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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Answer accepted by question author

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

2010-07-31T23:55:49+00:00

I will add my vote that this is NOT solved. I have a DELL E6500 dual core Pentium 2.8, 8 GB memory, Windows-7 Ultimate 64 bit, IDT HD audio. When using iTunes and playing a song like Enya's Orinoco Flow the auto volume control makes the song absolutely unlistenable.

Note: I have 3 Windows machines (only one of which is Windows 7), other two are XP with all SPs. Two MACs - an older G5 PowerPC, and newer G5 quad processor Intel - running OS-X.

Only the Windows-7 machine has the audio problem. I have tried updating drivers, changing settings. I have Dell GOLD Pro support (these are all high end systems) and they spent an afternoon trying to resolve the problem to no avail.

I really don't have a problem with Windows trying to "protect my hearing" or whatever it is trying to do to mute loud dynamic passages, or help my hearing by boosting soft ones - but you must allow me to turn it off.

My airplane has an autopilot - but I can turn it off. My car has Distronic cruise control - but I can turn it off.

Please ... Please ... Please - don't add features without providing an off button !!!

-MR
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Anonymous

2010-08-08T11:05:28+00:00

Hi Guys,

I originally started this thread, Reporting back again.

All I can say for people who continue to have these difficulties is - go down the line, after the output from the computer/laptop or explore added on software that may be causing the fluctuations.

I have recently reverted back to Windows 7 after experiencing some compatibility issues while attempting to install Cubase 5 onto the XP SP3 machine. Windows 7 was very kind to the Steinberg software.

I assure you, (from my experience) there is no automatic volume leveling system programmed into Windows 7. iTunes however has a normalise option which can adversely affect the dynamic range of sounds.
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Anonymous

2010-08-19T06:59:50+00:00

I've spent the last few hours looking for an answer to this same problem when I found this thread. I've been using Win7 for only a few days (lots of hair-pulling trying to figure out how to things I knew how to do in XP) and this audio "softening" was getting really annoying. I first noticed it on system sounds as they would fade in. At first I thought they weren't even turned on because some of them were shorter than the volume ramp-up time of this volume thing so I barely heard anything.

I had already turned off the Loudness Equalisation and selected the "do nothing" option for phone calls but nothing had worked. But then I tried turning off theEQUALIZER in Sound>Playback>Speakers>Properties>Enhancements and voila!!problem solved .

For reference, I'm using the on-board Realtek sound on a Gigabyte GA-H55USB3. I use JetAudio for mp3/wma files and it has it's own equalizer so I don't need the system EQ. I gave up on WMP a long time ago so I don't know, but I would assume that WMP uses the system EQ so you may need to switch to another player to be able to use an EQ.
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Anonymous

2010-08-20T16:27:29+00:00

A few weeks a go I noticed something. For me this problem only exists when using Windows Media Player. It's not a Windows 7 problem!

I decided to try other players, downloaded Real Player SP and everything works perfect! no more auto-volume leveling and such.

The problem IS Windows Media Player :D
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