5 Replies Latest reply: Oct 6, 2014 12:58 AM by Srivas 108 RSS

    How to reverse the auto levels recording to normal levels?

    Srivas 108 Community Member

      Hi!

      What I want to say is that I have a recording taken with Zoom H1 and the Auto Levels switch was accidentally on. That of course makes the parts of the recording after a pause to start too loud and then when the signal goes to high, makes it too quiet. It's not nice.

       

      Is there a way to level out the recording? It's a speech and I know that it can be done using Speech volume leveler, but I don't want to use that either. What I am interested in is that is there a way to capture a noise print or the print of desired level of audio and then level out the rest of the audio by referencing to the print volume? In other words, reverse the Auto Levels effect back to normal. Is that possible?

       

      Thanks!

        • 1. Re: How to reverse the auto levels recording to normal levels?
          ryclark Community Member

          Not really possible because Audition can't possibly know or even guess what the levels were supposed to be. Your ears and experience are probably better at estimating correct levels than Audition. So, unfortunately, the best you can do is to go through the audio bit by bit and manually adjust levels to even out the worst of the highs and lows if you don't want to use Speech Volume Leveller. You may be able to use some of the advanced settings in the latest version of SVL to ease some of the problems that you may get with background noise.

          • 2. Re: How to reverse the auto levels recording to normal levels?
            Srivas 108 Community Member

            Ok, that's what I thought. It would be cool to have such an option though, it should not be difficult to do since there are clear paramaters that the program can rely to (like the level of backround noise) and adjust accordingly.

             

            Speech volume leveler is a modification of Dynamics Processing? I know that this effect can also be used to even out levels.

             

            I tried Speech Volume Leveler and the thing that I don't like in my particular situation is that it boosts the quieter signals up to the level of louder ones and that means also boosting noise. It would be nice to do the other way around, that is attenuate the louder signals to match the quieter ones. Is that possible to do with Dynamics Processing? How to do it?

            • 3. Re: How to reverse the auto levels recording to normal levels?
              ryclark Community Member

              Srivas 108 wrote:

               

              I tried Speech Volume Leveler and the thing that I don't like in my particular situation is that it boosts the quieter signals up to the level of louder ones and that means also boosting noise. It would be nice to do the other way around, that is attenuate the louder signals to match the quieter ones. Is that possible to do with Dynamics Processing? How to do it?

              Which version of Audition are you using? There are Advanced options on later versions that allow you to keep the noise down.

               

              But what you are looking foe in Dynamics Processing is the Downward Expander. As an example look for instance at the E. Guitar Gate preset. It is a rather extreme version of what you want to do but gives you some idea where to start.

              • 4. Re: How to reverse the auto levels recording to normal levels?
                SteveG(AudioMasters) Community Member

                Srivas 108 wrote:

                 

                It would be cool to have such an option though, it should not be difficult to do since there are clear paramaters that the program can rely to (like the level of backround noise) and adjust accordingly.

                I've wondered about this myself - although it wouldn't actually be that simple; you'd have to define exactly what 'background noise' actually was, and this isn't always easy. I already have a couple of feature requests in for this being studiously ignored - it doesn't appear to be much of a priority for anybody, not just Adobe.

                • 5. Re: How to reverse the auto levels recording to normal levels?
                  Srivas 108 Community Member

                  Yes, actually it could be difficult. But could be done at least for the parts with pure noise only, the places where the levels are increased in the absence of sound. Actually my recording is good, there is no audible noise till the levels are bumped up by auto level control. That's what makes it bad.