Hi there, I updated and now if I try to Amplify to increase the volume of something, it reduces the volume. Does this post count as reporting an issue, or do I do that somewhere else? I read that Audacity have said this forum is the best place to report.
Amplify will default to whatever up or down adjustment is needed for 0dB peaks. i.e. If your highest peak is currently -3dB, Amplify will default to a gain of +3dB. If your peaks are currently +3dB, Amplify will default to -3dB (attenuation rather than amplification).
If Allow Clipping is not checked, Amplify will not allow you to make a change that ends-up over 0dB. (In general, you shouldn’t go over 0dB.)
0dB is the “digital maximum”. …Some formats can go over 0dB (including MP3 (1) ) and Audacity itself can go over 0dB. But analog-to-digital converters (2) (recording), digital-to-analog converters (playback), regular (integer) WAV files, and CDs are hard-limited to 0dB and they will clip (distort) if you try to go over.
If your file goes over 0dB and you play it at “full digital volume”, you’ll clip your DAC.
(1) MP3 compression makes some peaks higher and some lower. So even though the original CD can’t go over the 0dB, the MP3 might peak at +1dB or so. As far as I know, this slight clipping is not audible but some people normalize to around -1dB before converting to MP3 to prevent it.
(2) Zoom makes some floating-point recorders and interfaces that can go over 0dB and this feature may become more common in the future…
Ah ok, maybe it’s louder than I think. Thanks for the tip 
Note that the peaks don’t correlate well with perceived loudness. It’s complicated but one short-duration peak anywhere in the file will limit how much you can amplify linearly.
Most commercial music is 0dB normalized (“maximized”) but some songs are still louder than others.
…And virtually all commercial music is compressed/limited to bring-up the loudness.
Often it’s over-done. All of the musical dynamics (dynamic contrast) are killed and the song is the same-boring constant-loudness through the whole song with nothing jumping-out. The Loudness War.
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