@Ian-Schwartz @Former user

Unfortunately in this instance MediaInfo will not tell you anything of interest as the recording level was set too low to begin with and MediaInfo does not give most file capture setting details such as audio volume, Recorded ISO values or camera settings in general. The sound file probably has less than a 20db dynamic range looking at the waveform.

Instead right click the audio wave file and select 'Edit waveform externally.'

This will open the audio editor supplied with Music Studio.

From there select the 'normalize object volume' function and then select save project on exiting.

Because the original file has been recorded at so low a volume and possibly does not have the bit depth it should have, the resulting audio may not sound very good but it should be loud.

Ray.

@CubeAce 👍 I thought that, but i don't know much reg audio so thought it was at least a place to start 👍🤷‍♂️😁

@Former user @Ian-Schwartz

Hi Gid.

Just to check I went through my own old recordings I made of bands I worked with in the 70s and deliberately re-recorded a track I recorded in a friends cellar of his band at -60db and then put it through the process I described above to see how much information was missing once the track was re-normalised.

The result considering the original came from analog tape was surprising good.

The original recording is the green section at the beginning and the the re-normalised low volume recording is the yellow second section.

Seeing as I have no way of contacting any members of the band anymore I will thank Dave Ralph, vocals and acoustic guitar, Mike Paul, keyboards, William Terry, lead electric guitar, Donald Bearham, electric bass, and Richard Jackson on drums. All live, and mixed on a 12 into 2 track Allen and Heath analog desk into my Revox 1/2 track tape recorder.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

Why not just right-click and select Normalize?

@Ian-Schwartz

Hi,

In your image, I don't see the volume line that should be in the middle of the object with the volume handle.

What happens when you Normalize?

And no, the waveform doesn't change, at least it doesn't for me. You would have to export the wave to ME3 as Ray indicated. The wave file itself has to be changed. There is a temporary file that contains the waveform and it has to be deleted; it is created again upon reopening the project.

JOhn CB

@browj2

Hi John.

You only have 20 db of gain available using that method and the volume gain is still way too low. The file itself is not even re-scanned, calculated and re-sampled and then re-written. Using the normalization right click on the object is just as if you had only adjusted the mixer volume slider on its own. As I said in my other topic that adjustment is the equivalent of an input gain pot before the mixer controls. Opening the Audio Editor allows all that to happen.

You can try the experiment I did above for yourself just export an existing file but have volume the slider set so your output is lower than -60db. Re import the file and play with it.

Ray.

Thanks for all of your helpful comments. @CubeAce the reason you don't see the volume line is because it's maxed out, i.e. at the top. I tried the internal Movie Studio normalize function--it didn't make the wave form any more visible, but it did make the track sound like crap. It sounds like there's not much I can do about this track.

Ian

@browj2 Hi, mine's like that when pushed right to the top & the cursor isn't on it

Cursor on shows a double line at the top,

@CubeAce Thanks, I have Sound Forge 15, I very rarely open it & every time I do it takes me 1/2 hr to learn how to use it 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂😂

@Ian-Schwartz

The original file doesn't look maxed out to me. It looks like you are using the default MS setting of only showing a half wave form. It is tiny, and sitting at the base rather than showing from the middle outwards, (full wave form should be selected in the program settings to see that) possibly showing a volume level of less than -80db. If it was maxed out the file would be mainly showing dark green with no yellow when highlighted.

If the recording was made originally from something that was limited to a 16 bit bit depth then it is possible the recording may only be a few bits deep which if then normalised is going to sound worse than someone playing Super Mario on a Game Boy at full volume as the original file will only have recorded the peaks of the audio.

@Former user

Hi Gid.

My manual for Cubase is over 640 pages long. The first quarter of it is about setting it up. If I'm reloading the program from scratch it takes me a day to connect it all together internally. Most modern programs now have a minimalist look to the interface to preserve more power to allow for more tracks to be added. I seldom need more than 16 tracks and prefer the flexibility and customisation of the interface including how the meters behave, sensitivity of the scroll wheel etc. I can have the timeline showing samples, seconds, beats per minute and I could print notation of anything I compose after as sheet music. Wave-forms can be shown as lines, solid waves similar to MEP or spectrographic to also show the frequencies within the wave-form.

But, if I don't set it up correctly I don't get a peep out of it. 😂😂.

Ray.

@CubeAce I took your advice and unchecked the Half waveform display and it did move the waveform to the centre, but didn't make it any more visible. As you can see in this screen shot I do have the Volume maxed out, i.e. set to +20db.

@Ian-Schwartz

Hi Ian.

You have to click on the audio object to turn it yellow, then the green of the waveform is visible.I think I can still see the waveform in the centre which seems to be showing as a very small waveform in the centre line.

.If on the other hand you have clicked on the object first then I am at a loss as to why I'm seeing those blocks I have highlighted on the centre line. That literally looks like a waveform of only two bits depth to me at present.

That would only produce noise if amplified. Are the meters on the mixer maxing out into the red when played?

Did you try to use the external editor?

Ray.

The meters are maxed out "into the red" when played and the sound is really good.

My problem is the tiny waveforms, as I need to sync my audio with the video and the tiny waveforms make that really difficult.

@Ian-Schwartz

Ian, just recode it as Ray describes in his post above:

https://www.magix.info/us/forum/wave-file-wave-form-is-tiny--1304817/#ca1804439

That should give you a much bigger and more visible waveform.