Topic: Cleanly lowering levels in Audacity?

[achalsey]

I'm mixing two sources together and both ran close to 0 and have always wondered how to best lower the levels a bit.

Does simply turning down the gain on the slide bar work effectively? 

I've also used "Amplify" backwards (set the new peak amplitute to, say -7 when its peaking at 0) before, but am not sure if thats basically just "turning down the gain" or if it has any kind of compression effects.

Any help or insight would be appreciated.

[page]

I'm mixing two sources together and both ran close to 0 and have always wondered how to best lower the levels a bit.

Does simply turning down the gain on the slide bar work effectively? 

I've also used "Amplify" backwards (set the new peak amplitute to, say -7 when its peaking at 0) before, but am not sure if thats basically just "turning down the gain" or if it has any kind of compression effects.

Any help or insight would be appreciated.

either works, same effect. I preferred the slider since I could didn't have to spend the time waiting for the amplify to finish only to realize I shouldn't have gone so far (or needed to go further) and end up undoing it.

[achalsey]

Okay, thanks.  Was never sure if going below 0 gain actually caused any detrimental effects or was simply just "turning down the volume."