much difference. I'm gonna explain to my boss that it's a real big waste of time. Also, I doubt the voicer will really want to re-do about 3/4's of those clips, even though that's the only real fix. I'm sure the recording setup has changed a few times in the past 7 years, explaining the huge variations in the quality, pitch, and volume of the clips. Thanks again!

[changintimes]

i think i understand,

so if spikes in volume happen here and there in song A, and the volume is mostly the same throughout song B, then song A will sound much lower than song B even after normalizing,

right ??

[AndyH]

That is part of it.

[changintimes]

This program makes an effort to automatically "equalize" the perceived volume of a batch of files. Many people have been satisfied with its efforts.

http://www.delback.co.uk/volbal/

so what is the name of this type of program ?

is it a normalizer, an equalizer ??