Make MP3 file louder

Is there any way I can make an MP3 file louder? I tried MP3Gain (which I actually use frequently for leveling audio files) and it capped at 105.9dB, which isn't loud enough and the quality starts to degrade. I tried messing around a lot in Audacity, trying normalize and amplify, but they seemed to do nothing (I could use amplify to make it quieter if I wanted to). The only thing that kind of worked was increasing the Gain in the Bass/Treble effect, which made it sound completely terrible. I'm doing this for an outdated device (iPAQ 210 with Windows Mobile 6) so I doubt I can do anything to the device to make it louder. Help?

In Audacity, go Effect, Equalization and use the center 'blip' to drag the whole line upwards. Click OK. Save as mp3. See pic

It still has the same terrible audio problem. I tried doing normalize first, since that makes the bars smaller first, then doing equalizer, but still had terrible audio problem. My bars look a lot different than yours. Top is before and bottom is after.

I don't think Audacity can "undo" a poorly recorded mp3. If it was originally recorded at too low or too high a level, it may not be correctable. You'd have clipping distortion if recorded too hot or background noise if recorded too low.

I'd try to re-record or find another version of the same file if possible. Otherwise, you can fiddle around at the margins with equalizer settings or noise reduction tools, but I wouldn't expect miracles.

Those wave forms generally look bad to me---overloaded, banging against the ceiling.

quadrplax said:

That's interesting, I got my songs by downloading them from YouTube with clipconverter.cc and it looks like that is the only song that even makes it halfway to the top. I'll try getting the same song from another video.

If you got it from Youtube, I'd bypass clipconverter.cc.

Just start Audacity in recording mode and then load the video in Youtube and let Audacity record it while you listen.

You are at the mercy of the guy who uploaded the file to Youtube. If his recording is poor, your recording or download of that recording will suffer and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

You can probably improve it a bit via Audacity and that would certainly be a better choice than clipconverter.

I use mp3gain and like it, but it's not perfect. It samples the song at many points and does what it can. I'm not sure all playback applications will follow the modifications made by mp3gain. It doesn't actually change the audio portion, but it gives instructions to the playback app to modify perceived volume. You can play around with it and change the setting from 89 to 99 or 79 and see what you get on your player.

This song is from Monstercat, so I doubt it would be his fault for bad quality. I tried recording it myself, which isn't the best since my horrible internet won't let me watch 1080p. I used the equalizer on it, and alas after switching between the tracks (recorded and MP3Gain'ed) they were both about the same volume. If there is a maximum possible volume, I'm guessing I've hit it.

In my first post I simulated a low volume mp3 as an example (volume reduced in Audacity). Correct level should look like this (after any processing) -



if the level hits the top, it is clipping (distorted).

BTW re YouTube - see forum rule 4

4) No piracy or discussion of piracy allowed at all. Such as software, music, videos and other intellectual property violations (e.g. downloading youtube videos locally etc)

Oh, sry about that violation, anyway, how would you fix the clipping/distorted problem? My audio reaches the top in many places before any editing, as you can see from my image.

Like ignatzatsonic said, you can't undo clipping/distortion. The problem seems to be the source material. I'm not sure what mp3gain does, but it may be making things worse. I suggest getting a clean copy of the music you want, and if necessary tweak the level in Audacity, but keep the max below the ceiling.