How to make audio louder and normalize the volume
A quiet recording, a podcast that has to match others, or several clips at different levels: Tailwave has the right tool for each, without clipping.
Normalize: the safe way
- Open the editor, drop in your file and select it all (Ctrl+A).
- Choose
- Pick a target. raises everything until the loudest moment reaches, say, −1 dB. sets how loud it sounds on average, in LUFS: about −14 for music streaming, −16 for podcasts, −23 for broadcast. Peaks never go past full scale.
- Apply, listen and export.
Other ways
- Amplify () adds a fixed amount, from −24 to +24 dB. Good for one quiet section.
- Compressor evens out loud and soft passages, so speech sounds fuller and more present.
- Limiter lets you push the level up while keeping the peaks under a ceiling.
- At export: the export dialog's option normalizes the file you save to −14 or −16 LUFS, leaving the project as it is.
Check the result
shows each track's integrated loudness (LUFS), peak, RMS level and how many samples are clipped. marks any place where the audio hits the ceiling.