Questions on normalizing thousands of audio tracks.

So I have a lot of audio tracks in my iTunes library. AAC, MP3, etc., Ripped from Vinyl, CD, mic. About 5,000 tracks.
I am considering normalizing them through Soundbooth CS4. But, has anyone tried to process so many tracks? And what of the quality? Will it degrade the sound?
I have the latest MACPRO Quad Core and I also have Soundbooth CS4 on a PC Pentium Dual Core. So I am considering splitting the chore to these two machines. Is this a bad idea?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Victor

I would suggest using a different application to normalize 5000 audio files. Soundbooth has a very good normalization algorithm, but is not at all ideal for batch processing that many files.
For the most part, normalizing and resaving already-compressed audio files is going to cause a bit of quality loss as you recompress the files when saving them. There are a few applications around that claim to offer lossless normalization, and while I'm not necessarily convinced of that claim, the few times I've tried them out there was not a noticable loss of quality.
Check out http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/01/04/how-to-normalize-your-mp3-volume-levels-the-right- way/ for some tips and links for Windows. I'm not aware of any similar tools for Mac, but would advise against letting iTunes do it.

Similar Messages

Simple question. I think. Audio tracks?

On my camera, say I recorded nat sound on channel 1 and wild sound on channel 2.After I ingest my footage into FCP X, how do I keep those channels separate? At one point in the timeline I maybe using these different channels. How do I do this? Of course, I am used to FCP 7 where patching was easy. I am starting to like X but really have no idea how to do this. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Best.
Tom

Thanks Tom. You really do know your stuff. I'm going to stick with this new version as painful as it may be.
Thanks again.
Best.
Tom

Question about multiple audio tracks

Hello,
I see that imovie has only 2 audio tracks available when creating a movie. I need more than two since I will be working with a voiceover track, a soundtrack and at least one background/environment track all at one time. I won't be able to use the sound recorded with the video so that "track" is not an option.
My question is; Am I out of luck here and need to spend the 1K for studio pro to add more multiple audio tracks?
Also, I tried working with garageband but since all of my audio tracks import in at a minimum of 40 beats per minute, the voiceovers are all sped up and sound chipmunky.
Thanks for any help!

Well I didn't mean to irritate you...LOL And yes, I realize that this is the iM 6 forum but the gist of my question was related to multiple audio tracks in iM and thought I would ask about it in the forum pertaining to the latest release.
I had already posted a question in the GB forum regarding the bpm problem and found no answers so I was pretty much about to shelve that idea and forgo the whole garageband thing; this without knowing about the new "swap" features. I just updated to iM 6 yesterday.
As far as the "on-tape" raw audios: I was working on my movie in iM4. I wanted to add more audio bits but I don't have a proper mic for my G5 so I recorded the audio bits on dv8 tape through my camcorder. I imported the video (the image was the inside of my lens cap!), extracted the audio, took those audio files and imported them into GarageBand. That's when I noticed the bpm problem.
I'm sorry about the lack of info I originally gave but like I said, I had pretty much gave up on the idea of using GarageBand. I'm pretty new at this and I'm trying to decide what I need in terms of software to get what I want out of my movie. I'd be willing to pay for FCxp but still looking into whether I need to do just that or whether I can get by by using imovie and now it looks like GarageBand too.
ah, thanks for that
what irritates me, Prince wrote:
The audio tracks were voiceovers that came from my
dv8tape, imported into imovie4.
... ehm, but this is the iM 6(six) section, as said,
iM 6 allows now "swapping" files with GB3... (I'm way
back in the 90ies.... see my specs... )
so, video is in some iM, and he wants to use the
actual "on-tape" raw audios...
I thnik we need a little more detail...

Beginner question: Two audio tracks become one - how to undo?

I know this surely is a beginners' problem, i hope for a quick reply anyway. I've imported material I had before logged with AVID Liquid, into Premiere CS4. In order to get video and audio together I had to put video and audio in a new sequence by hand. I then loaded this seqeunce into the source monitor to be able to cut my material (one video track, two audio tracks (one from a directional mic, which I don't always want)) from there. But when I paste a clip in my editing sequence I only get video plus ONE audio track in the stereo track. But I need both audio tracks because sometimes I'm going to delete one of them. So my question: How do I get video and BOTH audio tracks from one sequence to the other?
Thank you very much, you've had much patience with me with similiar questions.
Niklas

To do what you want, you won't be able to work with the media as a single clip. You'd have to go into the sequence with the video and two audio tracks, and pick out what you want from there instead of the Source monitor. Make your cuts, laso the clips you're using, then do a Cut/Paste from the main sequence into the edit sequence. Make sense?

Two questions about Audio Tracks

I need to make several adjustments to an audio track of an interview to remove the voice of the interviewer who would give the occasional "uh-huh" etc., sometimes overlapping (though usually not) with the interviewee.
The way I've been doing this is to pull down the db level at those points in the timeline.
My questions:
1. Is this the best way to do it?
2. Regardless of the answer to question 1, why is it that sometimes when I use the pen tool in one stereo track, it will automatically affect the other at the same time, and other times I need to do each stereo track separately?
Thanks a lot.

If you recorded with two mikes, which it sounds like you did, you really recorded two distinct tracks, and you ought to bring them in as dual mono tracks, rather than stereo. (A capture setting.) Go to the Modify pulldown and uncheck "stereo pair." Then you should be able to adjust to your heart's content.
Did you record any room tone? It's very useful to fill in the gaps you create by eliminating words. Nothing detracts from an otherwise compelling show like bad audio! If you don't have any room tone, look for a section where no one is saying anything and there is no clothing rustle, etc, FROM THE TRACK where you are making deletions. Use that to fill the holes.

Questions on sending audio tracks from a short film into Audition for mastering

Ok so basically I have a 4 minute film in which i need to master the audio. I have a few quesions as to how to best go about this.
1: Some of the clips came with 2 tracks off the camera yet they are both labeled channel 1 on the beginning of the clip on the timeline. Their properties are listed as follows:
Type: Windows WAVE audio file
File Size: 16.0 MB
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 24 bit - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00:00:58:09344
Why are there 2 tracks?
2: Some other audio tracks are just labeled on the timeline as L and R. Both these and the other ones labeled Ch 1 are synced with Pluraleyes from an H4N Zoom recorder so i have no clue why they are labeled different. These one have properties labeled as such:
Type: MPEG Movie
File Size: 69.5 MB
Image Size: 1920 x 1080
Frame Rate: 23.976
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00:00:14:20
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0 (1.0)
Yes those are audio files on the timeline.
3: What is the general scoops with these multi track audio files? Do I need both tracks?
4: What would be the best workflow to export all the audio clips into Audition and get them back in the timeline? I heard about importing then in Premiere clicking Undo so you don't have the audio track clips as "Audio Extracted" and you retain the originals, but then just replace them with the Audition audio.
Working with sound is not yet a strong point of mine, i am just a video editor but need to get a grasp on properly handling this.

Cameras although they can record stereo audio often only use a small mono gun mic mounted on the camera. The audio menus on the camera give you the option to record either the mono mic to both tracks (ie. Ch1 input to the camrea is fed to both) or as stereo tracks from a stereo mic or as split tracks with onboard mic via Ch1 to track 1 and, say, a radio mic fed via Ch2 to track 2.
Your first files sound as if they came from the first of those options from an onboard mono mic. You don't necessarily need both trakc as they are identical mono tracks in this case.
The second set of tracks were recorded as a stereo pair on the Zoom, hence L and R. They could be stereo or more likely again are double mono tracks where you will only need one of them.
However, depending on the project, it may be more convenient to keep both tracks if any stereo music or effects are going to be mixed in on the multitrack. The final edited video will probably have two tracks on it anyway even if all the audio content is mono.

Audio track questions

Hello, I filmed a few interviews with two microphones for each interview (one mic for each xlr) I did not have the mics setup correctly, so one mic wrote to one track while the other mic wrote to the other audio track. How do I copy a single audio track (ex. a2A2) and paste it again in A4 so that i can have that track play on both speaker sides?

Set the pan state on the two tracks to center. Select them in the timeline and press Control-period.

Cutting two audio tracks in synchrony with video, question

I had to chop my movie in two because it did not fit on one DVD. This forum suggested that you make a complete second copy and delete the second half of one, and the first half of the other copy and burn your DVD with the respective halves. No problem with the first half, I deleted the video and had to go back and individually delete the audio tracks and everything stayed in synchrony. The problem arises when trying to delete the first half of the movie and not being able to use the play head to delete audio and video simultaneously. The audio of the first half of the movie is preserved, and if I delete the audio one track at a time it will shift the audio in relation to the video. I thought there would be a way of chopping off the video and audio tracks at the same point without the tedious task of trying to put everything back in sync "by hand". I have two audio tracks so it might be tricky to cut at the end of one audio track, without getting the other out of sync. Thanks for suggestions.
Mike

Hi Mike:
Perhaps the easiest way is to export the entire movie back to DV tape and then re-importing to imovie. That way, the entire movie is now combined into a "flattened" version. Meaning the audio and video are combined together into one video track, making it possible to split the final version in two.
Pain in the neck, but much easier that doing it one clip at a time.
Sue

Newbie Question - Creating DVD from Premiere to Encore with 2 audio tracks

Hello and thanks for your time,
I'm pretty new to all this but seem to be getting the hang of things pretty well but one problem I'm having I can't seem to find an answer to.
In Premiere I am creating a dvd of a football game, i have the video with an audio track of the crowd and another audio track of the commentary. These are all edited together fine and work well. I then use the dynamic link to send the sequence to Encore and that's where the problem occurs.
I can't seem to get both audio tracks to appear in Encore? Any suggetions or tips on where I might find an answer?
cheers for the help and time
Ian

Ian,
This is not a cure to the issue, but is a workaround. It's the "old-fashioned" way that things were done before DL.
Export your Sequence as elemental streams, i.e. video-only and audio-only. Import your video-only file into Encore as a Timeline, and teh audio-only file as an Asset. From Project Panel, drag the audio to the appropriate timeline. Done.
Now, exactly what you choose for your Export and even how you do this will depend on your Project in PrPro and also your source Assets. For SD material, I'd choose DV-AVI Type II video-only (no multiplexing), and for the Audio 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV. If you have a version of PrPro prior to CS4, just Export Movie (settings above) for the Video and Export>Movie (or AME) for the Audio (settings above). Just make sure that the Export Video is checked for the DV-AVI, but the Export Audio is not. Change these two checkboxes for the Audio.
Now, for DL not working, as it should, what is the format of your source Audio? Do you have any Channel-mapping used? Does your Audio Mixer Panel show everything right there? Do you have one Audio Track either Muted, or Bypassed. Look in Audio Mixer, to make sure you do not have one Track Solo'ed.
Also, what version are you using, CS3, or CS4? Note: for CS4, you will use AME for the Exporting in the first part of the post.
Good luck,
Hunt
PS - welcome to the forum

Vocoder (EVOC 20) question: Must audio track be prerecorded?

I've been playing with the EVOC 20 vocoder, and it works great with a prerecorded audio track. But I want to be able to speak the words and play the keyboard simultaneously -- is this possible? I tried setting the side chain to be a new audio track and talking into it while playing, but no sound comes out of the vocoder. Can this be done? TIA... Mark

Hi Eric, and thanks for the suggestions.
It turns out that what I needed to do was record the audio and software tracks with the side chain of the software track set, not to the audio track, but to the same input as the audio track. This lets me sing and play and hear the "vocoderized" vocal live.
Then, for playback, I set the side chain of the software track to the newly recorded audio track and all is well. Latency didn't seem to be a problem, either, so I'm all set!
Thanks again,
Mark

Adding Menue Audio Track selection and soubtitles on/off

Hi,
with some help from replies to other questions I managed to get a working DVD/BR with cool 2.0 / 5.1 sound and subtitles.
But for now I do have to select the audio track manually and also I do have to enable subtitles from the DVD/BR players menu.
So I wanted to add a DVD/BR menu where you can choose the audio track which should be played and to switch on and of subtitles.
I edited a nice PS PSD File with some buttons and they show up in Encore and I can do some "encore" editig like moving tham arrond or link to some other elements.
My question: How do I get e.g. the Button "2.0 Stereo" to select the stereo track and the button "5.1 Surround" to select the 5.1 track. An other button should switch on/off the right subtitle
Than I'd like to have a button which starts the video with the selected audio and if selected subtitle on.
At the end of the movie I like to be back in the menu.
I bet thats simple
I thought to create different timelines and add the audio/video/subtitle, but that i have a lot of timelines in all sort of combinations; e.g. video ON, 5.1 sound ON, subtitle OFF ..... video ON, 2.0 sound ON, subtitle ON etc ....
Thansk for any suggestion . and BIG thanks. Götz

Thanks for your posting, but there is the higlight Layer.
I opend the menue in photoshot once more and enabled the layers.
For me a button has the following different states:
Normal, no highlight,just "plain" text. e.g. "English Subtitle". in that state, the Subtitle is NOT selected/enabled.
Mouse Over, the highlight shows up, so you can see where you are with your mouse. e.g. "English Subtitle √"
Mouse left click, the highlight "sticks" to the menue item and when moving the mouse avay it is still highlighted, e.g. "English Subtitle √"
So I'd liked to indicate which audio track is enabled/selected and if subtitles are off or on.
I thought, the highlight button states are markend with (=1) & (=3) ....
BTW. in encore menue edit mode, if I click the show selected/activated Subpicture Highlight, the right layer shows up (with my √-symbol)
But in preview mode or on a burned dvd this did not work
Regards . Götz

How can i use original audio track in video editing for iPad 2?

I am struggling to understand how the video editing apps work for iPad 2, and specifically, to understand why all the editing apps I have looked at explain how you can make these terrific video clips by ADDING audio tracks from iTunes, or. From the audio library. I just want to use the original audio on the tape? Is that so strange? Today I took a video clip of my daughter singing with her guitar. I wanted to shorten the length a bit, so I downloaded a couple of Visio editing apps. When I pulled the clip out of my Camera Roll storage into the video editing screen, there was no sound at all,though there were ways to add other sounds ( for .99cents) most frustrating is that nowhere, does Apple explain this. The tutorials just show someone editing a video of their friends ( with no sound) And adding text and music, as if it's normal not to include the actual sound that originally accompanied the video clip. Seems like i wouldn't be the only customer who would prefer to hear my daughters own voice Ina video of her singing, and would like thisexplainedbefore I started downloading editing apps. If it can't be done, couldn't This be posted?

I am not understanding your question, or your complaint, if it is a complaint.
I movies takes a video clip, including its audio track.
You have the option of mutimg it, or of importing some other sound from your music library, or narrating. What other option do you want?

Can't trim beginning off audio track???

I am new to Aperture (3.0.2), so this is probably a simple question, but the problem is driving me crazy. Thanks in advance for any help!
I have a slideshow, and want to add audio. I can drag in a song (into the secondary audio track) from the audio browser, and it works fine. However, I want to trim off the first part ("boring intro") of the song. When I drag the slider at the start, it appears to work normally (like iMovie, for example), and I see the length of the song decreasing. However, when checking it is really trimming off the end of the song -- not the beginning! Is it possible to trim the beginning of the song off?

@Jeff: I have not tried this on the latest update to Aperture, but I had the exact same problems when trying out the Aperture 3 slideshows in an earlier version. It seems like a huge oversight to not include the ability to trim the beginning of a song but to include the ability to trim the end. Many songs start slowly and would often need to be trimmed.
I suggest that you submit feedback to Apple (select the "Aperture" menu item and then "Send Aperture Feedback...") on this issue, and I'll check my system tonight and submit feedback as well if I find that the issue hasn't been fixed in 3.0.2.

Issues with 'Mute' in Audio Track

Hi All
1. Using Premiere Pro CC (Fully Up to Date)
Was wondering if I could get assistance with what I believe is an issue with the Mute Button in an Audio Track. Firstly my understanding is that, if I use the 'Mute' button either in the Audio Mixer or the icon in the Timeline to mute a clip or track, it is only a temporary action and once you uncheck mute the track reverts back to it state before the Mute.ie normal audio. I have been doing some voice overs directly into the timeline using a USB Microphone / Headset and on those occasions have gone through the steps of Arming, Solo (The Voice Over Track) and then record. I am not sure if this is related but just included to give a background. When checking the levels and doing a bit of fine tuning I find the following issue. As the play head moves along the timeline if goes into a Mute condition and also appear in the Audio Mixer as Mute. It is though it is seeing a 'key frame' that tells it to mute at that point, hence my earlier question regarding (when Mute, is it temporary). I immediately uncheck Mute but when I recheck over that area of the video it is On/Off On /Off. I have tried to see if there are 'key frames / markers that indicate start and end of "Mute' in that Audio track but no luck.
Am I correct in the assumption that mute is a temporary action and should not be a permanent action at that point, or have I done something to create this issue.
Thanks for any advise.

I just read some related threads and I am beginning to suspect the action of the 'Solo' function could be causing the issue. I can not say for certain but I did some other VO in another sequence in the same project and only used the 'Mute" in the other tracks, not using Solo didn't seem to have this issue. Then I did a bit of reading in an earlier CS3 manual that advised using 'Solo' now I seem to have this issue. I totally agree have tried different audio, removing area of offending audio but still comes back??????

How to create a new independent audio track?

okay, probably a stupid question, but how can i create a new audio track that is not a "slave" to an already existing audio track. for example, all of my 8 audio tracks are in use, so when i try to open a new one, it is affected by the highlighted tracks specifications, making it very frustrating. please help and thanks.

Some things are just backward in Logic...we just have to get use too it.....
jord, I agree.. it's not that hard to understand the difference between an arrange track and an audio object. the fact that you can have many tracks in the arrangement that all use the same audio object or midi object is a great thing.
I think if people get their head around the fact that the arrange page _is not_ simply a representation of what is physically available in terms of tracks, then it all becomes clear.
I would recommend all new users to do the following:
click on your arrange window, and select the top track. start hitting delete until you have deleted every single track in the arrangement. you now have a blank page. but, importantly, the environment of available audio tracks/audio instruments/midi channels/whatever has not changed one single bit. you can now assign anything to your arrange page. 55 arrange tracks that are all using audio instrument 1 if you so desire. or, sequentially create new tracks that are all using subsequent channels/instruments by controlshiftreturn (by default).
people often get confused by doing the following: they create a new track in the arrangement - say they had audio instrument 1 and then created another _arrange track_ of audio instrument 1. then, they look in the parameter box for that second arrange track, and change it to audio instrument 2. then they get annoyed that for some reason, both tracks now change to audio instrument 2.. but this is totally normal, because you have changed the assigment of the same audio object, that just happened to be present in the arrangement in the form of 2 arrange tracks. the way to change what object is assigned to an arrange track is to click-hold on the track name (right there where the track is in the arrange list) and then you will see a pop up of all of the available objects, hierarchically presented to represent the environment layers in your song. or, instead of doing this, you can just create an arrange track that uses the next available audio track/instrument by using the key command described above (controlshiftreturn).
it's not at all illogical or backwards! when I am writing a midi part using an audio instrument, I (very) often want multiple arrange tracks of the same instrument so I can test out different ideas or variations.. muting all except the one I currently want to hear. and importantly, they aren't "copies" or "clones" of the same track, nor are they "linked" tracks that change assignment together, as many people seem to think. they are independant arrange tracks that just happen to have the same track or instrument assigned to them. once you get this, you start getting logic.
the way to build new audio objects or midi objects (which is what people mean when they say "new track") is and has always been in the environment. although, now there are shortcuts to do it by using the function 'create multiple tracks' which will produce the objects for you in the arrangement and add them to your arrangement in one operation. you also need to be aware of the setting in your audio prefs (or in hardware and drivers, can't remember which) where you define the maximum number of tracks that the audio engine will allow, this being another stalling point for many new users.
like I said, once you 'get' this architecture in your head, you start realising how powerful and flexible working on arrangements in logic will be. for me, it's a way better implementation than playlists in protools, for example.

Questions on normalizing thousands of audio tracks.

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