Looking to Boost Volume of a Clip

[Benjamindaines]

I am trying to make a ringtone and I have the audio I want. The only problem is that it's not loud enough to hear in my pocket; even with the volume on the phone all the way up. So, I need a way to boost the volume without changing the sound of the clip.

The original sound is a xylophone recording (I did not record it, it's taken from a song so I can't just re-record it louder). I have taken it into SoundStudio and ran the Amplify / Volume filter and that seems to do what I want, but only in the application. When I export to an .aiff or a .wav file the pitch gets messed up and it sounds like an electric guitar.

How can I get this to do what I want?

Here is the Original audio track and here is the Boosted one.

Whatchya think?

 

[zimv20]

the pitch gets messed up

the pitch is the same, you've just distorted it to all hell. i'm not familiar with the program you're using, but see if it has a normalize function.

 

[Benjamindaines]

the pitch is the same, you've just distorted it to all hell. i'm not familiar with the program you're using, but see if it has a normalize function.

I tried the normailze function and you can see the waveform get bigger but when played back it still has the same volume. Ill try exporting after running the normalizer and post back.

 

[zimv20]

I tried the normailze function and you can see the waveform get bigger but when played back it still has the same volume.

that doesn't sound right. how much gain did normalize give it?

 

[Benjamindaines]

that doesn't sound right. how much gain did normalize give it?

Setting the peaks to 0dB gives it a 100% gain (and the wave form goes to about double the height), you can hear it being a bit louder than the original but still not significant enough for my needs.

We need some CSI technology over here

 

[zimv20]

if the bits @ 0 dB aren't loud enough, then you're basically SOL. but if they are, and it's just the quieter bits that need to go louder, then use a limiter on it. if you're doing this post-normalize, try a 20:1 ratio.

 

[gotzero]

If you have an audio program that can envelope, you can go through the track and get everything leveled right, and then compress from there...

I think Audacity (free via sourceforge) has an envelope tool, but the last version I tried to download did not work so well with intel...

If you are not interested in audio already, learning what an envelope is and fixing your ringtone will be the start of a long journey that ends with lots of music gear, poverty, and increased sensitivity to the sun...

 

[SigmundFraud]

Dynamic Processing

Ideally you need to apply some compression and then push it through an adaptive limiter (sometimes called a volume maximizer or brick-wall limiter). You're basically needing to do some heavy-duty mastering. Unfortunately I've never been able to find decent free or inexpensive tools to do this; there are lots of budget compressors (including the built-in apple compressor you can access in garage band) that will get you half-way, but good adaptive limiters don't seem to come cheap. Whether you can get the same effect with envelopes - perhaps you can but I suspect you won't get the same degree of maximisation. Otherwise, get Logic Studio (if your ring-tone is worth $500!).

I've just done some quick and nasty work on this. Here is the file heavily compressed: Compression

I think this is about as loud as you can go without the help of distortion. A bit of "musical" distortion (unlike the digital clipping you were getting before) can add some sense of loudness. There's some amp simulation on this one: CompressionDist