I need a gadget to normalize the volume of my You Tube videos.

[Mobi]

Here’s a nice little one for the audio experts.

I seem to have solved most of the sound quality problems in my bar and I have been turning my attention to the source of my video music tracks.

Up to now I have been downloading tracks from You Tube, storing them on hard disks and making playlists from them which I play through my lap top, via an HDMI cable.

The play lists need constant attention; if there happens to be a bad or inappropriate track playing, or most commonly, the volume needs to be adjusted.

However, for a number of reasons I do not wish to be constantly involved in choosing the tracks, and adjusting the volume etc. every evening.

So I am now using You Tube playlists which are connected to the wife’s computer behind the bar and I am now completely ‘hands free’ – well almost.

We still have the ‘varying volume’ problem, which is now down to the wife, but I would really like to have some kind of volume normalisation gadget that would keep all tracks at the same volume level.

I was using GOM media player which had a normaliser built in to its EQ panel which worked fairly well, but now I am playing directly from You Tube, there is no normalization at all.

So all you experts out there – is there any gadget I can buy, which will not break the bank, that will do the job for me; or am I p..ssing in the proverbial wind.

Thanks for any replies.

[RandomSand]

Re-encode all the videos in a professional video editing package. Sony Vegas Pro or Adobe Premier.

Edited August 9, 2014 by RandomSand

[Riggi]

If you are playing directly from YouTube, then I think you will need a hardware compressor /limiter between your computer and an external amp and speakers.

Some sound cards may have DSP effects onboard that can be applied to the audio out and allow you to limit the levels to speakers plugged directly into the soundcard. But, if you had a soundcard that could do that, you would probably know it.

If you are using a windows machine, if you go into the sound playback settings and the "Enhancements" tab, there is an option for "Loudness Equalizarion". I don't think it's very effective though. A hardware compressor/limiter will probably be the most effective.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Riggi

[KittenKong]

http://www.3appes.com/index.php?action=developments〈=en&id=4

[Mobi]

http://www.3appes.com/index.php?action=developments〈=en&id=4

It looks very interesting. Many thanks.

[WhizBang]

Another option would be to adjust the sound level in the video itself. No need to recode the video, just the audio track.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Although, if you are playing from a windows machine, that Sound Lock program does look interesting.

[jarrcbb]

Are you saving the videos or the audio? It's almost just as easy to save only the audio from a youtube video. I've used http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ in the past to adjust the volume of mp3s.

[Mobi]

Are you saving the videos or the audio? It's almost just as easy to save only the audio from a youtube video. I've used http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ in the past to adjust the volume of mp3s.

The playlist is saved on You tube itself. Then when you hit the playlist title on You tube, it plays all the vids saved under that title, without interruption. So nothing is saved to my hard disk, and I am relying on an internet connection.

(I also have thousands of vid tracks saved to hard disk as a back up if the internet goes down.)

If anyone wants to try it, be aware that YouTube will insert a load of ads between some of the tracks, but these can be removed by using Adblock on Chrome.

[Mobi]

http://www.3appes.com/index.php?action=developments〈=en&id=4

It looks very interesting. Many thanks.

I have just been trying 'Sound Lock' at home and it seems to do the trick very well. It takes maybe a couple of seconds to limit the sound back down if I crank up the volume, but I think it will work OK for the bar.

I think the trick will be to set the sound lock at the 'maximum permitted volume' when I am playing the quietest tracks so that when a louder track follows, the volume will be limited to that of the quieter track. In other words, bring the louder tracks down to the level of the quiter tracks, rather than the other way around.

I will try it out at the bar later today and report back.

Once again many thanks, Kitten Kong - it seems to be such a simple solution to a seemingly insoluble problem.

But what do I know???

Edited August 10, 2014 by Mobi

[PoorSucker]

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

[JSixpack]

Why mess around? Just play one video the whole time:

Has that cooling effect on the customers. BTW, for those looking for white noise at bedtime, that list has some goodies. I might try the Nostromo tonight.

Seriously, me, I wouldn't rely on an internet connection (esp not here) for the purpose. I'd download all & batch convert w/ XMedia Recode

http://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/index.html

Just check the "normalize" option on the audio conversion. But, Up2U.

Edited August 11, 2014 by JSixpack

[KittenKong]

The software I suggested has the advantage of normalising all sources at the output, regardless of what they are. So any file of any type, or any source of live or streamed media, should all play back at the same volume. Even the ultimate horror of Thai Karaoke (and God knows the world seriously needs a Thai Karaoke volume normalisation button, though a mute button would be even better).

[Mobi]

I gave it a try out last night and it seems to work OK although for various reasons, I had the volume quite low so it was not a definitive test. But so far so good. You do get a 1 second burst of high volume music when a loud track starts before sound locker kicks in, but I think I can probably live with this.

As you say, you can use this software for all sound sources.

J Sixpack, we haven't had a single drop out of our internet since we opened the bar 3 1/2 months ago so it seems to be very reliable.

Even if it does crash, I have around 3,000 vid tracks of downloaded and/or ripped vid music tracks on my hard disk, which I can immediately access and play as an alternative.

I was using the hard disks as my prime vid source (using the normaliser in GOM the keep the volumes level) but for various reasons, which I won't go into here, it is better for me to use my You Tube playlists and play direct from You Tube.

Thanks for all the advice/ suggestions, it is much appreciated

[Mobi]

Just to report back that sound locker didn't really work too well, as I had to set the volume to the level of the quietest vid track which meant that the volume on all the other tracks were reduced to this level.

This meant that the overall volume of all the tracks was too low – even with my amp turned to maximum volume.

So I did some Googling and discovered that W7 has a volume equalizer setting on the sound card.

Right click on speaker icon on task bar, playback devices/highlight device being used/properties/enhancements/tick ‘loudness equalization box’.

Job done – works very well

[taotoo]

So I did some Googling and discovered that W7 has a volume equalizer setting on the sound card.

Riggi already told you this in post 3!

[waynethor]

Post removed.

My advice was already given.

Edited August 18, 2014 by waynethor

[Mobi]

Yes you are all correct and my apologies.

I guess I got hung up on the sound locker and didn't look back to earlier posts when I found it didn't work.

Many thanks for all the replies and I'm sorry I didn't acknowledge the posters with the right solution.

[taotoo]

Glad you got it sorted.