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  • EADD Moderators: Pissed_and_messed | Shinji Ikari

The EADD Windows Technical Gibberings Thread

Im using windows 7 and streaming things from all sorts of sites.. some.. kinda.. illegal (solarmovie.so, watchseries.net)..

Some movies will be fine but other will be too quiet on full volume.. It's not just a question of how much my speakers / software can handle..

What I am looking for is something like VLC Players 200% thing but something that I can use on all players, sites, etc..
 
Ok matey I will have a stab at this.

I download HD films. Legit of course. Most of them are quiet. I have to really turn up my amp to get the dialogue to a level to hear it. Then the gun shots make me shit my pants. Thing is films are made this way on purpose to add extra impact to the loud parts.

The thing with music is most of it is normalised (making the track as being as close to as loud as it can possibly go before the audio distorts) and also mastered and compressed in a lot of cases (making the quiet bits loud and the loud bits quieter to have a constant throughout the track so the result can further be pushed towards the distort limit) this gives the music the maximum impact when heard in clubs or on earphones.

I have no idea if there is an application that will normalise an audio signal before it sends it to your laptop speakers while watching online video but will have a look for you. Not suggesting this is the only solution but I believe if such an application exists it would work for what you have explained in your original post.

edit. First link says windows can do this but it's a by soundcard thing. Some do it some don't. You will have to toggle it 'on' for films or 'off' for music everytime though. Thing is 'on' it messes with music, 'off' it messes with films (when I say it messes with them I mean it plays then as they were intended to be heard i.e. like you describe 'too quiet in parts'). But it can be done. Depending on your soundcard. I'll carry on digging.
 
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As somebody mentioned VLC you can boost volume more than with other players.

Also I use Ubuntu and with this OS I have much better sound option than with Windows or Mac and have an extra sound bar in the option section I can use to further increase system and media volume.
 
Yeah but he's not using VLC to watch online video Kenny. The VLC 200% thing is not recommended btw. Try it. Turn a video up to 200% and your speakers on max. The loud bits will distort I promise you.

rickolasnice - what soundcard do you have? Onboard sound? Post your laptop specs please, make and model.
 
Maybe Kenny. I agree online video does have shit audio, they are taken from the source though and that source had the same audio levels. I have a suspicion he would experience crisper clearer audio if he downloaded a film but the problem of the quiet bits being quiet and the loud bits being loud would remain.

I wouldn't mind pursuing the normalisation option though. Before you need to think of installing a new OS like Kenny has suggested. Rickolasnice can you post what laptop you have please. I can then find out what soundcard you have and see if the built in sound options have a normalisation option you can try. Humour me mate. It might work.

It will take little of your time and then if it doesn't work there is nothing stopping you then trying a new OS.

edit. Ceres has practically said the exact same thing I have (his post was more eloquent but hey ho I tried).
 
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normalising audio can only help so much, all it does is bring the loudest transient up to 0db, so if there is a loud pop or a click or a loud segment but mostly quiet segments, it won't make a huge difference to the perceived volume, and the difference between the loudest and quietest parts will still be identical.

streaming video is likely to be quiter anyway if lower sample rates are used, due to the reduced headroom.
 
Will it, ok then. I thought a program or part of the soundcard driver could include something that normalises the signal before it is sent to the speakers. Therefore making the quiet bits louder and the loud bits quieter on the fly.

Like in this article:

http://superuser.com/questions/93688/quickly-switch-windows-7-volume-normalization-on-off

In the first post of the above article he describes what rickolasnice does and what you confirmed in your first post about the nature of music and film.

If it really is the case that this won't work, how about using the soundcards eq settings to boost all frequencies making the entire audio range louder like the 200% VLC thing?
 
Making quiet bits louder and loud bits quieter needs a limiter, which actually cuts the tops off the transient peaks before normalising it so the overall perceived volume increases. It can sound quite unpleasant though, I'd suspect if windows 7 has something to do that built in it won't be great.

Trying to overdrive the speakers will just result in distortion. When I'm watching films I tend to just keep the volume control within reach and adjust it through the film :/
 
Ceres said:
Making quiet bits louder and loud bits quieter needs a limiter, which actually cuts the tops off the transient peaks before normalising it so the overall perceived volume increases. It can sound quite unpleasant though, I'd suspect if windows 7 has something to do that built in it won't be great.
Click to expand...

May not be great, but worth a little stab for the sake of ticking a few boxes and finding out? He can always put them back afterwards. Are you sure you mean a limiter, I thought a limiter just limited the the gain of a signal to a predetermined amount. Like capping the volume?

Trying to overdrive the speakers will just result in distortion. When I'm watching films I tend to just keep the volume control within reach and adjust it through the film :/
Click to expand...

Yes agreed that's why the VLC 200% thing will resort in distortion on the loud bits.
 
Maybe I'm being thick but I think there is EU legislation which artificially limits the output of consumer devices, does this not affect laptops sold in the EU and could that not be the source of the OP's issue


EDIT Apparently only if the device comes with headphones. Ignore me. (counts seconds till everyone always does anyway)
 
knock said:
Maybe I'm being thick but I think there is EU legislation which artificially limits the output of consumer devices, does this not affect laptops sold in the EU and could that not be the source of the OP's issue


EDIT Apparently only if the device comes with headphones. Ignore me.
Click to expand...

There is, which is why my mp3 player is set to "rest of world" in the language settings. Much louder that way!
 
Ceres said:
What you're talking about is called dynamic range, and it depends entirely on how the audio of the film, mp3 etc was produced and mastered. In films a lot of effort is made to maintain maximum dynamic range available, meaning quiet things are very quiet, and louder moments are a lot louder, transients are preserved and more exaggerated, because it's dramatic, but this can mean the overall perceived loudness of the soundtrack is lower.
With alot of modern music dynamic range is sacrificed to bring up the overall perceived loudness of the track, so it sounds like a wall of noise rather than having any drama.
Click to expand...

Is it though? I think the OP is saying some streams/files play louder than other streams/files - that the loudest parts of some media are quieter than the loudest parts of other media, in which case normalising should increase the level of the quieter media, should it not?

rickolasnice said:
Some movies will be fine but other will be too quiet on full volume
Click to expand...

OP what the fuck does your user name mean, it's been doing my head in for ever.
 
yeah, a limiter reduces the loudness of the loudest parts, reducing the difference between the quiet parts and the loud parts, meaning the overall loudness of the track can be increased.
 
knock said:
Is it though? I think the OP is saying some streams/files play louder than other streams/files - that the loudest parts of some media are quieter than the loudest parts of other media, in which case normalising should increase the level of the quieter media, should it not?
Click to expand...

audio can still sound quiet but be normalised to 0db, the overall loudness of the whole audio track is constrained by the loudness of the loudest peak in the waveform. If that loudest peak is at 0db then there is no headroom left to normalise the track any louder.
 
Ceres said:
audio can still sound quiet but be normalised to 0db, the overall loudness of the whole audio track is constrained by the loudness of the loudest peak in the waveform. If that loudest peak is at 0db then there is no headroom left to normalise the track any louder.
Click to expand...

Did you read what I said? Just to be clear I said that it sounds like the OP is saying some media is not at 0db at the loudest part ;)

Here's a thread going on about Windows 7 audio being quiet. Might help. I'm merging this with the Windows Gibberings.
 
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Ceres said:
it will be at 0db, just overall perceived loudness is less because of the increased dynamic range of the audio.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep11/articles/loudness.htm explains in depth the relationship between dynamic range and loudness.
Click to expand...

But is it really that complex (in this case)? I myself have obtained media files from different sources which appear to have different dynamic ranges because of the way they've been digitised. Why is not just that simple? If you listen to a properly produced album the dynamic range is consistent. If you grab random MP3s people have made from a vinyl recording the dynamic range can be different.
 
Ceres said:
audio can still sound quiet but be normalised to 0db, the overall loudness of the whole audio track is constrained by the loudness of the loudest peak in the waveform. If that loudest peak is at 0db then there is no headroom left to normalise the track any louder.
Click to expand...

Ceres I use an audio program that checks the waveform if I perform normalisation on it, it boosts the quiet bits to 0db (you can set it to other values like -2 if you need too) it doesn't touch the volume levels or peaks or pops that are already at the predetermined level. Unless the pops or hits are above the level predetermined. It then reduces the volume of these sections. It does not cut off the peak of the waveform. It just reduces the volume level. The entire track becomes a completely flat waveform at a set level, say -2db.
 
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