Have you ever been bugged by the fact that the dialogues in the movies are quiet, but the action scenes and sound effects are LOUD? We have all noticed this at one point in time. You pop in a DVD for your favorite movie, load it up in VLC to play it and as soon as there are some sound effects, they ring your ears. Well, there is a solution for fixing the loud action and quiet dialogue volume using VLC Media Player. We use the compressor tool under the audio effects and filters to fix this issue. We can also do it using the normalize volume option but the compressor’s better.
So, how do we fix the loud action and sound effects vs the soft-spoken low volume dialogue?
Here are the steps:
Using the Compressor
- Go to Tools > Effects and Filters [CTRL + E].
- Switch to the Compressor tab under Audio Effects.
- Activate the Enable checkbox.
- Drag the individual sliders to these settings.
- Hit Close, when you are done.
What did we do?
- Threshold Slider: Threshold determines when the compressor begins to act. The sound wave doesn’t go above this point. Our example has -23.8 dB. As the signal goes above -23.8 dB, the compression will happen.
- Ratio: It is the ratio of the input to the output of the signal that crosses the threshold. Our example shows a high 20:1 ratio. That means, for every 20 dB over the threshold, the compressor will output 1db of that signal. That’s a lot of compressions. 1:1 means no compression.
- Attack and Release: These two are used to determine the speed of the compression. When the signal reaches the threshold, the attack will dictate how fast it will start. The release is when it goes back to the original tone after the compression ends.
- Makeup Gain: Sliding this will make the quiet parts (those with the dialogues) louder.
Note: The settings might depend from movie to movie and scene to scene. But remember that the makeup gain slider is moved so that you can hear the quiet parts and ratio and threshold slider will affect the action parts with heavy sound effects. Play with these settings a little more to get the best output.
View Comments (39)
Still no fix for android tv?
I just had the same problem and tried these setting and it did not work for me. I did manage to fix it by right clicking on screen - Audio - Stereo Mode - Stereo. It was on Original
Tweaked the settings but this provided a great baseline and explaination to what the settings actually do.
thanks movies have been driving me nuts constantly adjusting the volume every few mins
Worked! For months I've been looking for a solution. Finally hit upon the correct search terms to find this page. Thanks!
Sadly it didn't help my quiet audio on my documentary.
I'm facing the same problem but I'm using my phone so, idk how to fix it. Need help
Such a great article! Thank you!
OMFG I am So glad I finally found this!!! I have been struggling to learn about and understand ball the "bells and whistles, "s o to speak (special features and fine tuning). ANYWAY, how does this differ from the volume normalization filter? I have had that set, and it seemd to be helping sometimes, and other times not so much....The description for that, sounded a lot like this - that isn't clipping, is it?
Anyway, if you could explain or point me in the right direction, I'd be grateful.. While i type, i am giving the compressor the ultimate test - adult film with THE LARGEST dynamic range I have ever seen (well, heard), and those films are usually pretty bad that way anyway. Will let you know...hehe! So, thank you, and I look forward to learning more!
Brilliant. For some stupid reason windows 11 doesn't let me compress audio but this worked a treat. Thank you!