• Welcome to BellGab.com Archive.
 

Hard limit on windows sound volume?

Started by zeebo, July 20, 2015, 08:27:33 PM

zeebo

I've been listening to podcasts on my headphones alot more, and invariably some stream will blow out my eardrums.

Is there some way on windows, either at the system level, or via software, to put a HARD LIMIT on the system volume, i.e. which says "No matter what any other setting says don't EVER play any sound over X decibels?"

cweb

I'm not sure about this on Windows as a whole. Some sound card softwares may allow you to do this. Maybe someone else here knows?

On the purely software end, VLC has a compressor in the effects folder. You could set it to something extreme to emulate a hard limiter.

Or use foobar2000. It has many DSPs. I think it comes with a hard limiter plugin (at least mine does).

wr250

Quote from: zeebo on July 20, 2015, 08:27:33 PM
I've been listening to podcasts on my headphones alot more, and invariably some stream will blow out my eardrums.

Is there some way on windows, either at the system level, or via software, to put a HARD LIMIT on the system volume, i.e. which says "No matter what any other setting says don't EVER play any sound over X decibels?"
normalize volume in vlc:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=91355

zeebo

Thanks cweb I found the limiters for Foobar, so will experiment with those.  (I use that now over VLC for audio these days but thx for the link anyway wr250.)

Still, what about embedded players on browsers or other uncommonly used apps?  I like this idea of a direct sound-card limiter.  Something which says "Hey sound card, no matter what any idiot tells you, don't blast it louder than middle row at a Who concert!"  I'll check into it.

cweb

My Windows 7 box looks like it may have an output-device-specific option.

Open volume mixer -> click the icon of your device -> click "enhancements" tab -> click "loudness equalization"

Your device may vary, but this is on a standard Dell rig with integrated audio.

zeebo

Quote from: cweb on July 22, 2015, 07:16:19 AM
My Windows 7 box looks like it may have an output-device-specific option.

Open volume mixer -> click the icon of your device -> click "enhancements" tab -> click "loudness equalization"

Your device may vary, but this is on a standard Dell rig with integrated audio.

Thanks I just found an article which points to this method, which apparently is a system-wide setting, but it said if I don't see the Enhancements tab, which I don't, then my sound card doesn't support it.  Looks like for now I'm stuck with application-level fixes but hopefully this info will help someone else.

Btw, within foobar2000, for local files only, I found a nice feature called ReplayGain which pre-scans and normalizes any selected files in a playlist (unfortunately doesn't work for streams).  The cool thing is the way it does this, it doesn't modify the music itself, it just adds metadata to the file which tells foobar to auto-adjust the volume on replay.

cweb

Quote from: zeebo on July 22, 2015, 12:27:21 PM
Thanks I just found an article which points to this method, which apparently is a system-wide setting, but it said if I don't see the Enhancements tab, which I don't, then my sound card doesn't support it.  Looks like for now I'm stuck with application-level fixes but hopefully this info will help someone else.

Btw, within foobar2000, for local files only, I found a nice feature called ReplayGain which pre-scans and normalizes any selected files in a playlist (unfortunately doesn't work for streams).  The cool thing is the way it does this, it doesn't modify the music itself, it just adds metadata to the file which tells foobar to auto-adjust the volume on replay.
Replaygain is pretty awesome, especially because it can store info on your overall track adjustment and the adjustment you'd need if you simply wanted to play the songs back as an album (not so useful for podcasts, but great for music). There are a limited number of mp3 players and apps that can actually ready this tag data, too.

iTunes did something similar, called volume leveling or whatever. I'm not sure how they did it, but replaygain always seemed to be more effective. Plus I hate iTunes.  8)

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod