Automatic Volume Control

Automatic Volume Control is an excellent addition to Peak or Loudness Normalization of audio, particularly for parts that are too loud or too soft, such as peaks and clicks, in podcasts, interviews, and voice recordings. Automatic Volume Control is the feature that applies compression intelligently.

Some Automatic Gain Control (AGC) hardware devices can perform a similar function; however, since they must operate in real-time, their capabilities are limited. Furthermore, such devices are typically expensive. Automatic Volume Control can be improved by performing multiple passes over the audio, generating a loudness map that shows where the volume changes.

Automatic Volume Control has an enormous power as it is simple to operate and can be done automatically without intervention. Simply enable it in the Preferences / Effects, drop your interview or podcast of almost any format into the main window, and a few seconds later, you'll have a new version that sounds significantly better.

Let's consider a few examples and issues where the use of Automatic Volume Control is helpful or even necessary.

• Improving Movie Audio High Dynamic Range
• Improving Voice Record with clicks
• Improving Podcasts and Audio Books
• Improving Speech Records and Interviews with quiet segments
• Improving Music for listening in a noisy environment

 

Improving Movie Audio with High Dynamic Range

For example, the audio from a movie, passed through the Peak Normalization filter and normalized to the highest possible level of 0 dBFS, is shown below. The voices in the first part are barely hearable, and the second part is way too loud, as the maximum Peak belongs to the section with the noisy shots.

 

Automatic Volume Control, enabled in the Preferences / Effects window, can be a perfect solution here. Voices in the beginning become hearable and distinctive, and the gain of the part with shots is lowered.

 

Improving Voice Record with clicks

Another example is the speech record, which includes accidental clicks at the beginning and end. The maximum Peak Level belongs to clicks, so Peak Normalization has no effect here, and the volume of the important voice part cannot be adjusted to maximum. Automatic Volume Control is a solution here again.

 

Below is the same audio improved with Automatic Volume Control.

 

Improving Podcasts and Audio Books

Automatic Volume Control is a perfect tool for enhancing the quality of audiobooks and podcasts. Peak Normalization alone may provide some useful results.

Automatic Volume Control enhances the audiobook, making it even better and perfect for listening.

 

Improving Speech Records and Interviews with quiet segments

Let's consider an interview or discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not. Such a voice recording results in a substantial volume difference between the two speakers.

Is there a way to increase the quiet parts without significantly affecting the loud parts? This task is solved by the post-production engineers every day. It takes them hours of hard work, using expensive and complex tools, to solve them.

Now with Automatic Volume Control, the task is automatic and takes just seconds!

 

Improving Music for listening in a noisy environment

Let's consider another example, how Automatic Volume Control behaves with a studio music audio. Peak Normalization gives some results again.

Below is the same audio, normalized with Automatic Volume Control enabled. It can provide a good job with compression even in this case, making the audio perfectly listenable. This might be useful in a car or other noisy environments.

However, Automatic Volume Control can provide an undesired result in cases where the audio already has a compressed Dynamic Range, so checking the conversion result might be required.