Audacity: Change Audio Volume
Audacity allows us to quickly change the volume of our audio. This is different from normalization, which focuses on the “peaks” (i.e., the spikes) in audio. If interested in learn more about Normalizing Audio see Audacity Support’s Normalize tutorial. Instead, what we are doing is changing the overall volume, which may create spikes and clipping.
| 1 | Drag-select the part of the clip we want to change the volume of OR use CTRL+A or CMD+A to select the entire clip. |  Whole clip selected
|
| 2 | Then, click on Effect at the top. | Highlighting the Effect menu item
|
| 3 | Then, hover over Volume and Compression and select Amplify… | Highlighting the Volume and Compression option and the Amplify option
|
| 4 | (A) A positive amplification will increase the the volume. (B)A negative amplification will decrease the volume. To prevent clipping, deselect “Allow Clipping”. However, note that the Apply button may no longer be clickable if we do this. | A Positive amplification Negative amplification
|
| 5 | Click on Preview to see how the amplification will affect your audio. Otherwise, click on Apply to apply the change. | Highlighting the Apply button
|
| 6 | (A) If we increased the volume, we should see our waveforms get taller. (B) If we decreased our volume, we should see our waveforms get smaller. | A Showing what increasing the volume did B Showing what decreasing the volume did
|