Free Tools to Tweak Q3HD Audio
I’m continually learning about the importance of volume/loudness/level in recording and video. Our listeners expect a “normal” level similar to commercial recordings, but through the vagaries of technological and commercial development, normal recording levels are just not as loud as normal delivery levels. Our recordings will sound wimpy and unimpressive if we deliver them at the level we used to capture them.
A commenter on one of my Zoom Q3HD blog posts asked about freeware tools for raising the level of his video soundtracks. I touched on this some years ago when the subject was syncing audio and video, but modifying the original audio track makes things even easier. I found two free tools that can be used together to enhance the audio without impacting the video of the Q3HD. Most approaches involve transcoding, or decompressing and recompressing the video and that approach risks damaging the video and adds production time to the workflow.
Audacity
Audacity has been the standard free audio tool for many years. The developers have continued to improve this classic and these days the program handles VST plugins and offers guided help in installing the LAME and FFmpeglibraries that extend Audacity’s native capabilities. If you’re following along, be sure to download and install both these extensions along with your favorite VST plugins.
With FFmpeg installed it’s easy to open the audio stream of many video container files, such MOV, AVI, or MP4. Simple choose File | Import | Audio to navigate to the desired file, or drag and drop the file using your OS file manager. Once the file is open in Audacity, you can adjust EQ, dynamic range, and level. You can also add effects like reverb, echo, or chorus. What you should not do is change the length of the file. No trimming of heads and tails, not adding on at the beginning or end either. This procedure is simple because we’re using the original audio file, so we can be confident that it will match back up with the original video, but this only works if we don’t mess it up.
Trim the Spikes
One trick for raising level involves lowering a few large spikes in the audio waveform before adjusting the file as a whole. These spikes are clearly visible in the waveform and usually represent handling noise or other glitches. We don’t lose anything by making those noises lower in level, and it makes the procedure for raising level easier.
By the way, you can open two copies of the audio in Audacity, adjust one of them, and then go back and forth to compare your adjustments to the original.
When you’ve made your adjustments, simply File | Export then choose your output format. I recommend WAV (PCM) uncompressed audio because this retains maximum fidelity.
Avidemux
When I began playing with HD digital video, Avidemux caught my eye. If offers very flexible handling of the video and audio streams that make up the container files like .MOV, .MP4, and .AVI. We’ll take advantage of that flexibility to reunite our original video to our new enhanced audio that we created in Audacity.
Simply open the original .MOV file. Then use Audio | Select Track | Track 1 | *dropdown* | … Add audio track to pull in our enhanced audio file. In my initial experiments with output formats offered in Avidemux I didn’t run across one that includes PCM audio and the H.264 video codec, so in my demo video I converted to a compressed format. We can do it in the Audio | Select Track menu, change copy to AAC then use Configure to set the bitrate up to 224. This should give a pretty transparent conversion, but if we use AVI or MKV for our container we can stay with the PCM audio by using copy. Finally, set the Output Format. In my demo video I chose MP4 because I’ve had good success with it in the past. Use File | Save to select the destination for the new output file, and be sure to set the extension on the file name to match the container format, in this case MP4.
Let’s Look at the Video
I was quite pleased with how easy this procedure is and how effective. Here’s the original video:
Here’s the altered one:
and here’s a “How To” video demonstrating the process:
Both these tools can do a lot more than we demonstrated here. Audacity, as mentioned, can add all manner of audio effects and alterations. Avidemux has a nice range of filters for resizing, zooming, coloring, fading, and more. These filters won’t work without transcoding, but it is possible to trim video at certain points (i frames) while simply copying the stream. In the past I’ve had stability problems with Avidemux, but this time out it worked without a hiccup. It still doesn’t play H.264 HD video without stuttering, but it’s so handy I don’t mind the poor real-time performance.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Tutorials, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hans said in post # 1,
on December 11th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Fran,
That is an awesome tutorial. Thanks so much. I just tried in on a recording and it went smooth. However, I did notice an increase in “noise” (a little distortion and those sort of wind-like sounds) in the edited video. Is there something I can do to avoid that?
Hans
Fran Guidry said in post # 2,
on December 11th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Hans, raising the level of the track raises both the signal and the noise that are already recorded in the track, so basically you’ll hear more noise. For this reason it’s important to get the best signal to noise ratio when you capture.
There are some noise reduction tools in Audacity, but they’re quite limited. Still, they’re free and worth trying.
Fran
Hans said in post # 3,
on December 11th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Ok, great. I did try to raise the volume on my speakers on the original recording so that it matched the one in the edited recording (with lower speaker volume) and still the noise did not show up in the original recording, but I don’t know if that has anything to do with anything :).
Thanks again for your help – it is greatly appreciated,
Hans
Fran Guidry said in post # 4,
on December 11th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Hmmm, this is interesting. What audio format did you use for the output? Have you tried creating an AVI container with PCM audio (using the “copy” codec)?
Fran
Hans said in post # 5,
on December 12th, 2012 at 10:17 am
Hi again Fran,
I used the same output as you do in the tutorial – AAC (faac) with 224 bitrate.
And with regards to your second question, do you mean changing the Audio Output to PCM and the Output Format to Avi Muxer in Avidemux and then saving? I just tried that and the result was a video with no sound.
Hans
Fran Guidry said in post # 6,
on December 12th, 2012 at 11:52 am
I’m suggesting that you use the “copy” codec for both audio and video. Yes, AVI Muxer.
How is the noise level when you play back the audio straight out of Audacity?
Fran
Hans said in post # 7,
on December 12th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Ah okay, sorry, I’m not very experienced at this. I just did it like that, with the copy codec for both audio and video plus AVI Muxer and then saving as Filename.AVI – and it completely removed the noise! It is now at the same level as when I play back the audio straight out of Audacity. Thanks!
So is that simply just how I should do the procedure from now on?
Oh, and you mentioned in the video that in the past you had experienced some stability problems with Avidemux – right now mine is crashing 2 times out of 3 when I try to open a file and pretty much every time I try to play back video in it. If it does manage to play it back it sort of freezes the screen until its done.But I guess that is just something I will have to live with?
Thank you so very much once again,
Hans
Fran Guidry said in post # 8,
on December 12th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Hey, we all start off without much experience, video is a really complex subject and it just keeps getting worse.
I’m sorry to hear that Avidemux is giving you trouble. I’m assuming you have the latest 2.6.x version?
Here’s a note I found on the Avidemux website:
“2012-09-10: 2.6.0. OpenGl and windows
If you get immediately a crash on windows after loading a video, make sure you disable openGL in preferences.”
Hope that helps.
Fran
Hans said in post # 9,
on December 12th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Exactly :). And great with the note. I’ll try that. And yes, I got the latest version.
Just to be sure, should I just stick with the “copy codec for both audio and video plus AVI Muxer and then saving as Filename.AVI” method from now on? And that won’t result in worse quality or anything compared to the method in the tutorial?
Hans
Fran Guidry said in post # 10,
on December 12th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Using the “copy” codecs give you the best possible quality – no change from the input. I recommend them whenever possible. I just goofed in my tutorial and didn’t research muxers deeply enough before making my recommendation.
The AVI muxer is a good choice because it supports a wide range of stream types and is widely supported by player and editor applications. It has slightly higher overhead than some other containers, but these days we can afford a bit of extra disk storage and net bandwidth most of the time.
Fran
Hans said in post # 11,
on December 12th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Perfect. This method is really a great solution to the “volume problem” with the Q3 so I am very grateful for your help.
Best,
Hans
Vince Bergan said in post # 12,
on May 20th, 2013 at 12:55 am
You have given me some hope that I can improve my Q3HD audio recordings. I’m still learning but have several new things to try now. Hoping to see some real improvement as I really didn’t know much when I started recording music.
Thanks in advance, Vince
Cats can be jerks said in post # 13,
on August 7th, 2013 at 10:09 am
Hello this is kinda of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors
or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding experience so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Fran Guidry said in post # 14,
on August 7th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
The WordPress editor has a WYSIWYG mode and an HTML mode. If you just go with a basic WordPress theme you can be on your way with very little tech knowledge and no coding.
Fran
Brian M said in post # 15,
on December 17th, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Hi Fran, your posts are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I have a Q3HD and want to do some videos of my songs. I use Pro Tools 10 for audio and i am very pleased with the results. Is there a way to use the audio from PT and combine it with strictly the video from the Q3HD?
If you could direct me to some info I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Brian.
Fran Guidry said in post # 16,
on March 22nd, 2015 at 10:30 am
Brian, I was under the impression that ProTools could handle some video editing. I’ve never used it so I certainly don’t know for sure. I have used REAPER, Avidemux, and Edius for this, and I understand that Windows Movie Maker on the PC and iMovie on the Mac can do what you need.
Fran