Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins? -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins? Posted by: AlanCobb Date:2/22/2004 10:42:26 PM Hi, Does Sound Forge or any of its third-party plug-ins have a "loudness leveling" or "automatic gain control" (AGC) capability? I often listen to radio interviews in which the loudness of different participants is quite different. It would be nice if there was an algorithm smart enough to automatically level all that out over a 30 minute program, so that all the speech was about the same loudness, even when one person spoke softly for short periods. Am I expecting too much :)? Thanks, Alan Cobb
Subject:RE: Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins? Reply by: kbruff Date:2/23/2004 5:40:07 PM Hello - Alan There is a wave hammer pluggin (as part of the pluggin group from Sony - Sound Forge), which permits you to tweak the settings and increase the signal strength of signals to a specified level (below 0 db that is). Regards, Kevin ***
Subject:RE: Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins? Reply by: AlanCobb Date:2/23/2004 11:50:23 PM Hi Kevin, Thanks. I'll take a look at the Wave Hammer plug-in. After reading a bit more of the manual, it sounds like maybe the Normalize command is similar to what I want. Maybe I should keep pushing up the gain and handling any clipping by setting the "if clipping occurs" to "Apply dynamic compression" or "Normalize peak value to 0 dB"? I guess that's what AGC (Automatic Gain Control) basically does. Alan Cobb
Subject:RE: Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins? Reply by: plasmavideo Date:3/4/2004 8:46:19 AM You also have single band dynamic controls as well as multi-band dynamics controls, and as mentioned, there is the "wave hammer" plugin which has a very nice compressor module in addition to a harder limiting module. All in all, I think you will find exactly what you need for controlling dynamics automatically. You can also use the expander function within the single band dynamics controller to prevent agc action below a certain level so that the noise floor won't be brought up. Have fun!
Subject:RE: Any Reply by: ATP Date:3/4/2004 10:04:27 AM ---------------- After reading a bit more of the manual, it sounds like maybe the Normalize command is similar to what I want. ----------------- normalizing will increase (or decrease) the volume of all wave data at once, which means the volume discrepancies within the wave data are adjusted, but not in relation to eachother. everything gets adjusted with the same amount of volume. a part at -3 db might be raised to 0 db, but that means another part with -20 db will get raised with only 3 db as well to -17. compression will "straighten" the wave data, which is to say it will adjust the wave file so that the volume differences between individual parts are negated. so, when you compress, you basically make sure that softer parts sound at the same volume as louder parts (and vice versa). the art of compression is a subtle thing, and i am very much a rookie to it myself, but these are the basics as far as i understand it. edit : added quote for clarity.

Subject:Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins?

Posted by: AlanCobb

Date:2/22/2004 10:42:26 PM

Hi,

Does Sound Forge or any of its third-party plug-ins
have a "loudness leveling" or "automatic gain control"
(AGC) capability?

I often listen to radio interviews in which the
loudness of different participants is quite different.
It would be nice if there was an algorithm smart enough
to automatically level all that out over a 30 minute program,
so that all the speech was about the same loudness, even
when one person spoke softly for short periods.

Am I expecting too much :)?

Thanks,
Alan Cobb

Subject:RE: Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins?

Reply by: kbruff

Date:2/23/2004 5:40:07 PM

Hello - Alan

There is a wave hammer pluggin (as part of the pluggin group from Sony - Sound Forge), which permits you to tweak the settings and increase the signal strength of signals to a specified level (below 0 db that is).

Regards,
Kevin
***

Subject:RE: Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins?

Reply by: AlanCobb

Date:2/23/2004 11:50:23 PM

Hi Kevin,

Thanks. I'll take a look at the Wave Hammer plug-in.

After reading a bit more of the manual, it sounds
like maybe the Normalize command is similar to what
I want. Maybe I should keep pushing up the gain
and handling any clipping by setting the "if clipping
occurs" to "Apply dynamic compression" or "Normalize
peak value to 0 dB"? I guess that's what AGC (Automatic
Gain Control) basically does.

Alan Cobb

Subject:RE: Any "loudness leveling" or AGC plug-ins?

Reply by: plasmavideo

Date:3/4/2004 8:46:19 AM

You also have single band dynamic controls as well as multi-band dynamics controls, and as mentioned, there is the "wave hammer" plugin which has a very nice compressor module in addition to a harder limiting module. All in all, I think you will find exactly what you need for controlling dynamics automatically. You can also use the expander function within the single band dynamics controller to prevent agc action below a certain level so that the noise floor won't be brought up.

Have fun!

Subject:RE: Any

Reply by: ATP

Date:3/4/2004 10:04:27 AM

----------------
After reading a bit more of the manual, it sounds
like maybe the Normalize command is similar to what
I want.
-----------------

normalizing will increase (or decrease) the volume of all wave data at once, which means the volume discrepancies *within* the wave data are adjusted, but *not* in relation to eachother. everything gets adjusted with the same amount of volume. a part at -3 db might be raised to 0 db, but that means another part with -20 db will get raised with only 3 db as well to -17.

compression will "straighten" the wave data, which is to say it will adjust the wave file so that the volume differences between individual parts are negated. so, when you compress, you basically make sure that softer parts sound at the same volume as louder parts (and vice versa). the art of compression is a subtle thing, and i am very much a rookie to it myself, but these are the basics as far as i understand it.

edit : added quote for clarity.