Why is all audio on websites so freakin loud?!

[superboyac]

Why is the audio on websites so loud all the time?  It's always loud, and I'm not talking just a little too loud.  It's more like it's 5 times the volume of what anyone could possibly want.  And it has nothing to do with your local audio settings because that is always set to what you prefer to hear.  Even if you have your local settings to pretty low volume, the website audio is super loud.  Like on youtube, the comfortable setting for me with my local audio settings is with the youtube slider at about 5% with the rare exception.  All flash videos and audio playing embedded on websites are ridiculously loud.  Anything on myspace is crazy loud.

I use IndieVolume to deal with it, but why the hell does it have to be so loud in the first place.  Possibly the most annoying thing about the web.

[kimmchii]

to get your attention. 

[f0dder]

Range compression <3... or not >_<.

[Fred Nerd]

My question is: Why do they play those audio ads on some sites where you can neither turn off the sound or even turn it down. The only thing I can do is mute the system until I navigate away. Which really annoys me if I listening to music.

Does anyone know how to mute Firefox?

At least YouTube and Myspace let you turn down the sound easily enough

[Deozaan]

Got a link to application that lets you adjust volume on a per-application basis?

I really liked that about Vista.

[mwb1100]

Got a link to application that lets you adjust volume on a per-application basis?

Does anyone know of an app other than IndieVolume that does this for XP?  I have IndieVolume, but it has problems with Flash that make it so I'm unable to use it for browsers.

[superboyac]

I only know about IndieVolume.  It crashes often for me also on a lot of webpages.  Kind of defeats the purpose, but the author is constantly removing bugs, so i can't really complain.  I think it's difficult to make it really stable because everyone's internet programs are so wildly different, especially with Firefox and all the plugins and stuff.  FOr an audio program to intercept and work smoothly with everything must be difficult.

PS  Go to the new Milk website for whitegoldiswhitegold.com  It is SO LOUD, even on my very low volume settings.  Geez, it's insane.  I wish there was an application like TV's have now where the volume adjusts so it never goes over a certain volume.

[nite_monkey]

thats weird, for me, I am turning down the volume when listening to music through winamp and vlc, but I have to turn it up on half the crap on the internet, with the exception of random websites that happen to have audio that isn't so dang quiet that I have to turn the volume up to almost max.

[Deozaan]

It seems to me that usually videos are on either extreme: Way too loud or way too quiet. But music on websites/blogs/home pages is usually just way too loud or maybe the music is just always annoying stuff I don't like so I don't like it being so loud.

[oldfart]

I've got auto volume control on my TV.  I sure wish they offered a similar system for my computer.

[Darwin]

I only know about IndieVolume.  It crashes often for me also on a lot of webpages.  Kind of defeats the purpose, but the author is constantly removing bugs, so i can't really complain.

Last update was Oct 31, 2007! Seems to be moribund now... I've repeatedly reported a couple of bugs and conflicts (worst is with ClipMate) with no response. Sad, because it is an otherwise useful application - great idea. At least it is graceful when it chokes on ClipMate. Still annoying though!

[mwb1100]

Just an FYI on IndieVolume - the developer has returned.  He's posted an update version 3.0.71.137 that so far has the major improvement for me of not crashing when Flash spits out some audio.  The new release still has some issues (particularly with attempting to mute applications), but as far as I'm concerned this update makes it usable for my purposes.

http://www.indievolume.com/downloads/IndieVolume.3.0.71.137.zip

[superboyac]

That would be awesome.  I love Indievolume, and I love how the developer is constantly updating the program, but in the past, it does crash all the time, to a point where I only use it when I know I'll be visiting loud web sites for a prolonged period of time.  So, I'm happy to hear the update has improved that.

[wreckedcarzz]

thats weird, for me, I am turning down the volume when listening to music through winamp and vlc, but I have to turn it up on half the crap on the internet, with the exception of random websites that happen to have audio that isn't so dang quiet that I have to turn the volume up to almost max.

Ditto - I almost always have to turn UP my system's Master Volume level. And then I'll forget I did, and go play a game, and lose my eardrums for several minutes.

And as for automatic volume control - this can be done somewhat through your sound card's (not onboard, you need a "good" sound card with good drivers) options - I have an EQ that is usually active (just a basic "Flat" mode), and several other similar options. But when you want the volume to go way up, you gotta turn off the automatic stuff.