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Topic: How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes! (Read 9466 times) previous topic - next topic
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How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

I have an audiobook that is too quiet to listen to when I'm walking in the street or am in a bus. I've already used mp3gain (105 dB). What else can I do? I'm already using the highest volume level on my device (an Android smartphone).

How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

Reply #1 –
With the appropriate tools (a decent audio editor), you can increase the signal level of the data through amplification and compression. The actual potential of both of these depend upon the source material. The data will have to be decoded to wav first. It may need to be re-encoded to a lossy format again (e.g. mp3) afterwards, depending upon the needs of your player.

The easy process or amplification, often spoken of simply as normalization. The potential for increase depends upon the data's current maximum level.

If the "quietness" is due to too high a dynamic range (some currently loud parts mixed with parts that are too soft), dynamic compression and limiting can make a significant difference. Compression can increase the loudness differentially, having the most effect on the quietest parts, so that everything ends up more nearly the same loudness.

This is more tricky processing, by far, than amplification. The potential settings are endless, so either considerable experience, or major patience for much experimenting, is necessary to get good results. There are relatively simple compressors, there are multi-band compressors, and probably a few more specialized variants. The best results are obtained with skillful use of the more complex types. There is no simple formula for use, but you should be able to find guidelines.

How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Slowik1988 on
I have an audiobook that is too quiet to listen to when I'm walking in the street or am in a bus. I've already used mp3gain (105 dB). What else can I do? I'm already using the highest volume level on my device (an Android smartphone).


For audio books, I transcode from the FLAC image/cuesheet master to MP3 using Foobar and add the DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) DSP along with Album Gain applied. I find this obtains a fairly uniform volume across all discs and titles with the DRC helpful for the situations you've described. In most instances I also downmix to mono (as my daughter sometimes plays the files with just a single ear-bug in place).

It reads like your file is MP3 to start with in which case the process I described would be lossy to lossy and hence a potential to loose quality. Audio books are quite forgiving bit rate wise. I use LAME V9 for smallest file and the audio is perfectly fine with my process.

How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

Reply #3 –
To boost the loudness as much as possible, you will need to apply some dynamic range compression. Audacity and Goldwave as well as other audio editors can do this, you will need to play around with the settings to find what works best. Then maximize the volume in said audio editor (some will call this "normalize"). No need to get MP3gain or Replaygain involved in this, they are not meant to boost the volume.

Normally lossy-to-lossy transcoding is a bad idea for quality, but for an audiobook where the quality isn't as important as with music, I'd consider it acceptable.

How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Slowik1988 on
I have an audiobook that is too quiet to listen to when I'm walking in the street or am in a bus. I've already used mp3gain (105 dB). What else can I do? I'm already using the highest volume level on my device (an Android smartphone).


Look and see if you can modify the device's analog output gain to go higher.  This is possible on some phones.

How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

Reply #5 –
Even the bare-boned waveform editor found in Exact Audio Copy will suffice for the kind of DR compression the OP will probably need.
• Listen to the music, not the media it's on
• The older, the 'lossier'

How can I make an audiobook as loud as possible? Anything goes!

Reply #6 –

If it's just not loud enough (maybe not a dynamic range issue) you could look into more sensitive earphones.