Normalize?

[BH]

What does normalize mean?

[StewartTurner]

In reference to what?

[THoff]

Normalizing means to adjust the minimum and maximum values of something relative to a common reference. In terms of audio, it would be to adjust the volume of multiple audio clips to play at comparable volumes, so that one clip doesn't blow your eardrums out while the next clip is barely audible, for instance.

[GeorgeW]

I believe in the Ulead software, when they say Normalize, it's relative to a certain "level" of audio. It will analyze your audio, and make note of the peak, then the entire clip is "lowered" so the peak doesn't go past a certain level...

[praebo1557]

BH I definitely gotta agree with you.

[david reece]

if i normalise the final DVD content VS9 crashes out.

I have raised this with ulead.

Mind you VS8 used to crash out when you added teh normalise sound filter in the timeline.

[GeorgeW]

hi david, what type of audio are you using in your projects?

[Manzano808]

Normalizing means to adjust the minimum and maximum values of something relative to a common reference. In terms of audio, it would be to adjust the volume of multiple audio clips to play at comparable volumes, so that one clip doesn't blow your eardrums out while the next clip is barely audible, for instance.

Howdy THoff! Wondering why it didn't work for me when creating a DVD?

Situation:

Making DVD with two clips. One clip captured BEFORE I correctly set the recording volume, one clip captured AFTER. I hadn't realised the clips were so different. So when I went to create disc, I checked Normalize. When playing the disc, one clip was still low volume and one loud. Seemed as though nothing happened. Perhaps normalizing only works WITHIN each clip at that stage?

Is there a way to bring up the volume of the low clip while in the Edit stage? I read about "rubberbanding" and tried playing around with the audio settings to no avail. I just didn't get it. I'm not even sure what the process is

If I am successful in figuring out how to increase volume, will the clip then need to be re-rendered as another file?

Thanks very much for your help!

[Ken Berry]

As with most things in VS, there are more than one way of skinning a cat, and this is also the case with varying the audio levels. I can't recall for the moment if you are using VS9 or VS8. The latter has some of the audio controls available in VS9, though they are not as full and are to an extent less sophisticated. Anyway, I am assuming you are using VS9.

Right, you have your two clips in the timeline and you are on the Edit page. Select the clip you want to raise the volume of (left click on the clip in the timeline). The first method of raising the volume of the whole clip is simple and is done through the volume control up in the top left of the Edit window. You will see a tab labelled Video and under that a digital clock which tells you how long your clip is. And under that is the volume control -- it is a small window, with 100 in it normally and a speaker icon to the right. (Clicking on the latter will mute or unmute the selected clip.)

Now the 100 represents the current level of your clip's volume. You can insert a new figure, in your case a larger one (e.g. 200 or 300, or parts thereof, and so on up to a limit I think of 500) to increase the volume of the entire selected track. Similarly, you can enter a lower figure than 100 if you think your track is too loud compared, say, to added voiceovers or music backgrounds.

For the sake of completeness, to the right of the speaker icon are upward and downward scales which will fade your audio in and/or out if you click on them, with the time of the fade set in File > Preferences.

Right, so now you have your entire volume raised. But almost inevitably, you will be adding voiceovers and/or music, and may want to vary just a part of the main audio e.g. lowering the volume of the main clip (and probably also added background music) when you are doing a voiceover which your want everyone to be able to hear clearly. That is where rubber-banding comes in.

In your VS9 screen, down at the very bottom left of screen, you have three vertically-placed buttons beside the timeline. The first is represented by a film strip icon. If you click on that, you are in storyboard mode. Click on the next one down, with a ruler icon, and it is timeline mode. But the one under that is audio mode with a little speaker icon. Choose that one.

Now, in the main video track, instead of your thumbnails, you will see a solid pale blue panel, with a black line running through the middle from end to end, and with a small black box at either end of the line. That line is the so-called 'rubber band', with the line representing the current level of the audio on that clip (think of it again as the 100 mentioned above). Now, to raise the volume of the whole track, you need to raise the line; to lower the volume, you lower the line.

To do this is a little tricky and requires a bit of practice. When you point your mouse at the square at the left hand end of the line, you might see one of two things. The problem is that both are a miniscule distance apart from each other in mouse movement, so it is easy to overshoot. (You might also see a four pointed arrow, but that is for moving the whole clip and should be ignored.) The ones you have to worry about are a little white upwards-pointing arrow and a hand with forefinger pointing upwards. As might seem logical, the hand is what moves the line upwards or downwards. So get the cursor converted to that while on the little box and holding down the left mouse button, move the end of the line up or down. And do the same with the box at the other end, pushing it up or down the same distance so the line remains absolutely straight for its whole length.

Now there is no exact science to this and there does not seem to be a metre indicating how many decibels or by what percentage you are increasing or decreasing the volume. So you need to experiment a bit. Needless to say, pushing the line to the very top of the blue box makes it very loud (and is equivalent to 500 in the volume box). Pushing it all the way to the bottom cancels the sound altogether. But eventually you will get to a volume you like, and the process will become quickly easier in terms of mouse control.

But, of course, we cannot forget your voiceovers and background music, which will also have their own pale blue boxes and black central lines in the audio panel mode. And you will inevitably need to adjust, say, the volume of your video clip downwards, and that of background music also, when you come to a voiceover, which in turn you may want to increase in volume. And then, once the voice-over is finished, you will want the background music volume to rise again, and that of the video clip as well.

To do this, you need to insert your own audio control black boxes (exactly the same as the ones at either end of the rubber band!) at relevant spots. To do this, you use the upward-pointing white arrow, instead of the little hand icon. Since you don't want, say, the background music or main video volume to drop dramatically just as the voiceover starts, but instead a measured fade out or in, move the arrow back (left) over the rubber band in the music or video clip box, but measuring it against the the start of the voiceover box -- say about half an inch/one centimetre or more. Then left click and a new black box should appear at that point. Then move the white arrow to the point on the video or music rubber band just above or below the start of the voiceover and click again, and another black box should appear. Do the same for the point above and below the _end_ of the voiceover, and then again about a half inch/centimetre to the right of that, and you will have a third and fourth black box!

Now go back to the _second_ of the newly created black boxes and hover the mouse till the little hand appears again. (Don't go to the first or the last of the new black boxes since they represent the audio level you want the track to return to after the voiceover adjustment.) Drag the black box downwards. Do the same with the third box, again making sure you keep the intervening line straight. And again, bear in mind there is no science involved and you may have to adjust this more than once when you play the whole thing back.

And this has to be repeated every time you want to vary the sound, either within one audio track, or in various audio tracks to achieve a better balance. It is rather tedious, but, believe me, worth the effort in the end.

Good luck!!!

[rguthrie]

BH,

Here's another explanation from http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/article.asp?ID=40

"Normalization raises the amplitude of an audio signal as high as it can go without causing clipping or distortion. This guarantees that your file uses the maximum amount of digital resolution and amplitude available."

I just did a test by exporting an audio clip from an a raw captured video I have. I exported it as "pre normalize" and as "post normailze". Using Audacity it compared the two files side by side and indeed the Normalize filter increased the amplitude so that the loudest portion was increased but didn't red-light the level meter.

Ron G.

P.S. I just realized I'm speaking of the audio effect, whereas you may be talking about Normalize during the Create Disk phase. However, the definition still holds true, and my test would apply here as well. For example Manzano808 said that Normalize (in Create Disk) didn't work for him. However it did, he just didn't notice the affect. It simply analyzed the audio and increased the volume so that the loudest part of the overall video would not "red-line". Since he used two clips, he should have done some premixing of his sound to ensure that clips would be about the same as Ken explained so well.

[Manzano808]

As with most things in VS, there are more than one way of skinning a cat,

Ken, this is Awesome!! I really appreciate this. In fact, you explained this so well, it not only helped me with VS9, but with Womble Wizard as well

[for now] I just have 2 questions: EDIT (I meant 3, sorry)

1. Since I'm not dealing with voiceovers etc... all I'm doing is trying to raise the embedded volume of the clip as a whole. So you have explained this and I assume that after I'm done, I simply go to Create File / Same as first video clip ?? to save the changes into another compatible file?

2. Does it matter which audio format you use? I've found that capturing using Dolby Digital does not add that much (if anything?) to the size of captured file. What is the preferred format when capturing to MPEG-2? I've been using Mpeg layer 2, but the Dolby seems to work well. ?? Wouldn't the Dolby give you better sound? I suppose it again depends upon your source?

3. Are you able to do this if you no longer have original file but only have the Video_ts files? What about if you only have the DVD?

Can't thank you enough for all this!!!!!!

[Ken Berry]

1. Yes. If you have captured to mpeg-2, then in Share > Create Video File > NTSC DVD would be your correct choice if that is what you used with the other clip.

2. Depends where you are (NTSC or PAL) and how widely you want to distribute your DVD. MPEG Layer 2 audio is NOT part of the NTSC DVD standard, though will play on a lot (though not all) of NTSC stand-alone players. (Privately, I believe its use by NTSC users on this Board may also be at least a partial explanation for some of the OOS problems they report. ) The problem is that the rock-standard audio for both PAL and NTSC is LPCM, but comparatively speaking, that format produces large audio files (though excellent quality), and this reduces correspondingly the amount of video you can squeeze on to a disc. MPEG audio is relatively small. But Dolby dual channel stereo is also acceptable in both PAL and NTSC DVDs, and is about the same size as MPEG audio, and AFAIK plays in just about every stand-alone player I have ever heard of.

3. Having files in a Video_TS folder is exactly the same as having a DVD. 'Burning' such a folder to disc is in effect equivalent to transferring it exactly as it is to disc. If you look at a DVD in My Computer or Windows Explorer, you will see it has an empty Audio_TS folder and a Video_TS folder, with a whole pile of VOB, IFO and BUP files on it. The VOB ones are your mpg files, only with a different extension. If you transfer them to your hard drive (or already have a Video_TS folder there ready for transfer to a disc), then it is usually only a matter of renaming the VOB files with an .mpg extension and they should be usable. If not, then use the 'Insert DVD/DVD-VR' command in VS9 and point it at your disc drive or Video_TS folder on HDD. This will bring up a window with the disc/folder broken into chapters. There is even a preview screen in this window so you can make sure you are importing the right part. Then you have to make sure you check the little boxes to the left of each chapter in the list, and hit the import button. After that, once the file is in VS9, you can edit it, raise or lower the volume on it etc, just as you can with any other file.

[Manzano808]

There is even a preview screen in this window so you can make sure you are importing the right part. Then you have to make sure you check the little boxes to the left of each chapter in the list, and hit the import button. After that, once the file is in VS9, you can edit it, raise or lower the volume on it etc, just as you can with any other file.

Awesome Ken!! Never even knew about that.

For all the wonderful help, I've decided to include you in my will. Here's how it reads:

I owe everybody.
I have absolutely nothing.
The rest I leave to the poor.

Thanks again!!