Skip to main content

How to Increase the Audio Volume of a Video File

Ever downloaded a video from the internet that is barely audible? Fixing the audio volume is a simple matter of demuxing the video file into its constituting video and audio channels, adding a constant gain to the audio channel and then packing both together into a video container. This tutorial will show you how to do that.

Years ago, I wrote a similar tutorial showing readers how to increase the volume of the audio channel of a video file using a software called VirtualDub. The method described worked only with AVI files. The new method that I’m going to describe in this tutorial works with common video formats such as MP4, MKV and AVI.

We will use a software called Avidemux. It’s a portable software, so after downloading simply extract the contents of the archive into a folder and launch the file called avidemux.exe.

From the File menu, click Open and select the video file whose volume you want to increase.

On the left hand side, under Video Output choose the Copy option. This should already be selected by default. Under Audio Output, choose AAC (lav). Then click on the button “Filters” under Audio Output.

avidemux-audio

In the Audio Filters window, click on the button that says “None” next to Gain and from the drop-down menu choose “Manual (dB)”.

avidemux-audio2

In the Gain value enter the figure in decibel corresponding to the amplification desired by referring to the Decibel-Ratio chart given below. For example, a dB value of 2 will increase the volume by a ratio of 1.58 (or 58%). A dB value of 3 will double the audio volume. A dB value of 6 will quadruple (x4) the audio volume and so on.

Decibel (dB) Amplification (Ratio)
+30 dB 1000
+20 dB 100
16 dB 40
13 dB 20
10 dB 10
9 dB 8
8 dB 6.31
7 dB 5.01
6 dB 4
5 dB 3.16
4 dB 2.51
3 dB 2
2 dB 1.58
1 dB 1.26

Make sure you don’t increase the volume too much, otherwise there will be clipping of the audio signal and this will sound on your speakers as static, which is certainly undesirable.

You can preview the results by switching to “Output” by clicking on the button shown below and then playing the video file using the playback controls on the bottom of the program’s window.

avidemux-audio3

Under Output format, choose either MKV muxer or AVI muxer or MP4 muxer depending on whether the original file was MKV or AVI or MP4. But you can choose any video container, it doesn’t really matter.

Save the video by clicking on the Save button. The program will start encoding which will take just a couple of minutes at most.

Comments

  1. Help please... Every time I try to save the video it says CRASH and the program closes and the video is no where to be found. I followed each instruction to the letter and have tried every dB value from 0 to 30 with the same results. I don't know anything else to try and I can't find out what is going through the internet. So if you know what I'm doing wrong or have any ideas please help. It would be greatly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't say why you are experiencing crashes. I suggest you select another audio codec, other than AAC (lav) and see what happens. Also verify whether the program crashes for every video file or that particular one.

      Delete
    2. Thank you for your help... I switched to AC3 (lav) and it worked perfectly!

      Delete
    3. I’m afraid that you need to reinstall the software then try again. Actually, you can increase volume by using Windows Movie Maker directly. It’s a preinstalled application for Windows operating system. Also, the operations are quite easy. You can simply go to “Edit” tab then adjust volume in the option of “Video Volume” when editing the video file. Aside from this program, video converter studio(http://www.apowersoft.com/video-converter-studio.html)is also capable increasing volume. And it offers more advanced editing functions.

      Delete
    4. ..concerning the the Windows Movie maker can you add all movies files to this program? i tried to add a movie to it but nothing happen./Lenny

      Delete
  2. Yes, my experience exactly the same. As soon as the 'Save' tab is pressed the Avidemux program crashes. Unfortunately there is simply too much of this half baked rubbish on the internet now. Over the past few years it has become harder and harder to find reliable information for what should be simply questions. It has got to the point where forum sites are no longer viable for resource material

    ReplyDelete
  3. Followed the instructions point for point. It did not change the volume in the preview, or in the finished product. Either a step is missing in this tutorial, or it just doesn't work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Worked fine for me. With that said, I couldn't hear my audio adjustments by using the preview function. However, when I saved the file and played it back the increase in audio was certainly there.

    Thanks, Kaushik!

    ReplyDelete
  5. No good for me. When I follow the instructions and click save, I get: "Cannot setup audio encoder, make sure your stream is compatible with audio encoder (number of channels, bitrate, format)" - followed by: "File ... was NOT saved correctly" (where "..." is the output pathfilename). Also the downloaded file is *not* a simple archive file, it's a fully-fledged installer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello I had the same problem what was the solution?/Lenny

      Delete
  6. ... and if I choose other audio codecs it just segfaults (like others have said). I'm on 32-bit Windows 7. Not to be rude, but, this program is clearly a bit of a steaming pile!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I also could not hear a change in volume when I previewed my video, but the change was apparent after I saved the video.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can't hear any audio from the video file before and after editing, but I hear it using other players.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I´m happy. It works perfectly!!!! thanks

    ReplyDelete
  10. I downloaded avidemux & followed all steps but could not preview the result by switching to "output" after clicking on the button shown. Plz mention all the steps one by one.

    ReplyDelete
  11. by manual gain sound is not increasing . And also there is no AAC(lav) there is AAC(Faac) and others.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Works like a charm, thanks!
    Mike Davies in England.

    ReplyDelete
  13. To everyone who's volume didn't change in the finished file... use "gspot" to find what the audio codec is being used in the file, then match that with the 'audio output' in this pgm. for me the movie used 'ac3', and using 'aac-lav' wasn't working until I changed it to 'ac3-lav'. hope this helps

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used: