uploaded sounds are very faint

I have been trying to upload sounds, but while they do work it seems as though the volume is chopped by 50% or more after upload.

For some I have simply been able to amplify it on my personal computer so that when it plays the speakers crackle, yet after upload it plays at normal volume (though a bit distorted because of all the amplification).

What is going on and how can I fix this?

When uploaded sounds are played in world, they are played from the avatar or object that contains the sound. I thought mine were fairly faint...until I zoomed into my avatar, got in nice and close and could hear them fine.
(also didnt realise that I had my soundfx turned way down in the preferences lol...so that didnt help)

Were the clips you uploaded saved in mono or stereo format? I've found that a clip in mono sounds quite a bit louder than the exact same clip saved in stereo. It's something to consider, at least.

The sounds I've worked with have all been mono based.

Yeah.. not a problem there - the keyboards will be very loud with their clacking and yet my sounds are very faint.

something else I discovered buy accident.. build them into gestures, and trigger the same sound 3 times in a row, for triple volume. any more then that, and you'll get an "echo" effect.

In an audio editing program, make sure sounds are normalized to 100% volume. In some situations you may even wish to amplify it a bit more so that there's some clipping (but not enough to seriously distort the sound.)

What sound program are you using?

Where are you getting the sounds from?

If you already have a sound editor see if it has a Normalize function.

You could try going to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and downloading and installing Audacity.

Then open your wav file, do Edit Select All or click in the graph and press Ctrl-A, then do Effects Normalize.

Then save the file and try uploading it again.

Audacity also has a Compressor effect that might be useful; this would have the effect of reducing the difference between sthe volume of the loudest and quietest passages in the wav file. The Compressor effect normalizes by default after compression so if you do the compression you probably won't need to do a separate normalization.

I'm using audacity already - but the normalize function didn't actually increase the volume level any but seemed to do the opposite. How do I use it to normalize UP rather than down?

Try using the Compressor function on the original file instead of normalize.

Are you starting from the original file or one you have already increased the volume of?

Maybe you could got to http://cl1p.net and put a copy of the original file there so folks can see if they can see what's going on and see how to fix it.

I still have the original unmodified sound, import into an audacity project and then fiddle, and export to a different file. I'll try the compressor function, thanks for the tips everyone.

Audacity also has a Leveling function, which appears to say it does what the compression function does.

I assume that other sounds in SL play at a normal volume, right?

Edited:

Just tested. My suggestion didn't work

Yup - all the sound packs from other people and built in SL sounds are normal volume, only the ones I upload are faint.

I'm having the exact same problem, using audacity and getting very faint sound even when zoomed in on my avatar. Mine are stereo though, I guess I'll try it on test, see if it duplicates the problem, then try to fix it there. Cheaper that way.

Same problem here. Wasted L$20 to upload two files.

Same problem.. the sound is quite loud if the camera and avatar are positioned perfectly, but the sound drops off profoundly if I move or even turn in place. My own sounds are all mono, and I've noticed the effect has worsened with sound clips that seemed to work fine a year or two ago.

I got the same problem, I've been working on the same sound file over and over to try and make it louder nothing I do makes it louder when it is uploaded. This is not a problem with my effects volume, all other sounds that I play from my inventory are louder than the sound I upload. I'm using WavePad and I've amplified the wav until my speakers crackle but when I upload to SL it is fainter than any sounds in my inventory. I have tried everything, compressing, different sample rates at upload time, I've read thru the knowledge base and these froums but nothing fixes this problem. I'm into animations and making gestures now so not being able to add my own sounds is really killing me.

Can anyone please help?

wow. all this crapping on about external audio editors and nobody wonders about the script running the sound. have you looked for script variables?

Nina---

default { state_entry() { llLoopSound( "sound", 1.0 ); } }

What script variables ? The volume goes from 0.0 to 1.0. It's maxed.

you arent surprised nobody even wondered about that?
i upload 16bit/mono/44.1k and dont have this problem. what format did you upload?

Am I understanding correctly that the OPs problem is that sounds that they upload are quiet in comparison to sounds they've acquired from other sources?

Unlike the OP, mine are mono, not stereo... but definitely 16bit and 44.1k.

It's not just my sounds that I'm having the problem with. Sometimes sounds can be heard up to 20m away from the source, but it's usually more like 4m-5m away that they fade out completely.

Like, I said in another post, I somewhat suspect that linden lab has squelched the distance over which sounds carry becaues they get used often to annoy people and less often for anything 'nice'. I just wish llTriggerSoundLimited() worked as I expected it to, with a uniform volume of playsound within the boundingbox given it.

Souds uploaded are always much fainter than in the sound program, this is true.

Normalize and/or compress. EVERYONE DOES IT. Sometimes compressors are fancier and have names like volum maximizer, puncher or somthing else. They wuar very wall at maximizing sound volume as logng as you don;t go too far

second, by default sound drop off in the preferences for your account are set for massive fall off at distance, I always set mine so I can hear farther. this makes things sound louder.

I was told at one time that the volume in side scripts actually goes to 2.0 wich is max volume but further distance penetration (this may be a myth).

Proper use of a compressor and your own scripts including the dreded tripple playback call trick can make your sounds as loud or louder than anyone elses. Also, reduce the sound drop off factor in your own preferences (and get rid of doppler completely, it's worthless and broken) for better sounds in SL in properly soundscaped environments.