Automatic volume leveling during audio playback

Anonymous
2009-11-05T13:16:13+00:00

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!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2009-11-05T22:23:05+00:00

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.

  1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
  2. 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.

  1. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
  2. In Device Manager, expland "Sound Video and Game controllers", right-click the "Sound Video and Game controllers" and go to properties.
  3. 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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  1. Anonymous
    2010-08-24T06:29:40+00:00

    Agree with pablo647,

    I assure you that this is NOT AN AUDIO/SOUNDCARD DRIVER ISSUE at all. This is a feature from Win 7 itself . I could say that i'm an advanced user and know which one is driver issue and which isn't.

    Just wanna share, i've discovered a way to de-activated this 'normalizer'(actually not disable it,but only prevent it from 'normalizing' the track which being played)

    1.Right click Volume on notification area and select Open Volume Mixer (beside clock)

    2.Set Master volume bar to 90-95%.

    1. Lower your application volume bar to 10-15% (lower than 50% is a must)
    2. Now the sound from track should be normal and will not normalized by Win7.

    I am using WinAmp & WMP to play videos and audio file and get verry annoyed by this 'volume normalizer' things. Maybe if you just play song from your laptop speaker,this things isn't really big problem, but i am an audiophile whose have 5.1 channel audio system. So i still use XP SP3 to play music n videos, and only use Win7 to surf and some video rendering.

    PS:XP have DirectX 9.0 which support hardware mixing (you can view it in WinAmp Preferences>Output>select DirectSound>configure). But Win7 doesn't support it. Very dissapointing.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-08-27T15:48:42+00:00

    Well after searching the damned Inet for months and months still not one decent working Answer/Fix/update of what so ever for this bloody annoying problem.

    They say its NOT Win7 related but Driver related, then they say its NOT driver related but Win7 its just giving me a headache just thinking about the mess this is.

    Bought a new Laptop yesterday(ACER Aspire 5732Z-434G25Mn) and from minute 1 hello volume problems: the same i have on my regular PC. Fresh Laptop so no virusses or Ad-ware what might could been the culprits.

    Listening to music, Play a game, Watch a movie volume keeps going up and down automaticly and at random, not one time its related to what sounds are produced since its then at 40 seconds in the song , same song an hour later it does it at 1m 35sec. Sometimes it even goes beserk up and down every second. and there are even times that it doesn't do anything for days without any changes to configurations.

    Possible fixes presented by people wanting this damned problem gone:

    Auto-loudness disable in the Enhancement tab of your sound card: FAIL.

    Communications Tab incoming calls volume levelling disable: FAIL.

    Messing around with Master Volume, Windows sound-effects: FAIL.

    Updating Drivers: FAIL.

    Screwing around in the Programs Settings of WMP, WinAmp, Itunes, Media Center or what other program: FAIL.

    Throwing PC out of Window: Problem Solved but not the Option i want to use.

    So all potential fixes on the net don't work whats next: yelling and screaming at MS employees to stop watching ____ and bring an UPDATE what fixes this? or just go back to an older OS what works but the programs u want to use arent supported by it.

    Come on this problem exists since the launch of 7 please don't say u never heard of it or Dont know how to fix it, you won't get more supporters for your business.

    Well this is of my chest. Have a nice day for my fellow victims.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-08-31T01:11:22+00:00

    Auto-loudness disable in the Enhancement tab of your sound card: FAIL.

    Communications Tab incoming calls volume levelling disable: FAIL.

    Messing around with Master Volume, Windows sound-effects: FAIL.

    Updating Drivers: FAIL.

    Screwing around in the Programs Settings of WMP, WinAmp, Itunes, Media Center or what other program: FAIL.

    Have you tried my answer JasonX ?it minimize the problem,but not solved it..

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-09-12T08:32:13+00:00

    I have the same problem. During any form of audio (winamp, wmp, mp-HC).

    The sound randomly changes volume. This is only since this week. My setup: Creative SB X-Fi.

    Any helpm woud be appreciated..

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