Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Need help making this audio file sound louder, with quality.?

There's this song I'm interesting in. It's not available in stores, plus there's no date on when the soundtrack will be released... I can only listen to it while i'm watching the video/cartoon it's on. Nonetheless, I was able to use a video editing software to edit the clip to exactly where the song begins and ends, and convert it into an audio file, it's in ';.MPA'; format because .MP3 wasn't available and .WAV sounded horrible. Then I was able to convert the ';.MPA'; file into MP3 using - Audacity 1.2.6. The end result is pretty good, but I feel like it's not loud enough. I've tried changing the bitrate from 128 to 320 but it still is loud. In addition, I tried doubling the tracks (placing the same audio file in a different track row) to increase the volume, but it sounds a little distorted; I gotta admit, It's louder, but still distorted... So here's my question: how can I make this song louder? without losing any quality? Please helpNeed help making this audio file sound louder, with quality.?
Changing the bitrate does not affect volume level..

There are two ways you can increase the volume level.

1: On the panel to the left of the track are two sliders.

The upper one controls track volume level the lower one balance.

Caution needs to be used with this - too much increase will produce distortion.



The better option.

2: Highlight the track by clicking on a blank part of the left hand panel.

Go to ';Effect / Amplify / tick ';don't allow clipping'; box. (prevents distortion).

Click hold and drag the slider to the right to increase the track volume.



If the track has loud peaks in volume the maximum volume will be adjusted to those.

If the parts between the peaks are too quiet the whole track can be compressed to even out the levels.

Getting technical now!

Highlight whole track again.

Go to Effect / Compressor.

Note: the ';apply gain after compressing'; box must be ticked.

Adjust the ratio first to try it.

Start at about 6:1 or 8:1 and preview it.

Adjust till happy with it.



The real technical stuff: (showing off now)

The decibel scale is logarithmic so a 3 dB increase is a doubling of level.

By duplicating the track you increased the level by 3 dB.

To put it another way if you play a sound through one speaker at a certain level then plug in another speaker producing the same sound at the same level you get an increase of 3 dB.



Hope you can understand all that - it's not easy to explain.

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