Louder Dialogue Audio with Audacity (Free)

We’ve done a lot of tutorials on processing audio and sound with Adobe Audition but many have asked how to do the same things in Audacity, which is, of course, free. The trick with Audacity is that it lacks certain features that can be critical for getting consistent results, namely, loudness processing and metering tools. But when you’re first starting, you may not yet have the budget for an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. So if I were in that situation, here is how I would use Audacity to sort of accomplish the same thing (though not as consistently). Make your dialogue audio louder (without being too loud).

If you’d like to improve your sound recording for film skills, please have a look at our Sound Recording for Video course over at http://school.learnlightandsound.com

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Download Audacity for free at http://audacityteam.org

Gear used to create this episode:

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Sennheiser AVX Wireless Lavalier Microphone System (Sample audio was recorded with this)

Amazon: https://geni.us/jNGFckG
B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1135452-REG/sennheiser_avx_mke2_set_4_us_avx_camera_mountable_lavalier_pro.html/BI/19904/KBID/12941/kw/SEAVXMKE2STS/DFF/d10-v2-t1-xSEAVXMKE2STS

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Electrovoice RE20 Microphone (for voice-over)

Amazon:https://geni.us/HBg8W

B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/76681-REG/Electro_Voice_16207816_RE20_Cardoid_Voiceover.html/BI/19904/KBID/12941/kw/ELRE20/DFF/d10-v2-t1-xELRE20

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Zoom F8 Audio Field Recorder (Sample audio was recorded with this)

DVeStore: http://www.dvestore.com/pro-audio/recording/zoom-f8-multi-track-field-recorder/#aid=6242
B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1140426-REG/zoom_zf8_f8_field_recorder.html/BI/19904/KBID/12941/kw/ZOF8/DFF/d10-v2-t1-xZOF8

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Music copyright Curtis Judd 2012

Ethics statement: Some of the links above are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, or other affiliate links.