Balancing Levels

Once a project is done and assembled (say 10 or 15 songs), is there any way to automatically balance/adjust the levels of each individual song so they're all about the same?

That's sort of what Group Waveform Normalize is for in the Edit menu. But nothing is better than your ears.

If you don't like the results from AA3, the try this out - http://www.delback.co.uk/volbal/ - however, your ears are best.

That's sort of what Group Waveform Normalize is for in the Edit menu. But nothing is better than your ears.

Exactly, how do you use this feature?

If you don't like the results from AA3, the try this out - http://www.delback.co.uk/volbal/ - however, your ears are best.

This also looks interesting.  How does this install . . . is it a vst plugin or a standalone program?  And exactly how do you use it? 

I assume with this app (and the Group Wave Normalizer), you need to be working with individual songs/tracks.  What I mean by that is . . . if you rip and entire CD as a single wav file, I don't suppose there's anyway to balance the individual song/track levels within that single wave file containing multiple songs. 

If you don't like the results from AA3, the try this out - http://www.delback.co.uk/volbal/ - however, your ears are best.

This also looks interesting.  How does this install . . . is it a vst plugin or a standalone program?  And exactly how do you use it?

It's stand-alone.  Why don't you just download the trial version and see how it works? 

I assume with this app (and the Group Wave Normalizer), you need to be working with individual songs/tracks.  What I mean by that is . . . if you rip and entire CD as a single wav file, I don't suppose there's anyway to balance the individual song/track levels within that single wave file containing multiple songs. 

No, of course not, you have no reference level.

I can't believe I'm hand-holding someone who sets himself up as a mastering engineer.

No, of course not, you have no reference level.

I can't believe I'm hand-holding someone who sets himself up as a mastering engineer.

That was kind of a low-blow! Of course, I do understand these basic principles. You obviously misunderstood the "intent" of my question.

Actually, when I posted this, I was just wondering (or maybe hoping) if some real innovative person out there had possibly written a program that was capable of differentiating tracks within a compiled CD (wav), setting a reference level -- and then automatically balancing the levels between each track. But I'm sure that doesn't exist.

Anyway, I do appreciate your suggestion and link for the "Volume Balancer" program.  I'll give it a try.

No, of course not, you have no reference level.

I can't believe I'm hand-holding someone who sets himself up as a mastering engineer.

[snip]
Actually, when I posted this, I was just wondering (or maybe hoping) if some real innovative person out there had possibly written a program that was capable of differentiating tracks within a compiled CD (wav), setting a reference level -- and then automatically balancing the levels between each track. But I'm sure that doesn't exist.

Certainly through AA3 you can create a script (with no more then an afternoons trial & error but might recall some manual tweaking from project to project) that approaches the limit of what you seem to be saying.  The tricky part is 'deciding' where you want necessarily arbitrary (not to perceived content as much as audio dynamics)  segment boundaries.  Pieces where individual tunes are trimmed specifically for time are perhaps the easiest to get consistent results.  Pieces with relatively smooth dynamics without instantaneous (near instantaneous) volume shift the next so.  With typical pop music getting any single script to apply seamlessly to multiple projects is a bit difficult.  While it might seem obvious this is the type of thing you want to run on things well backed up and that remain in floating point (32 bit) mode.

then to be a bit of an asshole, purely from a commercial stand point, if I became aware of any 'mastering engineer' attempting this on a project I'd sent I would it grounds to void the contract . . . would not pay for work done and would never use them again.  The entire point of a mastering engineer is new ears spending a lot time making minute adjustments . . . anything other then that you're still editing and mixing and any 'group normalize' like you seem to be describing would should only be run in the sequencing (order sequence)/mastering phase

So there is a genuine reason there is not wide proliferation of the type of program/process about which you seem to be inquiring.

good luck in any case

Then to be a bit of an asshole, purely from a commercial stand point, if I became aware of any 'mastering engineer' attempting this on a project I'd sent I would it grounds to void the contract

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ABSOLUTELY 100% AGREED!  However, let me attempt to make one more point of clarification, then I'm out of this topic.  I do a fair amount of restoration (and remastering) work on older projects.  Sometimes when I first bring a recording into my workstation (multiple songs), I like to see and listen to it just as it was originally compiled -- one complete project (rather than individual songs) -- all in a single wav file.  That way, it's a lot easier (at least for me) to jump around and get a feel for the "whole" project rather than just individual songs.  Once that's done, I spin them off and work on them individually.

Surprisingly enough, in some older recordings I've worked on, the levels (and other things) can be all over the place.  I just thought if there was something out there that would do what I originally asked, I could at least do some real quick automated level balancing before going any further with the project.  That's it -- nothing else -- not really that big a deal.  Sorry to have ruffled so many feathers.

Anyway, I appreciate all your comments.         

For a free solution try WaveGain. It's a console program, but there's a gui frontend. I think it may work just as well as Volume Balancer.

Frontend http://members.home.nl/w.speek/wavegain.htm

WaveGain http://wiki.themixingbowl.org/WaveGain