Why turning up the volume does not work
Every recording has peaks: the loudest moments, like a laugh or a hard “p”. If you simply raise the volume, those peaks hit the maximum level first and clip, which sounds like crackling distortion. Meanwhile the quiet words are still quiet compared with the loud ones.
To make a voice sound louder, you need to make the quiet and loud parts closer together first, then raise the whole thing safely.
The three tools that make a voice louder
- Compressor: turns the loud parts down and lets the quiet parts through, so the whole voice is more even.
- Limiter: a very fast compressor at the very top that stops any peak from going over a set ceiling, so nothing clips.
- Loudness normalisation: measures how loud the whole file sounds (in LUFS) and raises it to a target, such as −16 LUFS for podcasts.
Make a voice louder in Wow My Voice
- Open the recording in the studio.
- Keep Clean Voice or pick Podcast. Both turn the compressor on.
- If there is background noise, keep Noise Suppression on. Otherwise making the voice louder makes the noise louder too.
- Export with the Podcast (−16 LUFS) or YouTube (−14 LUFS) target. The file is measured, raised to that loudness and limited so peaks stay under the ceiling.
That is it: a quiet voice comes up to a normal level, without clipping.
How loud is loud enough?
- Podcasts: about −16 LUFS is the common target.
- YouTube and video: about −14 LUFS.
- Audiobooks: about −19 LUFS with peaks under −3 dB, the Voiceover preset.
- Voice notes and calls: the Call preset makes a small, clear file.
When a recording is too quiet to save
If the voice is barely above the noise, raising it raises the noise too. Noise suppression helps a lot, but very quiet, distant speech will never sound close-miked. Next time, record closer to the mic and check the level meter before you start.