Topic: Help with Audacity

[Boedi-taper]

Hello,

I have been uploading several masters(Dat and Cassette) to various torrent sites for a while now.I have lots and lots more to do.So there are a few shows I don't want to upload yet because on some of the master tapes,one of the channels is slightly or in some cases more than slightly not so even with the other channel.So I downloaded Audacity,and now I'm just trying to figure out how to do an equalization of the affected tapes. So I'm just wondering where in the  "Project Window" I would find help with equalizing channels??:

Guide to the Audacity Project Window
1 Menu Bar   2 Transport Toolbar   3 Tools Toolbar   4 Recording Meter Toolbar   5 Playback Meter Toolbar   6 Mixer Toolbar 
7 Edit Toolbar   8 Transcription Toolbar   9 Device Toolbar   10 Unpinned Play/Recording Head   11 Timeline   12 Scrub Ruler 
13 Track Control Panel   14 Audio Track   15 Label Track   16 Selection Toolbar   17 Status Bar 

Any help appreciated!! Thanks!!!

 

[danny3]

Just to be clear, when you say equalizing channels do you mean adjusting the level of one to be more in line with the other? (As opposed to equalization performed on specific frequencies.)

If so, to the left of the track there is a box which shows the name of the imported track, along with volume and pan sliders, mute and solo buttons.
Click on the black triangle next to the name and in the drop down menu choose 'split stereo track'. Then you can perform tasks such as 'amplify' on each channel separately.
When satisfied choose 'make stereo track' from the same menu.

[Boedi-taper]

Yes,adjusting the levels on one channel to match the other.Thanks for your help!!

[rhinowing]

1. load your .wav into audacity

2. click on the top-left corner of the track where the file name is displayed and select "split stereo track". you should now have an independent track for each channel of the recording

3. select whichever channel you want to edit and choose "amplify" from the effects menu

4. click one of the track names again and select "make stereo track"

5. export everything to a .wav

[relefunt]

Normalizing and choosing the option “normalize each stereo track separately” achieves this in probably the simplest manner.

[achalsey]

^ It can if each track has similar peaks, but if one has random higher peaks I've found normalization doesn't 'normalize' the tracks very evenly.

One of the easiest ways for me is just by ear.

Take steps 1 and 2 from rhinowing: now there is a gain slider on the left for each track.  Just move the slider on one of the tracks until they sound even. 

If you double click on the slider you can enter your own value if the single digit increments aren't exactly even.

If you do it this way though, just be wary of increasing the gain.  The sliders don't visually change the waveform, but will (obviously) increase gain, so you could get clipping without seeing it.  I'd maybe start with lowering the 'louder' one to match the other.