How to use the Compressor in Audacity

[@Bananas1973]

Turns out limiter is what I needed. Thanks for the video.

[@Buzzsprout]

I'm so glad that helps. Thanks for checking in, Joe!

[@moonlightsonatina4154]

You're a really clear speaker! thanks, first explanation of compressor i've understood

[@Buzzsprout]

Appreciate the kind words. Should you have other podcasting questions, feel free to email us at [e-mail]. We're happy to help!

[@bobg8633]

Great but needed more/clearer info on noise floor. Tx. Also is there a way to remove voice hiss ie from audio where speaker's mouth too close to mic Tx again

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey Bob! Here is a tutorial video on How to remove background noise in Audacity: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZ-oiJl3erSBiqM Hope that helps. 😊

[@evergreatest7644]

0:46 I have been using Audacity for years, yet I didn't noticed that select button their 😂

[@ryangzales]

EVER GREATEST same!

[@Jenesis_mckenzie]

IKR

[@DharmaanAcademy]

The same here

[@KofiAfric]

You are the best!

[@vuidre]

been using audacity for years like over 15yrs... and only now know these mean.. thanks man

[@Buzzsprout]

Anytime! If you have other questions about podcasting, feel free to message us. 😊

[@erikheen1291]

Very helpful. You communicate these tutorials very clearly and concisely.

[@sentimentaloldme]

This is probably the best explanation of Compressor in Audacity I've come upon on Y.T. Thank you...

[@WoobyMe]

totally agree

[@AncientInsights1]

This was very detailed and helpful to me... With my accent and voice I have finding the best way to manage my audio. Thank you.

[@Buzzsprout]

Awesome! Glad it helps, Gab! Thanks for watching.

[@AncientInsights1]

@@Buzzsprout you are welcomed, but how do you know I'm Gab? Watched my video or checked my about info?

[@Buzzsprout]

😉😉

[@ElHadadelasPlantas]

Hi there! I appreciate the quality of your teaching but I'm sorry to see missing content (or links to other videos) to allow for a deeper understanding of the ideal, all-encompassing end goal, for example: How to analyze one's audio to see what are the problem areas are (background noise, clips, low volume of speech, high volume of intro, etc) and WHY (basic explanation of ideal dB for each section, etc) and HOW to address EACH ONE of those issues and in WHAT order. An ALL-IN-ONE video would be SO AMAZING!!! Thank You!

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi! Kindly shoot us an email at [e-mail] to provide you with complete guidelines.

[@LordShmup]

I returned my butchered settings back to what you said and spoke closer to the mic. It removed the hissing! No more snakes!

[@FunLand994]

You are by far the best in explaining this topic, well done!

[@Buzzsprout]

Thanks for the kind words! Glad to be of help! 🙌

[@TheBinaryWolf]

Thanks for a clear and concise presentation on the topic. All the others I watched leave out important detail.

[@YouknowwhereHughgo]

probably saved me many days of my life, thank you

[@liammac4580]

BEST TUTORIAL EVER. Thank you man, this helped so much

[@Buzzsprout]

Yay! Thank you so much for finding our video great, Liam! 😀

[@millennialmike575]

Thank you so much. I was just looking for a video on how to do this and was finding a hard time finding something because I didn't know what i was looking for. This explains everything very well.

[@kentlofgren]

1:56 in this example, was -40 the average level of the noise floor?

[@DurgaswaroopPerla]

That depends on your environment and setup. Try recording your background noise on audacity and see what dB level it is hitting. You can use that as your noise floor.

[@kentlofgren]

@@DurgaswaroopPerla I thought the -40 in his example (at 1:56) was the average level of the noise floor. But now I know its the peak, i.e., the "dB level it is hitting". Thanks!

[@gualaguka]

Hello. First of all, thanks for the tutorials. I just have a question. Do I have to remove background noise, normalize and compress my audio? And if i need to do them all, wich order is the best?

[@Buzzsprout]

It's generally a best practice to do all three of them, but you certainly don't have to if you get a nice clean recording and it sounds good to you already. Do them in this order tho: Remove Background Noise, Compress, Normalize

[@Lazarus007]

Ok, we have the same mic. I NEED to find the video where you show ALL the post production treatments you do!

[@danielstanley7353]

Great video! Question: can you briefly explain the difference between Compressing and Normalizing in Audacity?

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi Daniel! Compressing and Normalizing are both forms of volume adjustments but in different ways. As stated in the video, Compression reduces the dynamic range of your audio recordings. That means it softens a portion of the waveform of high volume audios to its consistency. Whereas Normalizing amplifies all of your present audio to a bigger portion, making your wave patterns on same shape but wider.

[@danielstanley7353]

@@Buzzsprout Thank you so much!

[@andypantsgaming]

I've used audacity for years and just discovered the SELECT button individual layer because of this video. Lol

[@Buzzsprout]

LET'S GO! Glad we could help!

[@earlkjarbrown3753]

I love this simple-to-follow tutorial. Thanks!

[@AI-volution2024]

You are brilliant,Very clear Instructions

[@Buzzsprout]

Thank you so much for appreciating!

[@vorenado3874]

great video straight to the point and very informative man

[@Buzzsprout]

Thank you for your appreciation and support!

[@thecolorblack3886]

You explained this in simple terms thank you so much for that. Hopefully this works for voice over.

[@Buzzsprout]

Thanks for the kind words and appreciation! Let us know how it goes and all the best to you!

[@schermco]

Thanks for the video. What's the difference between the compressor and the normalize features?

[@Buzzsprout]

Compressor changes the shape of your audio waveform to make it more uniform, normalization adjusts the volume level

[@gregschermbeck2454]

@@Buzzsprout Thanks

[@pinnacleexpress420]

1:33 "cuz remember, compression happens to the loudest parts of your audio" 2:01 "the noise floor is what allows audacity to tell... when there's gaps in your words, or silent parts... and you dont want Audacity to take that audio and boost it by accident" -1

[@rishi2157]

You are brilliant my friend, thanks so much. Very clear. Was freaking out earlier but feel much better. Xx

[@DeltaPrime95]

this video couldnt possibly be an y better, wonderful job man

[@Buzzsprout]

Thank you!

[@elouis364]

THANK YOU FOR THOROUGH TUTORIALS FOR AUDACITY 💯😁

[@Buzzsprout]

You are so welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@elouis364]

@@Buzzsprout 💗

[@combosx]

Thanks Buddy, this was so helpful

[@RichDapims]

Thank you so much, I like how you break it down, so that it will be understandable to viewers like me.

[@Buzzsprout]

Thank you for your kind comments and thanks so much for watching the video!

[@57RickH]

Thanks for the clear explanations about this topic, very helpful 👍🏻

[@luisamedina1]

Nice, short and straight to the point video! Where do you have your other Audacity video tutorials you're referring to? Thanks a lot.!

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi Luis, here is the complete playlist of Audacity tutorials. Thanks for checking in!😊 kzbin.info/aero/PL_7hD9e-mJ3Uyw1YaBjtBeKXqzPothhqQ

[@AprilHtayWin10]

Thank you so much. Knowledge a lot.

[@Buzzsprout]

Glad it helps! Thanks for checking in, April.

[@dealwithyourcrud]

Great and helpful video! I have a question...Do you recommend putting intro, voice over, interview and outro all in the same session....OR do you do all these steps with each track then add them all together and mix? I have intro, voice over, interview and outro...and I just want to get it all balanced. Help!

[@Buzzsprout]

Bring everything into the same session and put them on separate tracks. So your first track will be the intro, second track is voice over, third/fourth track is interview, fifth track is outro. Then you can apply effects to each track independently and export the whole thing when you're done as your final episode

[@mmaries9052]

very informative, thank you. question for you... from my understanding the threshold is supposed to be -23 for ACX standards. is this correct? i had mine set at -12 and i still can't seem to pass acx audio although it sounds good to me and all other settings are selected... any suggestions? thanks again

[@kimmyblimmy908]

Fantastic great content I just distorted my audio yesterday so vvvvbb helpful!

[@Buzzsprout]

Glad we could help, Kimmy! 🙂

[@KainsStudio]

Hi, in narration work can I normalize the audio first, compress it and normalize it again? Any tips mixing these stuff for me please?

[@Buzzsprout]

It is best to get help from an audio engineer for anything like this. But I've read a bit of advice that if you couldn't find one, you may amplify the audio first without allowing the clipping, then apply compression. To best give you a better option and guide you with the process, kindly shoot us an email at [e-mail]

[@KainsStudio]

@@Buzzsprout Okay so if I apply compression first or normalize first, which is better? Do you recommend using reverb while narrating or doing podcast?

[@TriniTrent]

Thanks for this! Would I still need to normalize the audio after I do this compression? If yes, would you recommend doing the compression then running the audio through Auphonic fo that Normalization?

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi Trent, use normalization when you wanted to move your audio levels up or down. It actually does not even things out- only compression does. So, if you use compression first then normalization after, this might ruin your audio.

[@TriniTrent]

@@Buzzsprout thanks for the response! Then, it sounds like I need to choose between them. I'm just eager to get the audio of all the episodes to be at the same start. That sounds like normalization might be the ticket. What work flow do you suggest? That would be a great video: A podcast work flow - basic steps for an average episode. I was thinking cut, noise removal and/noise gate, compress, and end with normalization. Now. I feel unsure 😕

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey Trent, shoot us an email at [e-mail] to give you added tips.

[@garbygarb31]

@@Buzzsproutnormalization isn't going to ruin your audio it's just going to bring the loudest part up to a certain level you really have no idea what you're talking about.

[@ModernManAcademy]

Great video. Thank you. Really helpful as I prepare to create audio books for my various books. I hope this comment is helpful in return - as far as I know, KZbin logs whether someone watches to the very end of videos. But because you have a long music out, viewers will be more likely to stop watching before the very end. The algorithm may be punishing you for that. Perhaps you need to remove music at the end.

[@paulkishan]

Is this threshold possible when in live performance with an instrument like a midi keyboard.

[@Hamentsios10]

What I don't fully get is how can I tell at what db my peaks are and what db my noise floor is so i can set the proper values.

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey! Shoot us an email at [e-mail] and we can look into this for you!

[@samuel_jibin]

Nice video. Are there any steps involved in editing the audio to make it more clear? Like compression then normalise like that

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi Samuel! Here's a video on How to Normalize Audio in Audacity: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rn28mWePp9Cfoq8

[@ryangzales]

So if the compressor will reign in the high volumes and also boost the low volumes, do I also need to use normalization on the audio track? From your wave form after compression, I wouldn't think that I would need to.

[@Buzzsprout]

Pair the compressor with normalization if the audio levels are too soft after compression. You want the peaks (loudest parts) to be at -1 dB

[@ryangzales]

Buzzsprout makes sense. Thanks for the response!

[@Adventureruler]

Thanks for the info man!

[@aliyaamor]

Thank you, you did a great job explaining this.

[@faroukrookbello8095]

Great video but if does auphonic also compress my audio automatically or do I need to compress on audacity before I send it to auphonic ?

[@Buzzsprout]

Auphonic will apply a little bit of compression but not much. If you want your audio compressed, we recommend adding it in Audacity

[@worldshiningstudio6208]

thanks you dear... love you .. Always be happy in your life..

[@danthibeault40]

Really great explanation.

[@Buzzsprout]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mrevoomk4]

Can i use compressor to fix audio clipping in music ???

[@jennyvinyl85]

Which comes first? Normalize or compressor?

[@Buzzsprout]

1. Normalize 2. Compressor

[@sparkoceanic]

I've been trying to edit a video file's audio so it's easier to listen to on the tv. I used handbrake to re-encode it to .mkv, but when i add DRC (dynamic range compression?) to the audio it does nothing, because the audio track is aac originally and drc only effects ac3 audio tracks. Is audicity the best way to achieve what i need, and how would i load the mkv file into audacity? (i tried earlier and i think it said it doesn't support the file type) Thanks for the help if you read this.

[@Buzzsprout]

Encode the audio output file as an MP3 and then bring that into Audacity. Then the compressor should work

[@imnotgonnasay3612]

EXCELLENT VIDEO! Thank you!!!

[@YogaforDentists]

When starting to edit a podcast episode, should the sequence then be: noise reduction, normalize, equalize, compression?

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi Yoga for Dentists! Try checking this link: www.buzzsprout.com/blog/how-to-edit-a-podcast kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5_RZHZ8iMh7e7s Thank you!

[@Liggliluff]

Something I have trouble with is that it doesn't apply compression at the start of the audio. Actually, it kinda does the reverse, instead of lowering the volume of peaks, it boost the lower volume instead. But it doesn't boost the volume at the start. So when the speech starts, it fades in over a second, and then the compressor does its job.

[@LTPottenger]

I get the same thing. I suspect this is a bug. Really makes the compressor pretty useless.

[@ScoopOfButter]

words cant explain how much i hate that

[@DharmaanAcademy]

very nice explanation. Bundles of thanks for sharing .

[@stevenjennings5160]

before i use compressor tool on my audio it sounds great, doesn't go any lower than -13db which is what I want. after using the compressor it goes all the way down to -2db and it sounds disorted/bad. No matter what I set the threshold to in compressor tool it still goes down to -2db. please advise

[@Djwestcarr-gl2tg]

Awesome tips

[@HealthyHappyHarmony]

Very well presented mate 👏🏼👏🏼

[@Buzzsprout]

Thank you, Rajveer! 👍

[@gasmith7486]

Thank you 🙏🏼

[@supershubyt]

thanks man! helped me out a lot!

[@Buzzsprout]

Glad it helps, Fubham! Thanks for watching!

[@successfulpodcast]

Great tutorial. Thank you!

[@Buzzsprout]

Certainly most welcome, Bruce! Thanks for checking in.😊

[@garyclement2888]

Very good video.

[@Buzzsprout]

Appreciate the kind words. Thanks, Gary!

[@nor604]

Needed this

[@RR4379]

If I want all my songs to sound the same volume, how do i do that? I normalized but a few songs still sound louder.

[@youssefalshalal1191]

THANK YOU YOU HELPED ME A LOT :)

[@ClaudioCarmeli]

Question: Noise floor at -40db so "Audacity doesn't mistakenly boost your background noise"? I thought nothing below the threshold would be impacted?

[@Buzzsprout]

The Compressor effect will boost the quieter parts of your audio in addition to reducing the louder parts (the parts over your threshold) when you make-up the gain you lost after compression. The Noise Floor is your way of helping Audacity know when you're talking and when you aren't. If you leave it at -40db that should work for most audio files.

[@erangahandunge5901]

Thank you

[@danielspartan7754]

Hey, I’ve been working on some audio tracks for a while and finally had a break through, although it seems my loud parts are too loud and my quieter parts are too quiet. For how my audio is I have to use the limiter so that will fix the loudness. My question is before doing this what range is good for low audio and high audio? How much dB difference should there be between the quiet and loud? It’s hard to preset is as it will always be different but should I aim to have my lows at a certain level, if so, what’s good? Thanks

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey Daniel! Kindly shoot us an email at [e-mail] and we can look into this for you.

[@danielspartan7754]

@@Buzzsprout Will do. You want me to go into REAL detail or just sum it up? Thanks again

[@Abhishek-_-Sharma]

thanks

[@LTPottenger]

Every time I do compression in audacity I get a weird effect where stuff BEFORE some of the loud parts gets quieter and quieter. How do I avoid this weird behavior?

[@Buzzsprout]

Hi there! It sounds like you’re experiencing an issue with the compression effect in Audacity. The Compressor effect reduces the dynamic range of audio, which means it amplifies audio as much as possible after compression by default. Try adjusting the compressor effect's Attack Time and Release Time settings to see if that helps prevent the issue you’re experiencing. If you need more guidance, feel free to send us an email at [e-mail].

[@sameerdatta7287]

Wow this video is so good subbed right away

[@rodeliomundobotersr6662]

Thanks for this boss

[@bambitheboy]

I really love your videos for giving good tipps on how to edit my podcast. Thanks!

[@illestgyal]

have my thumb 👍🏽 :)

[@BIMLounge]

Thanks, great explanation. However, I tried to apply the default and it makes some kind of crackling noise. I had to manually edit the loudest parts. Any idea why?

[@tlr9403]

THANKS

[@georgemonsanto4018]

Amazing! Thank you.

[@LyrebirdNews]

Very helpfull thn'x

[@kevingallagher9652]

five star review thank you

[@Buzzsprout]

Awesome! Thanks for checking in, Kevin!😊

[@rodeliomundobotersr6662]

Nice mate

[@goatpasta9553]

For some reason when i compress, it doesnt make the spikes quiter, it makes the quiet stuff louder. Nowhere seems to explain why?

[@Buzzsprout]

There's a good chance you have a gain adjustment turned on. That means that once Audacity compresses your audio it then makes the whole track louder to compensate. Make sure you aren't applying a gain adjustment and that should fix the problem

[@aeyla1933]

Thanks a lot! :)

[@woahatoe5485]

okay but how do you REMOVE the compressor

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey! Kindly shoot us an email at [e-mail] regarding your question.

[@liamjones246]

anyone know how to free up temporary file space? i basically cant load anything into audacity

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey! Feel free to send us an email at [e-mail] and we would be happy to look into this for you!

[@InTheGranite617]

Helpful... Thankyou.👊🏻☘️🇩🇪🇮🇹🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏🏻🦅👌🏻

[@ash3s]

bro you are a god thank you

[@victorgartner4872]

Your speech is easy to understand because you do not speak too fast and articulate well. This video would have been more helpful if it included examples of Audio file before and after compression, changes in ratio, etc.

[@drlyvsy]

Looks like your Audacity playlist is gone?

[@Buzzsprout]

Hey there! We've put together all our software tutorials in one playlist! Check it out here:kzbin.info/aero/PL_7hD9e-mJ3VXNv8G4yXnALfGuHb1XdXw&si=G8mBPig95BwpC2rP

[@drlyvsy]

@@Buzzsprout thank you so much!

[@Youtuber-ku4nk]

"buzzsprout" that is how your audio sounds 😅

[@garonmorrison2557]

leevers

[@dejazO0]

it wasnt good you just said their defination and nothing else

[@vertyisprobablydead]

He's American and he pronounces levers as "leevers" why?

[@behappyoak]

Canadian English

[@joeyardiri5047]

Thanks man really helpful

[@Buzzsprout]

Happy to know it helps, Joey! Thanks for tuning in!

[@TheKevinKitchen]

Excellent ! Thank you .