It can happen to run into low-volume audio files, especially among MP3 files from a few years ago that, even with the volume of the PC or smartphone at maximum, cannot hear well, thus losing much of the listening quality. Adjust the volume evenly for all tracks you can do with some free PC programs, to use for these tasks or for any other need with audio files.In this guide, we will show you how to raise and increase the maximum volume for an MP3 audio file, a very common problem with this type of file because they are often badly recorded or because you simply want to listen to the song at a louder volume when playing on the speakers of your PC or smartphone.READ ALSO -> Programs for recording audio and sounds on a PC
How to turn up the MP3 music volume
To level and adjust the volume of MP3 files or other recording files in our possession we can use one of these programs recommended below, available for free and usable without paying any professional license.
Increase volume with Audacity
The first program that we recommend you try to raise the audio volume is Audacity, downloadable for free from the official website.
To use the program for this purpose, install it on your computer, open it from the Start menu at the bottom left, press the top left on File -> Open, and choose the audio file with the volume too low; once loaded into the interface we press CTRL+A on the keyboard or on Select -> All, we press on the menu Effects, let’s open the menu amplify, we check the item Allow clipping and scroll the indicator under the heading Amplification, trying to make small increments (visible in the form of dB, i.e. decibels). To check the actual increase in volume, press the button Preview and, if satisfied with the result, we press on OK and save the new file by pressing on the menu File up and using the path Export -> Export as MP3 to save the new file in MP3 format.
To use Audacity like a pro we can also read our guide How to record with Audacity from PC, microphone, or external.
Increase volume with VLC
VLC is a famous multimedia player for Windows but few people know that it can also be successfully used to increase the volume of MP3 files or any other type of audio file. To take advantage of these hidden capabilities, install VLC by downloading it from the official website, open it on the computer, press at the top of the menu Tools, click on Preferences, activate the voice All at the bottom and take us along the path Audio -> Filters -> Gain, setting 1 O 2 as a Gain for the volume, we press OK at the bottom and restart VLC.
Now we are ready to increase the volume of the songs: to proceed let’s go to the menu Media and press on Convert / Save. In the new window that opens, press the button to add the audio files that have too low a volume and press the button Convert / Save down; now we configure the converter by pressing the gear icon (next to the item Profile), we choose as encapsulation MP3, let’s go to the tab Encode audio, we press on the item Audio, let’s go to the tab Filters and activate the filter Gain controller filter.
Let’s set a name for the profile (that’s okay to Increase volume), click on Save and, back to the initial configuration window, select the new custom profile, set the destination by pressing the key Browse next to the item Destination file, and finally we press on Start. After the first step, we will be able to use this conversion profile much more easily, by repeating the procedure and choosing the profile immediately Increase volume, so as to generate new audio files with a much higher volume.
To learn more about the potential of a program like VLC we can also read our guide 25 VLC features: video effects, recording, and much more.
Increase volume with WavePad Audio Editor Free
Another very effective program to raise the audio volume of music and MP3 recordings is WavePad Audio Editor Free, available for free from the Microsoft Store.
To increase the volume, download the program on the PC with Windows 10, start it from the Start menu at the bottom left, and, once you reach the main screen, press the icon at the top Open to open the audio file with low volume. Once the upload is complete, press up on Effects, we choose as an effect Amplify, we choose the gain to be applied by moving one of the two indicators Gain, we listen to the partial result by pressing the key Play and, if satisfied, we press on Apply. To save the new file, click on the menu at the top File and we use the menu Save File As to save a new copy of the music file at an increased volume.
Other ways to turn up the audio volume
Although those seen above are the most effective methods to increase the volume of audio for free for any type of audio file, the alternatives are not lacking and can be tried by reading the bulleted list below:
- A small tool that allows you to raise or lower the volume pitch of an mp3 file is MP Trim. This program allows you to adjust the volume of MP3s both manually and automatically (as does MP3 Gain). The peculiarity lies in the fact that it keeps the musical quality intact and it does not matter how many times an MP3 is processed because it works on the file without having to decode and recode. Among other things, it also allows you to cut MP3s and eliminate silent or unwanted parts.
- Without using programs we can raise the volume of an mp3 file by uploading it to the MP3 Louder site, which also allows you to choose how many decibels to raise the volume of the file and on which channels.
- Another free program, this time open source, for raise and normalize the volume of music tracks and also to normalize the volumes of different audio tracks is LASTAR.
They are all very useful programs for editing audio files and increasing the volume where needed.
Conclusions
If we find ourselves in our hands a music file or a recording with too low a volume, we can quickly intervene with free programs designed to modify the audio, which have a filter to increase the volume in a simple way. More experienced users can also use the unsuspecting VLC to turn up the audio volume of the music, using it as an audio converter.
On the same topic, we can read our guides Cut Audio Files, Split and Merge MP3 Songs and Music: 15 Best Programs e Cut and split video and edit audio on Android.