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Using MaxVol to Adjust the Volume Across Many Audio Samples in Your Video Projects
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This tutorial is designed to help you maximize the volume across an entire audio track in your audio mix window.
For example if you have a series of interviews perhaps they are of a different interview clips from different people or in separate segments of the same interview that you have split up and placed into that that your storyboard. It is possible/likely, even if you have done a good job of carefully recording the audio, that there is a variance in volume levels for your interviews. This function allows you to smooth out those differences, and I am happy to report it works quite well! To do this, you must have the Audio Effects Pack software installed on your Casablanca (this is an add-on software product, not included with your Operating System). Ideally each of your audio samples that you're affecting here are in the same audio track. In the latest versions of the Casablanca operating system - both Smart Edit and the Bogart OS - that would be tracks 2,3,4,5, or 6. With audio in these tracks you have the ability to add this effect or filter to the whole track at once. If the audio samples the audio elements are affecting are in the top track the camera track then you must do these one at a time so many go through both operations. 1. To Affect Audio in the Camera (top) Track Click on the first audio sample you want to affect, not the scene itself but the audio sample beneath it. It will have the same name but it's very important you click on that audio sample, on that small blue box (we're in the audio mix menu) Left click on that audio sample and you'll notice it is selected and confirmed that in the bottom left corner your menu you'll see the name of that scene. With that scene selected come down and left click on the button called EFFECTS. You are now seeing the menu of all the audio effects and filters. Scroll to select 'MaxVol' Left click to place a check-mark in front of it to select it - if you just highlight it, that's not good enough (on the latest operating systems, you must click to place a check-mark). Then left click OK - sometimes after clicking okay it will begin to render that effect if not you can create or render it now or wait till you do the other audio elements. Then it's just a matter of simply left clicking on the next audio element you wish to affect, left click on EFFECTS, scroll to select MaxVol (actually if the last operation you did was to add MaxVol, it will already be highlighted). Simply left click to place a checkmark left click okay and now you have added that Max volume effect to the next clip. Once you're done adding the desired effect to all the audio samples you wish/need to, simply left click on create to render. You will find almost amazingly that all those tracks now have the volume level raised up to a good level just prior to distortion. 2. To Affect Audio in the bottom tracks (#2-6) If your audio elements are all in the same track and track # 2,3,4,5, or 6 there is a one step process for this. In fact some people if you've got a lot of audio elements might prefer to use the Scene to Sample function (tutorial here) to pull out those interviews. This will allow you to separate the audio content, pull it away from track number 1 (the camera track) and put it on track 2,3,4,5, or 6 and then you have the one-button approach. It's your choice - just a matter of preference. In the Audio Mix Menu, scroll down and select the track number with all the audio elements on you wish to affect. NOTE: it's important for you to understand by doing this it will affect all the audio samples in that track, for example if you select the 2nd track, everything in the narration track track will have that audio filter on every audio element in that track. In the latter operating systems (earlier versions of Smart Edit do not have it but all versions of Bogart OS 2 and higher as well as Smart Edit (I believe it Smart Edit 8) have this capacity. Left click on the tiny 'fx' box at the far left side of that track - again, you will find this button at the far left side of Audio Mix Menu on tracks 2-6. This is a a tiny rectangle with the word the letter FX on it left - click on that and it opens up the Effects menu. Scroll down to select MaxVol, left clicking to place a checkmark to select and you have selected or added that effect or filter to every audio sample of that track. When you click OK, you should see a tiny white dot a tiny white dot on the 'fx' box. That tells you you have added an effect or filter to that track. You can add multiple filters or effects if you wish by simply check marking the ones you want to add. Render or create your changes and you have completed smoothing or normalizing the audio elements in your project! |