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
    2010-02-22T04:54:38+00:00

    I am having the exactly same problem. The 7 keep changing the volume to follow the song played..

    For Example: If you play a song (Either from Winamp,iTunes,VLC Media player, PowerDVD, etc) the volume will increasing in 'slow part' of the song..and decreasing AUTOMATICALLY in 'hard part of the song'... If you have no idea about what i say, try to play a song like Linkin Park - New Divide (OST Transformers II) and LISTEN CAREFULLY TO VOLUME CHANGES....and you should know what i mean.

     I know that this is NOT A DRIVER PROBLEM . This things happen because 'auto volume levelling' by 7. And IT CANT BE SEEN IN VOLUME BAR, IT HAPPEN ON THE BACKGROUND

    7 sucks !

    Alternatives are:

    1. Using XP to listen music. It have better hardware mixing support too..since it is still DirectX 9.0 which have Hardware Abstraction Layer , Unlike Vista and 7 which don't have it.
    2. (Experimental) To set volume in 7 LOWER THAN 50. Value of 45-48 is OK and you should notice that volume changes slightly reduced by 7. Please let me know if there is someone fix this up. my email : *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

    PS: Changing Auto Volume Control in WMP changes nothing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-01T15:45:01+00:00

    Hello Shekhar,

    I am having similar issues to pablo, audio output on my motherboard seems to have somewhat annoying automatic leveling. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and operating on an Asus p5q pro turbo motherboard. So far, I have attempted your reccomendation and I have also tried...

    -downloading the most recent sound driver for my motherboard from the Asus website

    -disabling the enhancements in the 'speakers properties' section of the 'sound' settings in the control panel (including Loudness Equalisation)

    -looking for and disabling any automatic functions in Windows Media Player that might create such an effect e.g. Auto Volume Leveling

    All of which have had no effect.

    Thankyou for your time, I look forward to reading any suggestions you may have.

    Matt,

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-11-05T23:09:01+00:00

    I have the same problem. Exclusive mode is disabled.

    Sound card is VIA - IC Ensemble, Inc. with driver Envy24 Family Audio Controller WDM 5.12.1.3654

    Also works fine in XP.

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