Articles about sound normalization and loudness. Normalization of sound files. Normalization is carried out by peak or maximum sound levels. And this means that each value of the sound level will undergo a proportional change and thereby save

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For those who constantly listen to music in an mp3 player, the problem with normalization sound different songs after adding the compiled playlist. Either the sound becomes too loud, or, on the contrary, it is so quiet that even increasing the volume does not allow you to enjoy the melody.
This problem also prevented me from listening to music comfortably for a long time.

And I started looking for a way to solve the problem of loudness normalization. Using the search on the Internet, I managed to find a simple solution in the form of the mp3gain program. It is also worth noting that the program can be used for free.

In addition to ease of use, the program is also good because it does not make any changes to the audio data. It simply changes the value of ID3 tags. Most programs (such as iTunes) and mp3 players understand this value and play the track with the specified parameters. So, the essence of the problem is clear, the tool is found. Let's get started.

First, download the mp3gain program (you can download it from here http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php) and install it on your computer. The program supports different languages, including Russian, to change the language, click the Language menu and select Russian.

First you need to select a folder with files for processing, for this we select the button Add folder.

After the files are uploaded, click the button Track analysis

Depending on the volume of tracks being loaded, this procedure may take time.
The program will determine the volume of the files and calculate how much it is necessary to correct the sound strength in the tracks. After the analysis is completed, you can bring the volume to one value simply by entering it in the field Loudness norm

After processing is completed, all tracks will sound at the same volume. If you didn’t like the effect of normalization, and there was a desire to bring everything back to its original value, then this is not difficult to do. You just need to select in the menu, the item - Change Level and press - Cancel level change .

That's all. It remains to be hoped that the method described by me in this article will help you too.
solve the problem of volume normalization in different music tracks and enjoy music without constantly adjusting the volume level in the player.

Here I just showed an example of how to work with the program. It doesn't mean that you have to do it that way. For ease of demonstration, maximum values ​​have been set. This can lead to significant distortion. Therefore, choose the values ​​that are acceptable to you.

Especially for better assimilation of the material on working with the program, I made a video - how to make the volume of the tracks the same:

So it is with sound files, only they do not hear, but store. Some files store sound with a volume level conforming to the norm. Others store sound at a volume level deviant. However, this does not change the volume level of the original audio signal. Everything is defined only recording level sound signal. And in order to prevent distortion, the recording level is set in such a way that the audio signal supplied to the input of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is slightly lower than its maximum possible level at maximum volume values ​​(peaks). Otherwise distortion cannot be avoided and the sound becomes unnaturally distorted. In addition, the recording level can be lower even in a variety of technical reasons.

For a person norm hearing sensitivity is determined range or two positions corresponding to the lower and upper sound levels - this is the so-called dynamic range or hearing area. One position corresponds to the weakest sound volume level (sensitivity threshold) still distinguishable by a person. The other position corresponds to the strongest level of sound volume (pain threshold) still perceived by a person.

There is also a norm for sound files, but this volume recording level. It is determined range or two positions corresponding to the lower and upper levels of the sound volume recording and this is also the so-called dynamic range. Since the computer understands and processes sound in digital form, it stores it in files also in digital form. And so the range is defined by two numbers corresponding to the upper and lower bounds. dynamic range. Depending on the stored sound quality the range will have a different width.

Speaking further about sound files, we will mean files with the extension .WAV, that is wav files. Since these are the files that are used for recording audio CDs.

On audio CDs sound files are stored with the extension .RAW. When written to a hard disk, they are converted into wav files. When burned to an audio CD, audio files with the extension .WAV converted to files with the extension .RAW.

Quite often, the recording volume level of the sound at audio CDs for different musical compositions is unequal or lower norms, which creates an unpleasant sensation when moving from one musical composition to another. It also often turns out unequal and values ​​for the recording level of sound volume for two stereo channels of one musical composition. To overcome these shortcomings, it is necessary to normalization. Which was invented for this.

If not fulfilled normalization, then the low volume level of the sound recording of a musical composition when playing an audio CD will require compensation in the form more gain from the audio equipment. Which is quite inconvenient and leads to the emergence of completely not necessarily misrepresentations from the audio equipment. which could be avoided by using non-distorting sound processing in the form of normalization.

As a possible tool for normalizing wav files, I would like to recommend you a shareware program. This program allows you to process wav files with the usual 8 and 16 bit digital format and one or two stereo channels. By opening and processing wav sound files, Sound Normalizer 2.2 creates copy original sound file, with which it works. Thus allowing in critical situations to avoid irreversible change original file. Also one of the advantages of the program is the possibility independent adjust the sound normalization level for each channel. Unlike other similar programs, Sound Normalizer 2.2 has simple and clear interface.

Normalization is carried out according to peak or maximum sound levels. And this means that each value of the sound level will be subjected to proportional change and thus keep natural sound the entire musical composition.

However, it also happens that the sound for two stereo channels, after normalizing to the maximum level, will be perceived as having various volume levels. This is because the perception of loudness has more dynamic And frequency components that can be so different between the two channels as to cause the average volume level for each channel to be heavily skewed. In this case, it can be recommended to perform the trial and error method manual adjustment normalization level for each channel.

Music lovers, we believe, have often had to deal with a situation where some compositions of one collection sound too loud, while others, on the contrary, are too quiet. This happens when users download music from different sources, and even compositions with different sound volumes are often found in mixes that contain songs from different artists. Well, this is understandable, but how to act in such cases, not to adjust the volume every time, as soon as the song sounds louder or quieter?

No, of course not, because the volume can be equalized, and very simply. To do this, you will need a small free utility. This program allows you to process audio files of popular formats in batch mode in accordance with the specified volume setting.

So, go to the developer page and download the latest full (!) version . By default, the program is installed in English and, if this does not bother you, install it in the usual mode to immediately get the interface in Russian, at the second step of the installation you need to check the box Russian on the menu "Language files".

Press the button in the menu "Add Files" and load into the utility window audio files, the volume of which needs to be worked on. Next click "Analysis track" and wait until the program finishes analyzing the files in order to identify their volume. This procedure may take several minutes, it all depends on the total size of the files being analyzed. It takes about 10 minutes to process a 1 GB assembly.

After you need to set the desired volume (default is 89 Db) and press the button "Track type". As a result of processing, the volume of all audio files will be reduced to a single specified value. Changing the volume level takes less time than analysis. It is also worth noting that all files in the process of processing and saving will be overwritten.

And finally, a few words about what the parameters in front of each file mean.

• Level- current volume.
• clipping- opposite bird Y indicates that there is noise in the background of the track at the current volume (whether you hear them or not depends on your hearing acuity).
• Track- shows the difference in decibels between the current and the user-defined volume setting.
• The presence of a mark in the column "Clip (T)" indicates that background noise will remain after processing.

To keep these noises as low as possible, it is not recommended to set the volume too high or too low. The optimal value for the parameter "Norm of loudness" is approximately 85-95 decibel.

Sound Normalization in Sound Forge Pro 10

Raise the level of the audio signal without the risk of losing quality, allows the function "Normalize". The algorithm of its work is as follows: the program subtracts the level of the highest signal from the level of the maximum possible signal, raising the overall volume level of the file by the resulting difference. To take advantage "Normalize" function Let's open the dialog box of the same name, located in the "Process" menu item. The main parameter is Normalize to, indicating the maximum possible signal level that will be taken into account when sound normalization in Sound Forge.

It is possible to normalize the signals of several files, which is useful when burning a CD. To do this, by pressing the button "Scan levels", we will scan an audio file, the volume of which will be equal to the rest. Then open the following audio file and in the "Normalize" dialog box, check the box next to the radio button "Use current scan level (do not scan selection)". Click the "OK" button in the dialog box Normalize to. The program will produce volume normalization in an audio file.

Function "Normalize" can also perform more complex processing by calculating the average "perceived loudness". Sometimes a situation arises when a sound in an audio file, being at the same volume level as the rest, sounds louder. The reason for this is the properties of human hearing. Sound Forge has the ability to measure file data in terms of human perception. To do this, in the "Normalize to" dialog box, you need to activate the switch . In this case, several more options will be available: "Ignore below"- the value of this parameter determines the threshold of the acceptable sound level. All values ​​below the specified threshold will be ignored when scanning "Average Perceived Loudness". In most cases, the value of this parameter is approximately "-45 Db".

Parameter Attack time tells the software how fast to open the digital signal gateway to allow for acceptable audio levels when scanning data. Therefore, if the audio file contains frequently changing sounds, such as drumsticks, you should set this value as low as possible, otherwise frequent sounds will not be taken into account. In most cases, a value of 200 milliseconds will do the job.

Parameter Release time tells the program how fast to close the digital gateway. If you want to take into account as much material as possible when scanning data, you should set this parameter to a higher value.

Due to some limitations of human hearing, very high and very low frequencies are more difficult to hear than medium ones. This situation can be corrected by checking the box "Use equal loudness contour". This function amplifies inaudible spectra in frequencies, so in most cases it is advisable to set it.

After setting all the parameters, press the button "Scan levels" to start the scanning process "perceived loudness".

When working with the function "Average RMS level (loudness)", you should be careful when setting "Normalize to" as selecting a very high value may result in sound distortion or data clipping. If you do not exceed the value "-6 Db", distortion is excluded.

For better protection against data pruning, you can select "Apply dynamic compression" bookmarked "if clipping occurs".

Press the "OK" button. The program normalizes the volume of audio data, taking into account the values ​​of the current parameters.