How can I match volume levels across multiple clips?

[andrewb38857006]

Let's say I have two clips:

a) A clip with people talking - sound is recorded a bit low

b) A clip with people talking and a loud sound (eg. a gunshot) in the middle

How do I match the audio levels so that the people talk at the same volume in both clips?

"Normalize" doesn't work because the gunshot in the middle of (2) wrecks it.

It seems like a very basic requirement for video editing. Surely there's a way to do this automatically...but I can't found one.

Doing it manually is very time consuming and error-prone (human ears aren't good at matching volume levels across hundreds of clips).

[TeeKayCC · Accepted solution]

This tutorial might help you out:

Premiere Pro CC: Boost and Smooth Audio Levels | Final Cut Pro Training & Classes

[jstrawn]

I agree with Larry's suggestion to use audition for that. I could not find my way to tutorials specifically for that, but he points to a good starting place in that article. Specifically: http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/Store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=87&products_id=328

There's probably a lot of free stuff out there too if you look around for it.

[andrewb38857006]

I found that Cyberlink PowerDirector has this function.

You just right-click on the audio and do "Normalize this track...". Job done.

I think I will use PowerDirector instead.

[shooternz]

"Normalize" doesn't work because the gunshot in the middle of (2) wrecks it.

Sort the Gunshot out  first. eg  isolate it in the clip (use the clip mixer) ..or razor it into a separate clip if it is clear of the dialogue.

[andrewb38857006]

What if there's hundreds of clips?

[shooternz]

What if there's hundreds of clips?

Thats what Audio Track layers / Mixers / Engineers do.

Its similar in the craft to what editors do with video.  Track by Track, Clip by clip or frame by frame.

[RoninEdits]

dont ever take any advice from someone that says, do this and this, i dont know how they work and i dont care, i just know they do.  thats what larry jordan says in one of his tutorials on audio. thats complete disrespect for anyone working in audio as well as teaching audio to someone wanting to learn.

audio work is best done in audition or similar audio programs. shooternz is right about isolating out the shotgun, like he says its part of editing, sometimes we have to get in there and get our hands dirty, not everything is best left to automation. normalize will adjust the audio to its highest peak. so just like the shotgun being loud, normalize will just find that one loudest sound and adjust the volume of the clip based on that one sound.  normalize can work sometimes, but really depends on the recordings.

audition has a "match volume" tool that is designed just for this. it has several settings, some to normalize and some to adjust the volumes of the clips to an average volume. in other words it will look a all the sounds thru the entire clip and figure out by average how loud that clip is.  you can tell match volume to have all clips match one you choose, or to match a desired average loudness.

there is no guarantee that audition or any other audio tool will get it right. after you use match volume you still have to listen to the edit to find out exactly what it has done. you might have to adjust a few clips or alot...  you can open the audio mixer panel and watch the volume levels bouncing around to get an idea how to adjust the volumes. most of the time it comes down to using our ears. so just like color correction there are tools (scopes) to see whats happening, but always have to verify with our eyes looking at the final video.

[deimosphobos]

Like everyone says, that is what Audition is for, that and a whole lot more. You can set a track limiter and then adjust the levels until you are happy. The limiter will cap the gun shot. Audition also does a great job cleaning up audio. There are a number of tutorials on that too.

Think of it as the right tool for the job. Premiere specializes in editing video and Audition specializes in Audio.

PS. On a side note, if you can get by with Power Director then why do you have Adobe CC? The comparison you make is a consumer vs. a commercial product.

[andrewb38857006]

I'm trying to figure out which is the right tool for the job.

Power director seems to get it very nearly right with a single mouse click. Only minor tweaks needed afterwards.

Premiere Pro needs more normalization options. "The loudest sound in the clip" is almost useless IMHO, and that's all it has.

Using the razor to isolate the sound might work for very simple cases but not much more. Ideally I should be able to select a portion of the sound and say "normalize to RMS of this..."

[shooternz]

FWIW

How To Normalize Audio - Why Do It? Everything You Need To Know