How to make Audacity playback sound volume equal to sound volume of WAV/MP3 file when exporting?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

hi,

Audacity plays audio louder than the wav file I generate. Is there Anyway to make Audicity play at same volume as the generated WAV file. I’m trying to do a recording and I keep having to go back and forth to try to increase and decrease Audacity via filters/gains in order to get the actual WAV volume.

I’m on windows 10 home edition
I’m using Windows 10 player at highest volume
Audacity version is 2.4.2

My playback volume in Audacity is .50 (middle of the tracker exactly)

How do I make Audacity play in the same volume as the WAV file.

Thanks

2

I’m using Windows 10 player at highest volume

My playback volume in Audacity is .50 (middle of the tracker exactly)

I think the maximum would be the same in both applications. (VLC can go over 100% so you can clip/distort files normalized for 0dB peaks.)

Audacity has [u]Loudness Normalization[/u] if you want to hit a certain loudness level. But, you have to watch-out for clipping on the peaks.

If you just want to measure loudness there is a free 3rd-party plug-in called [u]dpMeter[/u]. (You need the 32-bit VST version since Audacity for Windows is a 32-bit application.)

3

Thanks @DvDbug but is there no way to make the WAV file exports have same loudness/volume/etc as the Audacity project I exported it from?

I’m total nub here but I my thought it should be easily done or are things maybe a little more complex than that? Cheers

4

hi,
I think I replied to your message but somehow it didn’t get posted.

Thanks for your response.

What I’m trying to say is why does Audacity play my audio track louder than the .WAV file that is generated? Is there some setting I need to set in the software?

5

Thanks @DvDbug but is there no way to make the WAV file exports have same loudness/volume/etc as the Audacity project I exported it from?

To prevent spam, new forum members posts have to approved by a human moderator before they show-up.

What I’m trying to say is why does Audacity play my audio track louder than the .WAV file that is generated? Is there some setting I need to set in the software?

Sorry, I thought they would play at the same volume (with both set at maximum). Maybe someone else can answer.

6

Nps, thanks for response. I think the title should say “Why do I lose volume when exporting to MP3/WAV”

7

I also noted that Audacity plays louder than other applications. It is due to the fact that it has not its own volume control, the volume control you see in Audacity is a general volume control that affects the operating system.

However it is weird that if you put WMP at its maximum there will be any difference, since in that case the only attenuation comes from a volume control that affects both programs equal, the one from Windows.

Think in volume controls like a series of attenuators. The volume will be reduced from 100% to de desired volume in each step it does through a volume control. WMP and other players have their own volume control, adding another step that Audacity hasn’t got.

8

There are some “enhancements” in WMP that can change the volume, such as an equalizer or volume leveling.

If you want to “match volumes” you should probably open both (or all) of the files in Audacity.

Or there are tools like ReplayGain, MP3Gain, WAVgain, etc., that will automatically match the loudness of all of your files. But, since most commercial music is already normalized (“maximized”) and many of these “maximized” files are quiet-sounding, these tools will reduce the volume of many/most files. (I use ReplayGain in Winamp and Apple Sound Check on my iPod so all of my songs play at about the same volume.)