"Amplify" greys out when increasing beyond certain volume increase threshold?

Greetings

Great program this Audacity! Been using it for years.

PRoblem:

“Amplify” greys out when increasing beyond certain volume increase threshold?

ANy idea why this is ?
It seems to be the problem of a newer version because past it worked with no limits?

Im using Linux Mint latest on laptop

System specs:


System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-55-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: MATE v: 1.26.2 wm: marco v: 1.26.2 with: mate-panel tools: mate-screensaver dm:
    1: GDM3 v: 46.2 2: LightDM v: 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 22.1 Xia base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Precision 3541 v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0Y8H01 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> part-nu: 091A
    uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: 1.3.2 date: 07/04/2019
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 62.1 Wh (96.9%) condition: 64.1/68.0 Wh (94.3%) volts: 16.9 min: 15.2
    model: LGC-LGC4.47 DELL 10X1J03 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: not charging
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-9850H bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Coffee Lake
    rev: D cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1072 high: 1100 min/max: 800/4600 cores: 1: 1100 2: 1099 3: 1100 4: 1077
    5: 1100 6: 1099 7: 1100 8: 1100 9: 800 10: 1100 11: 1099 12: 1100 bogomips: 62399
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-9.5 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:3e9b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GLM [Quadro P620] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia v: 550.120 arch: Pascal
    pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1cbd class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-11:3 chip-ID: 0bda:5539 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 compositors: 1: Compton v: 1
    2: marco v: 1.26.2 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa dri: iris
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 98 s-size: 499x280mm (19.65x11.02") s-diag: 572mm (22.53")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x081a res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142
    size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") modes: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2
    drv: iris device: 3 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: iris
    inactive: wayland,device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) device-ID: 8086:3e9b
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:a348 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-55-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.3
    chip-ID: 8086:a370 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15bb class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno2 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-14:4 chip-ID: 8087:0aaa class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.1 lmp-v: 10 sub-v: 100
    hci-v: 10 rev: 100 class-ID: 7c010c
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 991.03 GiB used: 476.33 GiB (48.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: N/A size: 59.52 GiB type: Removable tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Kingston model: SNV2S1000G size: 931.51 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: ELFK7V.1 temp: 53.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.32 GiB used: 473.21 GiB (51.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 395.5 MiB (19.3%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 16 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-2:2 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: keyboard,mouse
    driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 98mA
    chip-ID: 046d:c534 class-ID: 0301
  Device-2: 1-11:3 info: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD type: video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:5539 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 1-14:4 info: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) type: bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0aaa
    class-ID: e001
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 10 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0 C pch: 65.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2640 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2593 pm: flatpak pkgs: 47
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https: //brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/linuxmint-packages xia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-source-repositories.list
    1: deb-src https: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/linuxmint-packages xia main upstream import backport
    2: deb-src http: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb-src http: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb-src http: //mirror.cedia.org.ec/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb-src http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/protonvpn-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https: //repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.4 GiB used: 6.95 GiB (45.1%)
  Processes: 384 Power: uptime: 2h 21m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: s2idle wakeups: 0
    hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Client: Unknown python3.12 client inxi: 3.3.34



IIRC Audacity’s Amplify has always had a maximum of 50dB. (can apply it repeatedly: “Ctrl”+“R”)

By default it won’t push the peaks above 0dB (into potential clipping/distortion).

Is Allow Clipping checked?

Otherwise, it’s limited to +/- 50dB but you can run it again if you want more amplification or attenuation. (EDIT - Trebor beat me to it!)

Regular (integer) digital audio is limited to 0dBFS. Zero Decibels Full Scale is defined as the maximum you can “count to” with a given number of bits. You’ll get clipping (distorted chopped-off waves) if you try to go over.

Note that although the peaks limit how “loud” you can go without distortion, peaks don’t correlate well with perceived loudness.

Audacity uses floating-point internally so it essentially has no limits and Audacity itself won’t clip. And there are formats that can exceed 0dB. BUT, your DAC (playback), ADC (recording), regular WAV files, and CDs are all limited to 0dB and your “final production” should not go over 0dB.

P.S.
A quick way to check the peak level is to run Amplify. It will default to whatever up-or down change is needed for 0dB peaks. For example, if it defaults to +3dB your peaks are currently at -3dB. If it defaults to 0dB of change (no change) your peaks are already at 0dB. If you just want to check, you can cancel the effect.