Can't find the horizontal Level Envelope

Question

I'm making a CD with a bunch of my songs; on some of them, the wave form is skinny, because their volume is lower, and I want to even them up so that the listener isn't turning the volume up and down from song to song.
I found instructions to do this by adjusting the level of the skinny (i.e. quieter) regions. It says "Move the pointer over the horizontal Level Envelope that you want to adjust. The pointer changes to the level envelope tool and a help tag displays the original and adjusted values." However, I can't see the line, and my pointer does NOT change to a level envelope tool. What do I need to change so that both these things appear?
Also, if there's an easier way to achieve my goal, that would be great (I tried normalizing the tracks, but that didn't help).
Thanks!!

Answer 1

You don't see the line which ends with a ◊ at each end, like this?
!http://web.me.com/johnalcock/filechute/waveburnerlevel.png!
Also, if there's an easier way to achieve my goal, that would be great (I tried normalizing the tracks, but that didn't help).
Adjusting the overall level probably won't get you too far - you can have a song, with a couple of loud peaks, that will appear to be much quieter than an intentionally softer song with controlled peaks. Normalizing won't help.
The key here is that you want to increase the perceived volume (levels), which has nothing to do with the peak levels. 0 dBFS cannot be exceeded - it's the absolute maximum. So to get your tracks louder, you need to increase your apparent volume, often referred to as the average RMS level.
A good way to try this is to open your mix in a fresh Logic project (I prefer doing it there instead of WaveBurner, but whatever you prefer). You could try first applying a compressor, threshold set so that any peaks are controlled. You can use a compressor or a multiband compressor, but be careful; the latter can really mess up your mix unless you're careful and practice a lot.
Next, insert the Adaptive Limiter. Find the peak in your song, and set the left (Input Margin) side of AdLimiter so that you get close, but never go over 0 dB. on the right, set AdLimiter's output to -0.3 dB and crank the gain control to taste. At the bottom of AdLimiter's window, click the disclosure triangle, and set Mode to "NoOver.' You will change the character of the sound doing this; it's up to you if you like it or not, but you can definitely get your track loud.
There are lots of threads here and in the Logic forums about this. Try searching on AdLimiter, compression and mastering.