Yes, using PowerDirector 11

Quote:
I have 3 tracks of video (with audio) and one track of just audio (from a lapel recorder).
They all vary in their volumes -- what's my strategy to use to 'normalize' them all together?

Click the ? in the upper right hand corner and choose INDEX. Type "normalize" and press <enter>.

You DID post to PD11, not 12.

Hey Chuck,

This is the PowerDirector 11 forum if I am not wrong.

To the topic: I don't think normalizing audio across multiple tracks is as straightforward as it may appear. You actually want to normalize each clip separately since this level normalization is 'dumb' (as opposed to 'smart'). It will only change the amplitude offset for the entire sound track. If some of your clips are low and others high, you don't change the differences between them if you normalize their levels together as one recording. Using this feature, you might actually want to do the exact opposite: cut up the clips to parts that have noticably different levels and normalize each one separately.

If someone knew of a smart normalization feature in any software, I'd be very much interested in hearing about it...

Jirka

Bolda -- that's kinda my experience as well. More 'art' than science.

I've tried taking a look at say, a common passage -- a speaker saying the same words that appear on each track -- then looking at the loudest "peak" amplitude and then adjusting others to that same amplitude. Still not quite 'right'....

Was kinda looking for more 'strategy' that folks use...

Just a bit of web search reveals that the feature which is supposed to make the amplitudes alike is called dynamic range compression. This is available in good old free audio editor Audacity. I've never tried it though...

Quote: You actually want to normalize each clip separately since this level normalization is 'dumb' (as opposed to 'smart'). It will only change the amplitude offset for the entire sound track. If some of your clips are low and others high, you don't change the differences between them if you normalize their levels together as one recording. Using this feature, you might actually want to do the exact opposite: cut up the clips to parts that have noticably different levels and normalize each one separately.

If someone knew of a smart normalization feature in any software, I'd be very much interested in hearing about it...Jirka

Here's what PD HELP says about the feature...

"If there is more than one audio clip on the voice or music track, or on any of the audio tracks, click the Normalize* button to have CyberLink PowerDirector set the volume for all the clips to the same level." (This can be accomplished via Wave Editor, in the audio mixing room, or by selecting multiple audio clips, then right-clicking and clicking "normalize.")

In my experience PD's NORMALIZE adjusts the gain of all clips to the same level as the clip with the lowest volume. This is contrary to expected behavior, where "normalize" - based on the highest audio peak - increases the level of the entire track.

For comparison and testing, here's a free WAV/WMA recorder that normalizes correctly (IMO)...
http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=12583

Quote: Just a bit of web search reveals that the feature which is supposed to make the amplitudes alike is called dynamic range compression. This is available in good old free audio editor Audacity. I've never tried it though...

Not quite the same as normalize, but useful along the same general lines...

DRC is available in PD's Wave Editor, though I can't vouch for how effectively it operates.