Audio balancing

[mwsing]

When creating videos, I always add voiceovers and music tracks and am having trouble getting the right balance across tracks and consisitency between tracks. The finished film is difficult to watch because the volume levels fluctuate too much. Does anyone have any tips to assist me in overcoming this problem easily and effectively. As I posted previously the problem is exacerbated because films that seem fine on my PC are definitely not fine when I play them on my TV using a hi-fi for sound.

[Terfyn]

There are a number of options. Audio Ducking will help balance the volume levels between tracks. You can add a peak level meter to compare volume levels on each track. You can remove the audio tracks from VS and use an audio editor like Audacity to rebalance the volume levels.

[mwsing]

What is a peak level meter and how do I add it. What does it do?

[Terfyn]

Darkwood\Peak Level Meter\PeakLevelMeter.exe
Try this.

A peak level meter shows the volume of the audio tracks. The ones from Darkwood can be opened in any program with audio and will give a visual indication of the volume.

[mwsing]

Thanks Terfyn. I will try this but am not sure that it will help. The problem for me is not knowing the volume of individual tracks but getting the right balance across a possible three tracks so that the final result is good without, for example, the original clip being too Loud, voice over being too soft or too loud and the music track being right, given that the music volume is always variable by nature!

[lata]

Hi
What version of Video Studio are you using?

CVSX9 has a Normalize Audio option, select your clips, then right click for menu.

I have not used this so cannot comment on how good it is.

You may be best in matching the TV volume to your pc volume, using a good DVD or audio file play on TV at normal volume, then play on PC to adjust speakers to same volume.
Now you have a level to aim for when adjusting the volume in VS timelines.

[Terfyn]

Normalize Audio automatically balances the volume level for a group of selected audio and video clips. Whether the audio is are barely audible, or loud and clear, Normalize Audio ensures a consistent volume range across all the clips. The volume levels of the selected clips are analyzed and the volume level of the clips with lower volumes is raised to be consistent with the clip that has the highest volume level.

This may be what you want. On the other hand, if you have carefully balanced the audio manually, then it just messes that up and gives a common volume level.