Leveling Out Audio in a Single Track

Tragic things can happen when mixing audio or video clips from multiple sources. Sound levels (read: volume) can fluctuate erratically, causing the resulting splice of tracks to be inaudible. To stop your viewers from having to play games with their volume nobs while watching your videos we will cover some techniques here to remedy the problem.

Tools you will need:

• Software to process audio tracks (I use Audacity.)
• And something to mux/demux Video (I use VirtualDub.)

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

VirtualDub - http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/

Some points I would like to make:

1. If you can run a filter called "Normalize" on all the tracks you are mixing. This will make it so that everything has the same maximum volume. If you do this you avoid having to do...
2. Dynamic Range Compression should not be confused with plain Compression. Compression refers to making a file smaller. (We will be doing Dynamic Range Compression)

If you can find other software to do these things then good for you! (There is more than one way to skin a moose.)

Updated: Using BitTorrent

I've made a second video on installing the Vuze BitTorrent client. The Client can be downloaded from www.vuze.com. Once you have the client installed you can search google and other sites for torrents to download. Just download and open the ".torrent" file and you are good to go.

You should also have to ensure that the port you've chosen for torrent data is forwarded through your firewall.

Anime Codec Packs

I've been doing some research and there are a lot of codec packs out there. Some include unnecessary things. There are two codec packs that I feel comfortable recommending.

Cole2k - I've been using this for some time. It gives you the options to pick and choose everything upon install.

CCCP - Combined Community Codec Pack is a very complete pack that you can use to watch all kinds of media.

Packs to avoid:
K-Lite - has a bunch of extra unneeded things. Also, I wouldn't trust anything that has any affiliation with Kazaa. (Eeek Virus!)

If you are on a linux system and don't have Windows Media Player, then you can download VLC Media Player. It is included in more popular linux distros like Ubuntu. This player has all the codecs and other playback devices you'll need for anime built in.




Step-by-step summary:

• Download cole2k advanced from cole2k.net
• Run the install
• Choose Expert
• Agree to the EULA
• Uncheck the boxes for search-bars and other crap
• Under source splitters and filters, under Haalia Media Splitter, check AVI Support
• Under Extra's, uncheck shell context menu (and GSpot Codec info tool if you want.)
  

Using A Bit Torrent Client

Here is a fairly short video tutorial I made on using a Bit Torrent Client.



Here are the steps in the video:

• Go to wikipedia and choose a client. (I chose Vuze)
• Download and install the client
• Uncheck the box to ensure the search bar is not installed!
  
• Change the UI (Tools -> Interface -> Start -> UI Chooser)
  
• Setup download speeds and settings
• Check the TCP/UDP listen port (and forwarding)
  
• Open a .torrent file and start downloading
• Adjust download and upload speeds

I forgot to mention that you want a higher seed (uploaders) to leech (downloaders) ratio in a torrent. While this is not absolutely essential for the protocol to work, it does improve your download speeds. Note that your download speed may be limited by your internet service. Also, I have found that not limiting upload will grant you a higher download priority and can result in a faster download. However, this may cause other programs to run slowly. (Particularly internet based things on your entire network.)

READ THIS: One small thing I just found out. Apparently Vuze will install an ASK.com toolbar without the users consent. In order to remove this toolbar, do the following:

• Open the run prompt (Win+R)
  
• type "C:\Program Files\AskBarDis\"
• Close all browser windows. (Internet Explorer, FireFox, etc.)
  
• Run the "unin00.exe" file. (It could have a different name just look for an exe that has a 'u' as part of the name. Chances are it is the uninstall file)

Sorry about the annoying search bar addon. Vuze is still great in my opinion, they are just starting to do bad things though. (They will definitely get an email about this!)

Any Questions?