Levelling Audio from iPhone 15 Pro

[JonesVid]

I've recently taken some video of a live band and within some clips the audio suddenly limits /(dips) because of the limiter in iPhone 15 Pro kicking in on events such as eceptionally loud drums etc. The audio then gradually comes up to same level after say 500ms / 750ms

The Normalise Gain does not work, I know you can adjust gain of the clip with keyframes in Effects but this is a bit fiddly especially if you have several to fix.

Is there an easier way to do this now in Premiere Version 25.0??

I've looked in help section but 95% of help talks about the Normalise gain of several clips.

This problem is to make audio level smoother within the clip itself and overcome the iphone volume limiter effect.

I wanted to avoid Compression which can make audio sound constrained.

Thanks for any help

[Ann Bens]

Try the Ess Sound panel: loudness.

[Elijah31962510mxso]

JonesVid,

Have you tried using Dynamics Processing? This is a rather extreme use of the effect, but it does what I think you're looking for, which is to apply make-up gain to anything below a certain threshold. You could achieve the same effect with paralell compression– but that's what Dynamics Processing basically is.

[JonesVid]

Thanks for your input.

So, @Ann Bens I first tried the Loudness function - which is the first time I've used it !

The audio clip had audio around -3dB occasionally lighting up the 0dB meter lights at peaks.

The fade on audio was actually a bit longer than I quoted in my post as this is the auto audio limiter in iPhone 15 Pro on loud music.

The Music was quite loud,  but amazingly the quality not bad even though its only an iPhone

I selected the clip audio and enabled Loudness then Auto Match - it came back with setting the audio at -25 LUFS.

(Loudness Units Full Scale? - I need to read up on how that is defined 🙂 )

This lowered the level considerably with peaks around -12dB only on meters - but you could still hear the slight dips in audio level  at the same points as before.

One thing I don't understand is that after applyinmg Loudness to get a reasonable level of audio on the exported Video I would need to increase the gain again on the clip to get it to play through my HiFi at normal levels ?

Is Loudness setting reliable on Music ?

If I am doing somethng wrong please put me on the right path.

One thing to mention  - on the Music audio I have already lifted the bass very slightly and high end using EQ to compensate for iPhone Mic limitations.

I also applied some slight vocal reverb as well to give the track a fuller sound.

Maybe I should use Loudness before any effects?

I'll try the Dynamics Processing approach as well @Elijah31962510mxso  - again I've not used this yet.

Will report back how I get on

[R Neil Haugen]

Changes in levels because of recorder 'auto' functions is a right royal pain. Whether light (image) or sound.

The Loudness thing Ann mentioned gets your volume levels set according to general international standards. Which do not approve, for broadcast use, of getting up to 0 at any time, basically. Around -12dB to at most, -6dB, is what's used as a 'peak' typically for say general dialogue. Other sounds are then "placed" in appropriate relative levels.

A live pop or rock band is of course ... well, normally pretty LOUD. So that's an intriguing situation to mix.

And now, you've got recorder auto-junk on top of that. Totaly sympathies, been there done that.

First, use the dynamics leveler, as that can help some. I've seen masters at this stack two or three different 
"dynamic" leveler effects to slighlty different settings to get the best overal "general" effect.

But often even then, you do have to set the track mixer to Touch, and go down the sequence moving that channel up or down to get the sound evened out within reasonable limits. As soon as it doesn't jump out at anyone, it's "done".

[JonesVid]

Thanks for the added information @R Neil Haugen 

I have quickly tried out the Dynamics Processing effect that is mentioned above. This did help a little bit but I think I need to read a bit more on setting up this effect to understand what I am doing when applying the settings to maximise the benefits.

I'll investigate more and look up a tutorial.

For the time being, I have taken the manual approach and just used  a good pair of headphones and manual adjustment with Audio Level keyframes.

Did the trick and hardly noticeable, but this is not something you would want to do mulitple times.

The Loudness function that Ann mentions is also interesting - but for normal use where I export files to play on my own server the levels need tweaking back up as -12dB is too low.

As separate aside,  I experience widely varying audio levels watching UK TV channels and across stuff like Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

Many of these are distributed  ( via IP of course) or UK Satellite Freeview withy very loud (or low) variable level audio.

They don't seem to be paying much attention to standards ?.

[R Neil Haugen]

Supposedly, the UK 'tv' channels are very strict about compliance with certain EBU specifications. The streaming services each has their own internal standards though. And YouTube? What the hay, they do their own thing.

Yes, it's nutso. 

Learning the keyboard shorts for nudging volume up/down in the Track mixer is a very useful thing. As I noted, use a workspace showing the Track mixer, set to Touch, and then you can play back while tapping the signal up and down.