Normalizing two audio chat tracks for same levels

[vandlism]

I have recorded two separate tracks from an audio chat and edited them in Logic Express. Now, I would like to make sure the levels for both tracks are the same. Is this a function of normalization, gain, and how would I go about doing this?

 

[AviationFan]

It's hard to tell without knowing how the two tracks are different. Were they recorded using different gain settings? Did you do different kinds of edits and/or effects to each? Or how are they different?

- Martin

 

[vandlism]

They're pretty much different in their gain settings. One was a little loud, and the other was soft. Is this a matter of manually adjusting the gains on each track?

 

[AviationFan]

OK, what I don't understand is why you want to keep both tracks around. If the only difference is the gain setting, why not just use only one of the tracks, as opposed to artifically bringing them to the same level (which would pretty much make them identical)? Or was this a stereo recording where the recording levels were set differently by accident?

- Martin

 

[vandlism]

Well there are actually two voices being recorded, each person assigned to a microphone with an independent track.

 

[AviationFan]

Oh, OK. Well, then yes, normalization and/or gain are good ideas. I.e. take the track that ha lower levels and apply some gain to make it more compatible with the other track. Or use some compression - depending on how much the volume varies over time, you need to be careful with a gain so as to not clip the waveform where the original recording was louder. A limiter can also solve this problem.

- Martin

 

[MowingDevil]

...or just put them in a mix and raise one track's volume and lower the other's.