How do I turn up the gain for one ear only?

[EternalMoving]

Hey y'all!

First off let me just say that I don't quite know how to express this issue and also I'm not too good at using the correct production terms in general, sorry for that but I'll do my best to make it understandable.

So I have this file where the volume is much lower in the left ear than in the right one and I want to make it more balanced.

My newbie way of fixing this before was panning the track to the left but that's not a solution (rather a pretty bad fix..) because I want to keep the sound in the right ear as it is and just turn up the volume in the left ear.

If I duplicate the track and have one track with with the "left ear's sound" and pan in 100% to the left and do the same with the "right ear's sound" (panned to the right), does that equal the same as the original stereo track? If so that would make it real easy for me to fix but something tells me that probably messes with the stereo image, no?

Thanks in advance for any help any sorry again for lack of correct terms!

[David Nahmani]

Use the Gain plug-in (Utility folder) in Dual Mono mode, then  you can adjust the gain independently for the Left and the Right channels: 

[EternalMoving]

On 5/9/2022 at 9:54 AM, David Nahmani said:

Use the Gain plug-in (Utility folder) in Dual Mono mode, then  you can adjust the gain independently for the Left and the Right channels: 

Thank you David, you always got our backs (I don't have too many posts myself, mainly because I nearly always find the solutions I'm looking for in your replies to other people's posts)!

I have a follow up question, the gain of the left channel goes up and down a lot - is there a better/easier way to make it even than to adjust the gain like I did? (see attached screenshots)

I can add that I never understood fully how to use compressors - if I did, could that possibly help me solve this in an easier way?

[David Nahmani]

4 minutes ago, EternalMoving said:

I can add that I never understood fully how to use compressors - if I did, could that possibly help me solve this in an easier way?

Yes, you should try it. For leveling, I would keep the Platinum Digital model (no coloring, no distortion), use a fast attack, short release, auto gain OFF, threshold until you see the needle move on the softest parts of the content, then increase the ratio until you get the desired effect. 

[EternalMoving]

On 5/12/2022 at 12:01 PM, David Nahmani said:

Yes, you should try it. For leveling, I would keep the Platinum Digital model (no coloring, no distortion), use a fast attack, short release, auto gain OFF, threshold until you see the needle move on the softest parts of the content, then increase the ratio until you get the desired effect. 

Thank you very much again! Would you suggest keeping the right channel as it is and only applying this to the left channel and then turn the gain up for it? I can add that it's vocals (an AI generated acapella of a low quality tape rip) that I'm working with.

 

I've been playing around with it for a bit but unsure how I want it since it really helped with keeping a good level but the parts that already are loud enough sound better without the compressor so I don't want to remove too much from them, but the quiet parts need pretty much threshold and ratio to get even with the loud parts.

 

Is there a way to, instead of having the loud parts being reduced, make the quiet parts louder?

[triplets]

3 hours ago, EternalMoving said:

Is there a way to, instead of having the loud parts being reduced, make the quiet parts louder?

Gain plugin, Gain in the region parameter box, volumen automation. You can use all three at the same time.

[EternalMoving]

14 hours ago, triplets said:

Gain plugin, Gain in the region parameter box, volumen automation. You can use all three at the same time.

Thanks a lot for your help, very appreciated! I meant like an inverted compressor (if you understand what I mean), that increases the quiet parts instead of reducing the loud parts, maybe that's not a thing. The compressor tip David gave me really helped me get the vocals to have an even volume level but since the quiet parts are really quiet at times I felt the loud parts were too compressed when the level was good enough.

To use multiple tricks at the same time is a great idea though, maybe I can try to use volume automation to turn the low parts up a notch, then compressor to get the levels more even after that

[David Nahmani]

3 minutes ago, EternalMoving said:

I meant like an inverted compressor (if you understand what I mean), that increases the quiet parts instead of reducing the loud parts, maybe that's not a thing

No, that doesn't exist (at least not that I know of). While it sounds like a good idea for the issue you're trying to resolve, that would be a challenging tool to use as it would amplify all noises, breath, mouth noises, ambiant noise etc. 

I think the compressor achieves that mostly, as it compresses the loud parts and leaves the soft parts alone, then with the makeup gain brings everything up so that the loudest parts are back at the original level and the soft parts are amplified. 

Also keep in mind that you can use multiple compressors in a row (two is enough for most uses), with different ratios and different thresholds. That allows you to apply more compression to the very loud parts, then a more gentle compression on the normal volume parts, and no compression for the soft parts (which again include all the noise you don't want to amplify).