Automatic volume leveling during audio playback

Anonymous

This is really annoying:

Quiet sound is amplified to sound at a reasonable level. Then when a loud part of the song comes on the level automatically drops making the quiet parts sound annoyingly loud & the loud part annoyingly quiet... Sorry that's the best way I can describe this... again:

Only happens when its had a few seconds on silent (eg. pause) - at that point the system starts to "think" for itself creeping the base volumes up. Then when the song begins again you are treated to loudness that is quickly quietened when the system realises there is a higher level of sound coming through...

This is very frustrating because I use my computer to record & as such need to have the audio playing at its proper level - not the level the computer thinks it should be playing at...

I have combed through the settings looking for an "auto off" option, and have spent a long time searching for an answer online.

Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Anonymous

Hi pablo647,

Welcome to Microsoft Windows 7 Answers Forum!

We would like to get a little more information from you to help troubleshoot your issue.

Are you using any Sound Card on the machine?

You can try playing the same song to a differnet Headphone or the Speakers.

I suspect it could be a problem with the sound card drivers.

You can update the drivers for the sound devices and try after that.

Click Start and then click Control Panel.
Click System and Maintenance, click System, and then click Device Manager.

Note If Control Panel is in Classic View, double-click System, and then click Device Manager.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
In Device Manager, expland "Sound Video and Game controllers", right-click the "Sound Video and Game controllers" and go to properties.
Browse to the Update tab and then click on update driver.

You may also check on the Sound card manufacturers web site and verify if they have any updated drivers for Windows 7 and try to install it.

Hope it helps.

Thanks and Regards:

Shekhar S - Microsoft Support.

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109 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-06-02T21:13:28+00:00
Hi,

I'm not sure if someone gave this answer already, but I think it's because Windows 7 automatically turns down other sounds when a second one plays. I noticed this when I was trying to play games without the background music and play music on my music player (any) with it. What happens is that the music just dies down, leaving the second loaded sound louder.

What I did was:

Go to the sound icon on the system tray, right-click, and click Sounds;

Click on the Communications tab. On this one, you will see:

Windows can automatically adjust the volume of different sounds when you are using your PC to place or receive telephone calls.

When Windows detects communications activity:

o Mute all other sounds o Reduce the volume of other sounds by 80%

o Reduce the volume of other sounds by 50%

o Do nothing

Select "Do Nothing", then try and check if it works. Mine worked seamlessly since this. :) I hope it helps!

-reine
This worked for me. As I had problem where windows reduce my Winamp sound level when i use sites which enables my camera andmicrophone. I only disabled this function and everything is same as before. I had this issue since few days ago, it didnt happen before and it was annoying..

Thanks man
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Anonymous

2010-06-02T03:02:37+00:00

@Aaronite, don't ever change, really. This forum needs a lot of people complaining even if they're wrong, as you are. Misterbk got it right, I got it right, it's NOT a W7 feature but a driver related issue. If you disable all sound effects (loudness levelling, for instance) you get rid of the problem and, how do you know, all sound effects you can apply through the W7 audio manager depends, in fact, on the driver of your soundcard.

So if you have to blame someone, blame the soundcard manufacturer for delivering faulty drivers.
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Anonymous

2010-06-02T01:45:32+00:00

Well I still have this problem.

How come when the computer is running on windows XP there is no problem and when I load windows 7 the problem starts

I don't want this feature! it's driving me and many others insane.

@misterbk This problem is inherent to windows 7. IT IS a windows 7 feature!
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Anonymous

2010-04-15T09:12:23+00:00

Seen post after post from people who are confused where the feature is coming from, so let me clarify...

Volume leveling is NOT a Windows 7 feature. It was not written by Microsoft and has nothing to do with the OS. (caveat - Windows Media Player does have a feature for it, but you have to have turned it on and the effect is subtle.)

The "Enhancements" tab is provided by the sound card drivers. Some audio devices do not provide any Enhancements tab at all. Some provide a differently named tab like "Sound Blaster".

There are two places volume leveling can happen. One is in the Enhancements tab. Another is a feature built in to Windows Media Player, that at least used to be called "Quiet Mode". Flip through your enhancements in WMP and see if that's the cause.

Myself, I am actually trying to find a volume leveling utility because I don't have the "problem" people are reporting. (I want to have the problem!) I'm trying to watch online Comedy Central episodes and getting really tired of the commercials often being, literally and not making it up, 500% the volume of the show. (Come on Comedy Central, your business is media broadcasting! You should know better!)
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