This is an appeal to the Geeks here:
When writing, I will often listen to music on my Computer. That has been seamless and trouble free, but with the new Google, YouTube, and Facebook policies things have changed. It is now common that I am listening to Music at lets say 3 db, and suddenly the volume will jump by 6 or more db for an advertisement. This is very distracting.
I've tried software volume limiting before but they somehow defeat that and it is not easy to manually adjust.
Years ago, when I was working big Audio we had a thing called a Compression Amplifier that would take a varying input level and set it at a fixed level. This thing would handle lots of power and was quite expensive, over $1000. We had one that was two channel.
I'm looking for a tiny Compression Amplifier that has a male 1/8th inch Stereo male input and will output to earphones or small speakers.
So far, I have found nothing.
Gwen
Comments
Loud YouTube Ads
I got annoyed enough with YouTube ads I just bit the bullet and got YouTube Premium to eliminate the ads completely. I like to go to sleep to ASMR and the loud commercials spoiled it.
Ad Blockers
There are plenty of ad blockers. The one I use, Adblock Plus works on YouTube. It often gets detected by other web sites. I've decided to be nice to BigCloset, and disable it here.
-- Daphne Xu
This.
There are also *ahem* less savory ways of disabling YT ads depending on your internet browser if you can't afford Premium. That said, Premium is a good deal, supports the people you watch, and has a decent amount of included content exclusive to it (or that you'd have to pay more for.)
As for compressors . . . have you TRIED a software balancing method? Something like DFX Sound Enhancer might give you some of the options you need, and might be worth giving a shot.
Melanie E.
That sound increase is often very painful
for anyone who suffers from Tinitus.
That 6dB increase in sound level (a quadrupling) really causes your ears to go into overdrive.
That's just one of the reasons I never watch TV that has adverts as it is broadcast. I record it instead and skip the ads.
I've also given up listening to most music radio as well for the same reason.
I now hate ALL Adverts. Come the revolution, Ad execs will be up there alongside Lawyers and Politicians (and especially lawyers who became politicians) for their day of judgment. It won't be a pretty sight.
Samantha
Stupid Strategy!
Loud advertising increased volume, is a really stupid strategy, or at least short sighted. It makes the ads disturbing, rather then just mildly intrusive or boring, encouraging people to do something to avoid them. At it's simplest, it is a lot easier to hit mute then to play with the volume level. I know the idea is to attract your attention if it has wandered, but it seems self defeating if they are making people kill the ads.
This is not really something entirely new though, it is just a new venue. Broadcast TV has been doing this for years, especially late at night. Boom suddenly triple volume, can you say. "keeping the volume low, so as not to disturb, spouse, sleeping kids, neighbors etc".
Separately(mostly):
I am finding(and much more so lately), that I could us something like a Compression Amplifier, for both both my TV and computer. I am sure that for Advertisements a lot of it is deliberate, but I find the problem is not just ads. Input levels are all over the place. Watching a series if shows, the show changes, and you need to adjust the volume, change channels, and you need to change the volume. Listening to playlist, one song is too loud, another is to low, I am constantly fiddling with the volume.
If it doesn't exist someone needs to write this software, if it does, it needs better distribution.
And can someone tell me how to stop both my cable-box, and Netflix from popping up a window asking if I am still watching? Lol!
~ Hypatia >i< ..:::
volume
Have a good day and enjoy life.
The service is the problem.
Advertisers have broadcast companies and social media companies increase the "gain" on their advertisements compared to the "gain" level of their other broadcasts/streams. This is an old trick and "gain" is a separate setting than "volume".
I suggest if this is a problem, you could stop listening to streams and set up your own audio collection. There are several free audio/video players out there.
I suggest VLC player. It is free and flexible software.
What you want to do isn't
What you want to do isn't compression, or leveling. You want to normalize the audio. That raises or lowers to a set point. compression reduces a set -amount- (or increases).
So, if you could find a normalization streamer, something that could act as a 'playback device' to a web browser, it'd make sure that nothing that came out was louder than X, or quieter than Y. (depending on which way you wanted to go)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.