Getting sound on your computer set to the correct level is an exercise in frustration. There are just too many locations for setting volume, and then not everyone who creates the sound really knows what they’re doing.
Sound troubleshooting was once one of the most popular types of email questions I received. The biggest issue on a computer is that, unlike just about every other sound-generating device in human history — including the little sister — the PC has more than one volume control.
Your phone, iPod, television set, stereo — all these traditional noise-generating machines have a single volume knob. True: You may have several remotes used to control a modern HDTV, but they all manipulate the same volume control. That’s just not true on a PC.
The PC’s first volume control is the speaker unit itself. Many PC speakers have a volume knob. That’s the ultimate control: Turn it up and the sound is loud, turn it down and no power elsewhere in the system can make it louder.
The next volume control on the PC is in Windows, the control found on the Volume notification, shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The Master Volume control in Windows 7.
The Volume notification is the PC’s master volume control on the software side. Even then, additional volume controls are found on the specific program that generate the noise.
For example, in Figure 2 you see the volume control on a typical YouTube video.
Figure 2. The YouTube video volume control.
It’s the YouTube volume control gizmo that motivated me to write this post. Sometimes I find myself sliding it all the way up. Other times, I’m content with a more central volume setting.
The worst times are when I have to crank YouTube all the way up, then crank the Windows master volume control all the way up, then crank the speakers all the way up. I have to do all those things just to hear the stupid video.
Of course, all that cranky volume adjustment isn’t because of anything I’ve done wrong. If you’ve had to deal with the same process, then there’s nothing you’ve done wrong, either. No, the problem was with the idiot who recorded the video.
As I wrote at the start of this post, not everyone who creates sound knows what they hell they’re doing. Audio must be recorded with a certain punch to it. When the audio is under-recorded, the listener has to suffer through the gyrations of changing audio setting just to hear the thing.
Worse: When you listen to another recording, one that’s properly recorded, you’ll blow out your eardrums. That’s because before you had to over-compensate for the poorly-recorded video.
Again, there’s nothing you can do to fix this issue. You just have to be mindful of the volume controls. If you can remember, turn down the volume after you listen to a poorly-recorded video. And if you do end up recording your own audio, record it with some punch. It’s easier to turn down the sound on a PC than it is to fumble through several locations to get the sound loud enough.
