Using Audacity version 2.4.2. with windows 10, can anyone tell me how to change the record level for incoming audio, say from BBC Iplayer, the audio seems a bit under what it should be, adjusting the speaker and recording controls makes no difference, it seems to be set at a certain level with no adjustment, and after recording i have to increase the volume on the file, i just wondered if there was any adjustment, the website volume is set on maximum…tried switching enhancements on and off…thankyou from Fred in Essex Uk.
No… Since you are “capturing” the digital audio stream you can’t normally adjust while recoding. And normally when recording you need to leave some “headroom” anyway for unexpected peaks.
from BBC Iplayer, the audio seems a bit under what it should be, adjusting
They might be doing “loudness normalization”. All of the popular streaming services are doing this… Clipping (distortion) depends on the peaks but the peaks don’t correlate well with perceived loudness so there are quiet-sounding files that can’t be boosted (linearly) without clipping. Since these quiet-sounding tracks can’t be boosted, louder tracks are reduced to normalize/match the loudness between tracks.
Traditional radio stations use a different approach… They use dynamic compression and limiting (with make-up gain) to make “everything loud”. But that reduces dynamic contrast which can make music boring.