block01cube wrote:
You need to compress and/or limit the sound. For this you can use a compressor and/or limiter . To get the overall level of all the sounds at the proper level without distortion, you need to master the audio.
Yes, I know that, but the point is (i.ll try to make a better question 
):
does anybody know any good tutorial about compressing and/or limiting sound?
Slikdigit, thanks anyway, you have been really helpfull with the NLA path question.
Assuming that you have mixed your sounds at levels low enough to prevent distortion, you can use Audacity to compress the soundtrack. Look at Effect > Compressor from the toolbar.
Note: Compression is a non-linear operation, and will itself introduce distortion.
env, are your various input sounds distortion-free?
okchoir wrote:
Assuming that you have mixed your sounds at levels low enough to prevent distortion, you can use Audacity to compress the soundtrack. Look at Effect > Compressor from the toolbar.
Yes, I tried it, but the point is that as I compress the sound the volume of the sound became lessen… what I was asking for was a hint on the correct setting for the compressor, don’t know if it’s possible.
env, are your various input sounds distortion-free?
Yes, they are. But usually I normalize the sound to avoid distorsion, I don’t use the compressor because of the volume issue.
For example: I’m preparing the various sounds for “Blending with Dinosaurs”. The allosaurus shout came quite good, but compared to the other sounds it seems low, as if it was registered in a closed room from the outside. If I loud the sound, soon distorsion appear, of course; so I’m wondering if there is a way to make it appear a powerfull and closer shout avoiding the damn distorsion.
Env
Daaaaaammnnnn, that is great man. Are you going to put your dinosaur in there and have it fight that beastie? 
No, the dinosaur will have other planets to fight on…
Env
I am just about to check it out so i will edit this reply with my comments, but I just wanted to point out, before i forget, not only is there no reverb in space, but there isn’t any sound either. sound needs a medium to travel through, like air or water. anyway, all the sci fi movies conveniently forget this, but yeah, if I were going to have sound in space I would try to make it kind of dull I think.
<edit> ok, very nice. I did think the bang could be toned down a bit, but I did like the phasing effect. pretty good job on the sound really. I thought the creature sound was particularly good. btw, i use soundforum synth to design spaceship sounds, so if you download it I’ll put up some presets I made. Once you design a sound with it ( you can play the sounds with your regular keyboard keys btw, starting with the Z key, which is middle C I think. ) …you can save it in an ‘ens’ file which is just a little text file. It’s great for making those full low frequency drones, and alot of other sci fi effects too. Also, when you want to render a wav, just start audacity recording in ‘mono mix’ mode, and play your sound, and audacity will record the output.
as I compress the sound the volume of the sound became lessen
Before compressing, do you check the box “Apply gain after compressing”?
Have a look at this forum:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=8414845
(I normally could be more helpful, but am disabled at the moment - hand surgery.)
Great stuff!! Love the glow effect on the ship.
The alien critter could use some secondary motion on the head though… some bobbibg maybe. Just nitpicking.
Modron, thanks, I’ll have a look at the soundforum synth and make a try to record with Audacity (as far as I can remember, I’ve already tried this but with no result… seems that my computer has a little inside problem with the audio, don’t really know).
Okchoir, no, I never checked the box “apply gain after compressing”, I’ll try this one too. Many thanks. Hand surgery? Nothing serious, I hope.
UglyMike, the alien will be used in a longer short movie I’m preparing, this was just a first attempt and a quick animation test (for example, the NLA setting is totally wrong, but luckily it doesn’t show so much).
Thanks all again.
Env
If you are not using the latest version of audacity you won’t be able to set mono mix mode from the audacity interface, so you have to go down to your taskbar, and click the speaker icon, that has the general volume setting etc, and click something like: options >> properties >> recording >> then set to mono mix mode. ( microphone is the usual default ) usually you have to set the input very low for a good result.
I just watched it again and… is that another spaceship flying in the background?
Does anybody know a way to make a sound appear more loud keeping the level acceptable for no disorsion?
env, I get the feeling that nobody answered this. I’ll try. If various sources are mixed, then the only way to emphasize one sound is to lower the level of all others. You already know about normalization; this, of course, is the last step in the mastering process. HTH.
That thing at the end was pretty cool.
The movement/animation of that creature at the end was very well done. very convincing!
Just stumbled on this topic … watched the video … whoooa … you’ve done alot to show the power of free software. Excellent job. You must do a “making of” for this. Not exactly a tutorial … well … yes, do a tutorial
For those who asked for a rendering of the alien worm, here it is:
paroneayea, it’s not one other spaceship in the background, just the flare of the lights.
okchoir, thanks, actually I tried to lower the other sound but the problem is in the allo shout quality, I think.
animeblood, Gr8RedShark, thanks!
DYeater, a tutorial? You mean, one other tutorial?!? AAAARGH!.. ok, I’ll try to do it, in the future. 
Env