Importing .wav files loses audio levels

When I develop a .wav in Reason and export it as a .wav 16 bit 44100 it sounds quite loud when I play it over my speakers, but when I upload it to SL I can never seem to get it to have the same audio level. It sounds so muffled and quiet. I have the audio levels peaked in Reason without red-lining, and no matter what script I use in SL, I cant get the same impactful sound in SL.

Any ideas?

Idunno what this has to do with "Building", but then again there's really no very sound-centric forum anyway.

My first idea would be that this has something to do with the fact that Second Life gives everyone the ability to adjust the Sound Effects volume, as seen in Preferences > Audio and Video. Then again, if Sound Effects is the issue at all... have you moved your camera right up next to the source of the sound (if that even applies)?

I suppose it would help if you explained how you're testing this sound within SL.

This is an area that I have had problems with myself.

Open your Preferences|Audio&Video|Default Upload Bitrate: and select a higher rate.

Help definition:

Default U/L Bitrate:
When you upload an individual sound file to Second Life, you select the quality it is encoded in. (Larger numbers mean higher quality, but a larger file size, which means the sound takes longer to download and/or play). If you batch upload multiple sound files, this value will be selected automatically.

Give it a try, it might help.

You also need to take in account the distance of the sound source in relation to your camera location. This affects how loud or soft you and other users hear that sound.

You can also adjust how far you can hear sound objects and also at what point it begins to taper down and fade out. This would be the Doppler Effect, Distance, and Rolloff Factor settings in the "Audio&Video" tab in your preferences.

The thing that discouraged me about sound is the fact that each person can have these set differently.

It seems like you could setup your sounds very carefully and still have it all mean nothing because your visitors have made different choices in their preferences.

So, it makes me wonder how people handle this, in practice. Do they assume the default sound settings and make the sound as good as it can be for the default preferences or do they fine tune their preferences to make it sound great? And if they change their preferences, how do they communicate to their visitors the fact that they should change their settings to have the optimum experience?

Even with the settings cranked, and spatial factors taken into account, SL's sound level tends to be quite low. There's really nothing to be done about that. Turn your speakers up for SL, and back down for everything else.

I go with default settings and often only upload at 32K.. As with using the smallest texture you can to get the effect you want, I go for "good enough" with sound. It's rare your sound will be heard in isolation, there's wind, music, and other effects it will be mixed in with, plus the processing for doppler effect etc. I prefer to have fast loading sounds that stand more chance of being heard at the right time rather than great sounds that trigger seconds after the event. I really don't need to hear a door close in CD quality

I think the problem is you are going by "it sounds loud on my speakers". There are umpteen reasons why it might sound loud through your media player and not necessarily be that loud of a wav file.

Assuming you are using a PC, download Audacity. It's freeware and is a nice bit of software.

Open your wav and look at the graphical representation in Audacity. If it isn't all the way to the top and bottom you have room to work with. Select the whole file and choose Effect > Amplify. It will automatically turn it up as high as it can go without clipping. If that isn't enough, find the high peaks and adjust the volume down on those bits, then amplify again. Eventually you'll get to a nice sound that really is as loud as it can be.

If anyone is looking for custom sounds let me know. I can make just about anything for you (under 10 seconds of course).

I know I've heard some drastically loud things from long distances, so there is likely some trick to it. Pretty much anyone that's been around for awhile has run into the infamous farting motorcycle at least once. You can hear that thing putting away from across a sim!

There are more ways to make sound louder.
A smart trick is using a 'compressor' effect.
This is used in TV Commercials, to make the crap
a lot louder than the Movie that got interrupted.
See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_level_compression

Another Way to make it louder in SL might be to
use a Gesture and play the same sound like 20 times
simultanously. This should be loud as hell.