Difference in upper and lower amplitude

Audio Production Audio Effects
1

I am searching for help in regards to a difference in amplitude in an audio recording between the upper amplitude and the lower. I sometimes get recordings which on one side go up to -1 dB and on the other only to -6 dB. It sounds fine but makes loudness correction a bit difficult because the final result will be “cut off” on one side when I increase the loudness… .

Does anyone know about a video tut online in regards to this topic and how to deal with it (either in production or later in post)? I searched but wasn’t able to find something anywhere…

Thanks for your help.

2

A warm welcome to the community @TMaekler if there is too much variation in amplitude you’ll want to look at audio compression.

Here’s a recent video I made showing how compressors can even out your sound levels.

3

Would it be possible to compress only one side of the waveform along the whole wave so that both sides are equal? Any idea how this difference in amplitide comes into existence in the first place? This is the wave directly from the recorded mic… .

Squeez

4

That’s DC bias.

You’d initially want to look at your equipment set up and make sure everything is connected ok and functioning properly.

How are you recording? Through an interface, a USB microphone or recording in through the computer sound card line in or mic?

If you can’t eradicate it at source then in audition when you or normalise you’ll see an option to adjust DC bias. This will level out your audio so both sides of the waveform hit the same peaks and levels by the amount you enter at the same time as normalising the audio to the level you chose.

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