Increase the Volume of Audio Files with Vloud

Cheryl — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:29:13 +0000

Like most people, I have a fairly large collection of music in a digital format. The only problem is that very often I get songs that are at different volume levels. This is irksome because then I have situations where one song is really loud and the next one is very soft.

To solve this problem, I usually standardize the volume of all my audio files. To do this, I use a little program called MP3Gain. But if you do not want to add to the endless list of software installed on your computer, you can opt for getting the job done with a browser-based application. One such tool is Vloud.

Vloud allows you to upload any mp3 or wav file to the site and change its volume according to your preferences. Using the site is easy. Select the desired volume you want your file to have from the options light, loud, louder, and loudest. Then, upload the original file and wait for the changes to take place. Once the file is ready, you can listen to it online or download it to your hard drive.

The site is not without its limitations. One of them is that the uploaded file can be a maximum of 10MB. This is not a problem if you’re uploading individual songs but won’t work if you want to use a concert recording for example. Another thing I didn’t like was that the volume settings were too vague. A ‘loud’ setting does not really tell me how my file is going to sound after conversion. So I’d have to keep trying different settings till I found one I liked.

Overall though, Vloud is quite useful especially for people who do not want to be burdened with things like bitrates, decibels, and frequencies. Plus, for those who only require to change file volume once in a while, using an application like Vloud makes more sense.

What do you think of Vloud? Is it worthwhile using a web app on your audio files? What other similar tools do you know of? Let me know in the comments.

Tags: browser-based tool, Vloud, volume control, web application

Skinnable Volume Controller 3RVX

Martin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:01:41 +0000

Some users willingly give up Megabytes of RAM to skin and beautify their system. One area that is often overlooked is the volume controller. The software 3RVX (via Shell Extension City) tries to change this by offering a skinnable volume controller that adds some very nice effects to the system.

It comes with seven great looking skins that use alpha blending and fade effects. A total of six hotkeys can be set in the application which comes with three pre-configured ones to lower and raise the volume plus to mute the sound totally.

Each time a hotkey is used the volume control skin will be shown, the changes are made visible and the volume control fades slowly away if there is no further user input.

The program options provide access to some interesting features. A custom change amount for the volume sliders can be chosen by entering a percentage value in the program. That could be interesting if you want to fine tune the volume of the music.

The Fade Delay and Speed can be changed in the options but more interesting than that is probably to select a custom sound mixer.

3RVX looks definitely nice and could be an option for users who like stylish little applications. The Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 is required to run this application.

Tags: software, volume, volume control, Windows

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Increase the Volume of Audio Files with Vloud

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