[Big-C]

Hi,

I have a 5 CD collection of The Hobbit, a British stage production done for radio. Unfortunately, the sound effects are about 3-4 times louder than the voices, to the point where I think my ears are going to bleed.

I'd like to rip the CD's (that's the easy part), but is there a program that a noob like myself can use to do something about those really, really loud sounds? Maybe a maximum volume filter or something (I just made that up; hopefully it makes sense).

This would be a one-time-use, and since I'm not an audiophile, I'm not interested in learning a complicated (or expensive) program.

Any ideas are welcome - thanks!

[slpdLoad]

Get some sort of free waveform editor, like Audacity or just Garageband, and pull down the volume for the spots where the sound effects are. You might be able to get away with some kind of "normalize" or decibel limiter setting as well. Shouldn't be to hard to learn quickly.

Be sure to rip the cds in .aiff or .wav so you can edit them, AAC or similar won't work too well.

[analogika]

decibel limiter - probably not.

You can edit this stuff in GarageBand, and either pull down the levels, as mentioned above, or use a compressor on that track, or probably both.

You won't get around fiddling, though the compressor is possibly the simpler just-set-it-to-sounds-okay-to-me-and-export-the-stuff-back-to-iTunes solution

[Big-C]

Hey thanks - this gives me some hope.

I just tried Audacity and found it to be pretty cryptic. I have access to Garageband at home, but before I go there, which "compressor" do I use - what's in Garageband, or is that another program?

Thanks again (and thanks for the tip on the audio-type; I didn't realize that mattered).

[analogika]

a compressor, in audio, reduces the dynamic range of audio material - generally, it's used to reduce "spikes" in audio and make softer passages louder.

Drag your audio file into the empty space in Garageband's arrange area. It will create a new track.

Make sure the track is selected, then click the little "i" Info button. It will show you a bunch of preset effects settings, with the default being "no effects".

Click the "Show Details" disclosure triangle. One of the options in teh effects section below is the Compressor.

The audio type is not that important.

[Big-C]

Spectacular - thanks!!