balance sound level to be equal from two cameras/sources on final edit

spuddy13 wrote on 10/18/2025, 7:06 AM

(I have MAGIX Video deluxe 2026 Premium)

 

i was on earlier and got help to remove dogs and cars from audio...thanks for that help :-)

this is first movie i have used two cameras to do an interview with two people

as the video switches the sound from each is at different strenghs...and if you set both people at same audio level

you know its not balanaced...i can go through film and set it manually is there an auto way to set a consistent audio level

that will flow through the full film

 

again if this is automated or easier done by others i would value your input

thanks

 

Brian

Comments

Bol wrote on 10/18/2025, 8:36 AM

@spuddy13

Hi Brian,

Select all the audio files you want to balance.
Place the mouse cursor anywhere on the audio track, right-click, and choose Normalize Maximum Level (shortcut Alt+N).

HTH
Rob

Als een kwestie onoplosbaar lijkt, komt dat niet omdat je de oplossing niet ziet, maar omdat je het probleem niet ziet.

If an issue seems unsolvable, it is not because you do not see the solution, but because you do not see the problem.

„Wenn ein Problem unlösbar erscheint, liegt es nicht daran, dass man die Lösung nicht sieht, sondern weil man das Problem nicht erkennt.“

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spuddy13 wrote on 10/18/2025, 8:59 AM

Rob,

 

Currently in the gym

I was so excited to see i had a reply

 

This forum great for help vis folk like yourself..this should save me hours of manual shifting... appreciate you time

 

Will try at home later

 

Thanks

 

Brian

emmrecs wrote on 10/18/2025, 9:35 AM

@spuddy13 @Bol

Hi Rob, hi Brian,

Normalisation of the two files to a set level will work IF the ambient "background" audio on both tracks is very similar in type and level or, better still, the same! If it is not, e.g., the ambient sound on one track is different in level or content to the ambient sound on the other track, there is a danger of the "differences" between the two tracks actually being accentuated; the human ear is very sensitive to even quite small changes in ambient sound and will notice as the switch between the two audio tracks occurs. "Normalisation", by definition, increases the level of everything in the audio such that its peak is at whatever level is pre-set in the normalisation settings.

The resulting final audio may not be "pleasant" to listen to!

Jeff

Win 11 Pro 64 bit, Intel i7 14700, 32 GB RAM, NVidia RTX 4060 and Intel UHD770 Graphics, Audient EVO 16 audio interface, VPX, MEP, Music Maker, Vegas Pro, PhotoStory Deluxe, Xara 3D Maker 7, Samplitude Pro X7 Suite, Reaper, Adobe Audition CC, 2 x Canon HG10 cameras, 1 x Canon EOS 600D, Akaso EK7000 Pro Action Cam

browj2 wrote on 10/18/2025, 9:48 AM

@spuddy13

Hi Brian,

When editing two or more cameras shooting at the same time, one normally uses multi-cam mode to make the cuts from one camera to another whilst watching the playback. At the same time, you have to choose which audio to use as the master audio track. This means you use the audio from one camera only, thus reducing the problems of inconsistent audio. You can always change later.

Here is what my timeline looks like in multicam mode - 3 camera, master on tracks 1 and 2:

Here is multicam mode showing the 3 cameras for playback above and the selected camera and what you will see on track 1:

If you've never used multicam mode, you may want to watch my video on how to do, from 2015 and still the same procedure:

As for normalizing the volume, this works to a certain extent and it helps to understand what is happening with the volume. If you have one audio file with a sudden loud sound, then when you normalize, that loud sound will be what goes to 0 db. The rest of the audio, say your interview speakers, will be weaker. If you add a second audio file of the same interview speakers but there is no loud sound, when you normalize, the audio will be much louder and you will have mismatched or inconsistent audio volume. The trick here is to find the audio file that has normal levels overall, normalize it and look at what the volume is raised to, say +8 db. Then, look at the other audio files, normalize them and look at the level. If it's not +8 db, say, +2 db, then, you need to adjust the peaks downwards (see image below) using the object volume curve so that you don't get clipping, and then raise the object level to +8 db. And/or, you can apply Compression to the object to lower the louder sounds to get closer to the normal audio.

To get the compressor, double-click on the audio object to open the Audio Cleaning tools, or apply a compressor to the track using the Mixer fx.

Ever wonder what audio engineers do? This is just very basic audio editing.

John CB

Last changed by browj2 on 10/18/2025, 9:51 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

John C.B.

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spuddy13 wrote on 10/18/2025, 10:35 AM

This has been one weird edit..

 

First i had dogs and cars to eliminate

Then i mixed two videos for forst time..and only used one audio source..did not like that..so remade it with its own audio with the clip...did a multi cut and paste..then on playback you here the difference as cameras go back and forth..great video, great interview, bad sound mixing..but i am learning ..

 

 

Thanks for all help

 

B.

Bol wrote on 10/18/2025, 11:05 AM

@spuddy13, @browj2, @emmrecs

Hi Brian, John en Jeff,

I rarely use the Multicam function myself, as I only work with one camera. Sometimes I also incorporate footage I receive from someone else into my films. The sound recordings can then differ significantly from my own. I always compose my film first; only then do I edit the audio once I'm satisfied. I always start by normalizing the audio, and then I process it further. Sometimes I edit it with Audio Cleaning and sometimes with Echo/Reverb... But normalization is always the starting point for me. I've never experienced a final result that sounded unpleasant to the human ear.

Best wishes
Rob

Als een kwestie onoplosbaar lijkt, komt dat niet omdat je de oplossing niet ziet, maar omdat je het probleem niet ziet.

If an issue seems unsolvable, it is not because you do not see the solution, but because you do not see the problem.

„Wenn ein Problem unlösbar erscheint, liegt es nicht daran, dass man die Lösung nicht sieht, sondern weil man das Problem nicht erkennt.“

PC -1-

PC -2-

browj2 wrote on 10/18/2025, 12:21 PM

@Bol

Hi Rob,

I almost always have unequal audio problems. As I pointed out, all you need is a louder noise in one clip to make normalizing a problem. Here is an example. Even though the two clips are taken in different seasons, the background noise level should be about the same as they were taken in the same area, a park between two highways. I normalized both clips. The left one went up by 11 db, the right one, 0. This is due to the loud noises in the second clip, and no loud noise in the first clip. So, in the first clip, with normalization, we get loud ambient noise, in the second one, a faint ambient noise. However, both should be the same.

Take a listen. Sorry for the bad video recording.

To resolve this, I would do what I showed previously, use the object volume curve and reduce the volume at the louder parts appropriately, then raise the object level somewhat, avoiding clipping, and put the audio of the first clip equal to the second. Then, do some noise reduction and compression, depending on the case. Getting even levels is an art.

I use YouLean Loudness Meter (free version) to make sure that I still don't get clipping and to make sure that my overall level is lower than but close to -14 LUFS. I also reduce the overall volume is the mixer, master strip, by 1 to 3 db, depending on what I have done upstream.

Another case that I put together somewhere is two songs from Magix. Normally they are normalized, but I did it anyways. Then I listened and watched the YouLean graph for each one individually. One came in at -4 LUFS, the other at -12 LUFS. From one song to the other, you would be reaching for the volume control. If this was uploaded to YouTube, YT would reduce the overall volume to bring the LUFS down to -14 (or is it -13) and to make sure that there was no clipping.

So, like Jeff and I have pointed out, normalizing without understanding what is happening can cause problems.

John CB

John C.B.

VideoPro X(17U); Movie Studio 2025 Platinum; Music Maker 2025 Premium Edition; Samplitude Pro X8 Suite; see About me for more.

Desktop System - Windows 11 Pro 24H2; MB ROG STRIX B560-A Gaming WiFi; Graphics Card Zotac Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3060, PS; Power supply EVGA 750W; Intel Core i7-10700K @ 3.80GHz (UHD Graphics 630); RAM 32 GB; OS on Kingston SSD 1TB; secondary WD 2TB; others 1.5TB, 3TB, 500GB, 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB, 14TB; three monitors - HP 25" main, LG 4K 27" second, HP 27" third; Casio WK-225 piano keyboard; M-Audio M-Track USB mixer.

Notebook - Microsoft Surface Pro 4, i5-6300U, 8 GB RAM, 256 SSD, W10 Pro 20H2.

YouTube Channel: @JCBrownVideos