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How To Use The Levelator To Normalize Your Audio


Show Notes

Does your audio in your podcast or video vary in volume too much? Ever wonder how they get such even volume levels in radio and TV shows? It’s called normalization, and while you can normalize in Soundtrack Pro, The Levelator does a much better job!

Published On 01/14/08 under Audio, Cool Apps, Editing, Post, Shows: Digital Media Quick Tips, Utilities

The Host

Marcelo Lewin
General Manager of Pixel Heads Network
Director of Marketing & Interactive Media at ProMAX Systems
marcelo@pixelheadsnetwork.com

Marcelo Lewin, a.k.a. The Digital Media Dude, started The Digital Media Dude in late 2006 as a blog, mainly, to write about new media. He then created his first podcast, The Digital Media Dude Daily Tip now known as Digital Media Quick Tips which got picked up by iTunes in the Top 25. By late 2007, The Digital Media Dude became officially a network of shows and in early 2008, it was renamed to Pixel Heads Network. Pixel Heads Network was acquired by ProMAX Systems in December 2008.

With over 15 years of experience in the digital media industry, including gigs with NBC, Walt Disney Imagineering, Toyota and having a couple of "dot com" companies under his belt, he shares his knowledge throughout our shows.

He is married with his wife of 16 years and has 2 sons. His hobbies include photography, videography, new media, technology, great food, great beers and just playing around with his kids.

Marcelo Lewin currently hosts 3 shows, blogs and makes presentations about new media all over. He is the General Manager of Pixel Heads Network and the Director of Marketing & Interactive Media at ProMAX Systems, Pixel Heads Network's parent company.


 



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3 Responses to “How To Use The Levelator To Normalize Your Audio”

  1. Mark Spencer Says:
    January 19th, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    I think your comparison to STP is misleading - Levelator looks to me to be both normalizing and compressing the audio signal - you only showed the normalization filter in STP and expected it to do something it’s not intended to do: compress the audio’s dynamic range. So it wasn’t apples to apples at all. It indicates a possible misunderstanding of normalization - but I’m no audio expert. Other than that, very nice production value.

  2. The Digital Media Dude Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 11:47 am

    I somewhat agree with you. You can accomplish what the levelator does by using a compression filter in STP and then doing a normalization on it, but it’s more steps then The Levelator and my point really was to make this process as easy as possible for people that are not sound engineers (the rest of us). Thanks for your comments though and for keeping me honest!

    Cheers!
    - Marcelo

  3. Darrel Icenogle Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 7:10 am

    You read only part of the Wikipedia defintion (which isn’t “official,” but is accurate.) You make it sound as though both increasing and decreasing amplitude are done simultaneously as a part of normalization. That, which is the process you then describe how to do, is actually compression — not normalization. The two processes are used differently. Compression is used for speaking voice. Normalization is used, e.g., to make the peak volume the same from cut to cut on a CD, so that you don’t have to turn the volume up or down as you listen to the cuts in sequence. In video, you use it to achieve the same relative volume between clips.

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