Adaptive Leveler?

Report · Jul 30, 2023

For people familiar with AUPHONIC.

When I was still using Audacity for my audio recording and editing, I was also using Auphonic service for the final mastering, given the limitations of Audacity.

Since I moved my audio production to Adobe Audition, I no longer need to use Auphonic as Audition gives me the same key mastering features I need - noise reduction, loudness normalisation, hi pass filtering and some EQ. Except for one - at least, I'm not aware where to find it or what existing effects to use to quickly and easily achieve the same effect.

Adaptive Leveler

It corrects level differences within one file between speakers, music and speech to achieve a balanced overall loudness.

In some podcast interviews with poor signal or connection, the voice of the guest keeps fading out and so there can be a significant difference in the level of their speech which is rising and falling. Not a very pleasant listening experience.

I know that various compression tools can help even it out, but this could be a lengthy and tedious process, especially when those fades are inconsistent, you need to normalise the guest's voice with your own voice and music, and you are not an audio engineer.

The Auphonic Adaptive Leveler has an inbuilt algorithm that considers all the parts and tracks of the audio file.

Question: Is there something similar in Adobe Audition you can apply with on click?

Report · Jul 31, 2023

Effects>Amplitude and Compression>Speech Volume Leveler

Report · Jul 31, 2023

yes, thanks, but it needs to be applied for each track separately plus it matches the overall volume of clips rather than the volume within a clip normalised with all clips on all tracks. Correct? These are fixed settings, not a dynamic or adaptive volume adjustment.

The Auphonic Adaptive Leveler has an inbuilt algorithm that considers all parts and tracks of the audio file. Is there something similar in Adobe Audition? Does Audition use algorithms at all (as a dynamic or adaptive effect)?

Report · Jul 31, 2023

In the Window menu, you'll find Match Loudness as an option. It will give you a lot of different standards for doing this. The help page is here.

Report · Aug 02, 2023

thanks, I actually found a video on using Match Loudness with Amplitude Analytics, which is helpful, but all this works for one track/clip only (at a time). My question whether Audition uses algorithms similar to the Auphonic Adaptive Leveler that treats the whole multitrack audio file holistically, remains unanswered. Does ANYONE know?

Report · Aug 03, 2023

That's not true - you can put as many tracks as you like into the Match Loudness panel - that's why it says 'files'...

And it repeats this all over the page I linked you to. Have you actually read this at all?

Report · Aug 06, 2023

yes, thanks. I have watched a couple of videos on this topic which were explaining it from a narrow perspective,with just one specific example, rather than providing an overview of the full functionality of this feature. Hence my wrong conclusion. Now I just need to run some tests with those settings. Thanks!

Report · Aug 07, 2023

ok, here is the issue:

I’ve got:

Audio clip 1 with peaks and large volume differences in speech
Audio 2 with peaks, no significant difference in speech volume

I need to:

Cut off the peaks in both clips
Level the speech volume within Clip 1

When I matched the loudness of these .WAV files separately, it chopped off the top of Clip 1 (unevenly, I might add which looks very strange), and did not flatten the peaks

I usually Match Loudness of the final mixed mp3 version. While the overall loudness is ok, this does not fix the speech differences in one of the clips.

So this time, I did it in the .WAV clip as suggested – it simply matched the overall loudness of the clip to -16 dB. It did not level the speech within or flatten the peaks (of course).

I’ve seen at least 3 different processes to fix those issues.

What is the easiest process to first:

(a) flatten the peaks in each clip separately

and then

(b) level the speech volume within one clip.

If anyone has got a link to a video explaning how to use the Speech Leveler - which I think is the right tool here - as I don't know what settings and how to select, I would much appreciate it.

Also - will it do both jobs (peaks and levelling)?

I don't like compression as it changes the timbre of the voice, and so would use the barest minimum, if at all.

thanks

Report · Jan 02, 2024

I have not found any replacement for Auphonic, no plugin, no built in option, nothing that does what the Adaptive Leveling does in Auphonic. I have searched for a couple of years now. I just use it now as the first part of my process to level my whole >45 min audio file, then I bring it into Audition and do additional processing.

Report · Jan 02, 2024

Actually, Speech Volume Leveler is a good replacement, it just takes more time as it requires manual setting and fine tuning. You also need to do it on each audio track separately. Overall though, it gives pretty good results.

I use it as the final cure, if needed. Only when I'm in a hurry and don't have 30 min to spare or the audio is really fidly and difficult to adjust, I will run it on Auphonic.