Low Volume in MediaMonkey

[J-Mac]

I have almost stopped playing my music files in MediaMonkey lately, mainly because the volume is too low on most tracks. Also, the difference in volume from track to track is pretty big - I usually have to manually adjust the volume for every track I play - even for tracks in the same ripped CD.

Why is this? I have tried the Analyze Volume feature and also the Levelize Volume Option. Results are not good here; neither seems to help with the volume very much, if at all. The worst thing about this is that when I am playing tracks in MM I often have to crank the volume way up just to make the music sound reasonable at all - and I don't like my volume blasting; just pretty normal. Then I'll get a Windows dialog for some reason or another - unrelated - and the sound file that plays with the dialog is ear-splitting loud just because the volume has to be cranked up so high for MM. Or after closing MM I open another program - forgetting what I set the volume at for MM - and again the sound level is unbelievably loud.

I have MM (Gold License) installed on my desktop computer running Windows XP Pro SP2. Sound card is a Creative X-Fi xTreme Music, so it should be decent sound and volume - all other programs seem to be fine as far as volume goes.

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

Jim

[Peke]

Check Tools -> Options -> Player -> Volume leveling and Set all to 95 dB, Playback Volume -> Per Track, and Enable Clipping Prevention. Additionally check Volume Slider (Right part of Player) to see if it is all up.

Also Enable Play -> Level Playback Volume and all should be normalized correctly.

[J-Mac]

Check Tools -> Options -> Player -> Volume leveling and Set all to 95 dB, Playback Volume -> Per Track, and Enable Clipping Prevention. Additionally check Volume Slider (Right part of Player) to see if it is all up.

Also Enable Play -> Level Playback Volume and all should be normalized correctly.

Thanks Peke. I'll give all that a try.

Jim

[J-Mac]

Peke,

Sorry, I forgot to post back to say how this went. Basically it helped. Didn't fix all, but it has made it a lot more tolerable.

Thanks again!

Jim

[rovingcowboy]

look at the winamp website downloads page for plugins and see if you can find any dsp plugin that will work for you.

i got the old one called wide & dynamic but i don't know if will work with mm 3.1 beta test versions. it does on the 3.0.3 version

still there are better new ones out there that are free so try one of them you can also find a cut back trial one on monkeys download page.

but before you do all that make sure your mixers are set up to the right volume.

[J-Mac]

Thanks RC. BTW, do you mean mixers setup on my sound card?

Jim

[rovingcowboy]

yep if you have them like the turtle beach sound card does. but also the ones on the computer.

[Sumit]

Open TOOLS > OUTPUT PLUG-INS ( PLAYER ) > Click on CONFIGURE ( LOOK RIGHT ) > Set the value of the PULL DOWN MENU ( STRAIGHT UP ) to your default audio device. Viola.. ( GOOD EMOTES )

[rovingcowboy]

Sumit you did see this was an 4 year old error i'm sure he fixed it by now, but your right setting the default device to the sound card does help even fixes it in some cases.

[J-Mac]

Thanks for the reply Sumit. I have gotten past the volume problem but you never know when I will need more info or advice.

Thanks again!

Jim

[RichMusic]

Ok, so the original post for this was made in 2009, but this thread is the one I found using Google when I tried to investigate the problem I had been having for a some time, even with the latest version MediaMonkey 4.1.5.1719, so I thought I would post a reply here.

In my particular case, I am using MediaMonkey on a laptop connected to a TV via HDMI (I use the TV as the default display at 1920 x 1080, and list to sound either via the optical digital output from the TV to other equipment, or the TVs headset output).

The original post included:

I have MM (Gold License) installed on my desktop computer running Windows XP Pro SP2. Sound card is a Creative X-Fi xTreme Music, so it should be decent sound and volume - all other programs seem to be fine as far as volume goes.

which was exactly the problem I experienced. Although, I understand the various tweaks that can be made connected to Volume Levelling, the key thing experienced was overall volume low, compared with any other software or Windows system sounds, when all set to the same level in the system sound mixer.

One of the follow up posts (by Sumit) may have been true for the version he was using at the time, but I found the solution for me by using:

Tools (menu) --> Options (dialog box) ---> Player ---> Output Plug-ins (on left) to list Available Output Plug-ins: (on right)

The 3 listed for me (with nothing extra installed) are:

Name........................................File
- MediaMonkey DirectSound output ....out_MMDS.dll
- MediaMonkey WASAPI output..........out_WASAPI.dll
- waveOut output v2.0.2a................out_wave.dll

I found that by changing the (default) DirectSound selection to the WASAPI output one, the problem was solved for me. MediaMonkey now givess me a good sound output equivalent to other software or system sounds.

Note: On Clicking the Configure button (on the right) with WASAPI selected, there is an drop-down option to select a specific device (which listed all of my available ones) but I left it as "Default device" and in fact did not change anything at all in that dialog.

Hope this helps someone...

[J-Mac]

Thanks for the info, RichMusic. Very much appreciated!

Jim

[skohlmey]

Thanks for the tip to try the WASAPI output! This solved my quiet volume problem too.

I have my laptop connected to my stereo via HDMI and the MM volume was substantially quieter than using WMP. I tried everything but nothing worked until I switched output plugins to WASAPI. Thanks again.

[iceblinklk]

I am having this same issue with low volume, but I can't figure out how to switch to the WASAPI output. When I go to the Output Plug-ins screen, I see the WASAPI output as my second option, but I can't figure out how to select it. The radio button next to the DirectSound option is active, but clicking on WASAPI does nothing, and double-clicking on WASAPI just opens the Configure window. Any ideas?

[MMFrLife]

The radio button next to the DirectSound option is active, but clicking on WASAPI does nothing, and double-clicking on WASAPI just opens the Configure window.

1. Have you restarted MM since this has occurred?
2. Have you rebooted the system since this has occured?
3. Try closing MM and any other software (web browser) that might be running at the same time as MM. Resta MM by itself > try again.
4. Do you have any addons or utilities within MM running, like the equalizer? If so, disable all of them > restart MM > try again.