Audacity 3.6 - Exported audio much louder than it should be

Audacity Help Forum
1

I’ve been using Audacity for a long time now with no complaints but ever since the upgrade to 3.6 (and subsequent versions) the exported sound is far louder than it should be. Adjusted sound levels play perfectly in Audacity when run through the Normalise function but when played back in any other program the levels are very loud, although not peaking or distorting.

This has never happened before. Every project has always been treated the same way - exported as a WAV, then Normalised and Limited, then re-exported. It’s massively frustrating to find that the final exported audio is now effectively the raw untreated file no matter what I do.

Help! I’m driving myself mental trying to get to the bottom of this!

2

Limited files can be loud without clipping/peaking. It’s also possible for the waveform to be clipped but if the peaks don’t hit 0dB, Audacity won’t “show clipping”.

You can set the LUFS loudness with Loudness Normalization, but that can sometimes push the peaks into clipping so after Loudness Normalization you may have to run Amplify or regular (peak) Normalize to bring it down to a safe level, or you can limit.

Or after exporting, you can check the LUFS level with YouLean online loudness meter.