(Noob) How to reduce and increase volume on a single track?

Question

I would like to start a custom playlist of ambient tracks, for background music in RPGs. I have a lot of different tracks already, and downloaded and bought many already. My problem is, however that there are many, many excellent tracks ruined by them having the best part being too quiet, or some other part just way too loud.

Is there any way I can adjust volume for just a specific part, say for instance in Audacity? I have already used it to do some basic cutting of less interesting parts, here and there.

Answer 1

This is what a compressor is for. You can reduce the dynamic range of a whole track (making the loud parts quieter) and then adjust the overall volume of the track as you wish. It would be easy to do that in a DAW (like Logic), but I'm not sure if Audacity can do that.

After a quick google, I found this in the Audacity wiki: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/compressor.html

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

if you dont know how to use a compressor , automate the volume. Some software allows you to draw a volume curve to adjust loud and low parts.