Introduction
Audio Gain and Volume refer to the loudness of the audio. Gain is the input level or volume in clips. Volume is the output level or the volume in sequence clips or tracks. Audio Gain is independent of the output level settings in the Audio Track Mixer and Timeline panels. Adjustment of gain or volume levels make levels consistent among tracks.
Adjusting Audio Gain
To adjust audio gain
- Select the clips in Project Panel.
- Do either of below
- Right click on selected clip and go to Audio Gain or press G key.
- Go to Clip > Audio Options > Audio Gain
- Adjust the audio gain as required.
Audio Gain panel has below options to adjust the gain of clip
- Set Gain to : Set the clip gain to a specified value.
- Adjust Gain by : Adjust the gain by specified amount. It add or decrease the net gain amount by incremental amount.
- Normalize Max Peak to : When applied on a clip, the highest peak in the clip is normalized to peak by specified amount. When applied on clips, clip with maximum peak will be adjusted to the specified value. Other clips will be adjusted by the same amount, preserving their relative gain differences. This option will treat all the clips as if they were just one clip, and the level of the loudest clip will be used to normalize other clips.
- Normalize All Peaks to : This is similar to the previous setting, except that each clip’s peak amplitude is adjusted separately.
Adjusting Gain on Timeline
To adjust audio gain on timeline
- Select the clip on Timeline.
- Right-clicking on the audio clip and choose Audio Gain. Alternatively got to Clip > Audio Options > Audio Gain
- Adjust the gain setting in Audio Gain panel.
Normalize Master Track
To normalize the master track volume of a sequence
- Select the sequence on the Timeline Panel.
- Go to Sequence > Normalize Master Track.
- Enter a value to be normalized to in the popup window.
Above process will adjust the loudest peak of the entire sequence to the specified value.
Audio Terms
Common term used to describe audio properties
- Decibels (dB) : Units used to measure the intensity of sound. 0dB is near silence and 10dB is 10 times as loud.
- Peak amplitude : Maximum absolute value of the signal. It is the loudest part of the clip.
- Audio normalizing : Process of changing the overall volume of an audio clip so that peak amplitude is at a set level.
- Dynamic range : Difference between the loudest and the quietest part of audio, and is measured in decibels.