HOLY CRAP THAT'S LOUD

April 28, 2010 5:19 PM

Is there any way to normalize the volume output on my PC so I'm not startled by clicking on a video link? The volume on YouTube and other sites varies so wildly from video to video that my modus operandi is to mute before I play the video, then slowly increase the volume, but I'm hoping there is a better way.
posted by desjardins to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Well, there's your computer's volume setting of course (that little triangle-emitting-parentheses in the lower right-hand corner of the screen). My strategy is to set that at a "reasonably tolerable" level, because I startle easily. Say around 50%.

Then I adjust the volume on iTunes separately, so that its volume is pretty much maxed out.

Most videos autoplay at around 75% of full volume, so this seems to work pretty well.
posted by ErikaB at 9:11 PM on April 28, 2010

I haven't seen a software auto gain control that works in realtime, doing exactly what you want (and what I want). It may be much harder then it sounds?I'm hoping somebody here has a better solution, I tend to do the same thing you do with YouTube videos etc.
posted by defcom1 at 10:33 PM on April 28, 2010

Userscripts.org is currently down, but once it comes back up, here is a script that both stops the auto-play on YouTube (allowing the video to buffer instead) and auto-mutes the videos.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:52 PM on April 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

What sort of computer? I have a compressor between my computer & the speakers, but that may be overkill. It's also good for leveling out movies that EXPLODE ONE MINUTE and then whisper the next.
posted by MesoFilter at 1:38 PM on April 29, 2010

I've always hated that volume is so complicated. I have speaker volume, windows volume, and then each application has volume as well. And on top of that, windows lets me adjust the volume of each application too, which is different from the built-in application volume. And then each video and mp3 has a different base volume. There has to be a better way.
posted by Nothing at 2:02 PM on April 30, 2010

This software could do the trick, but it's a bit expensive ($30); there's a demo version. There's probably a free program that does much of the same thing.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:22 PM on July 29, 2010