Freesound Forums

Hello, this is my first post in the forums but I've been here for many years. I love the site immensely and I really consider it near perfection, but my number one criticism has always been the lack of a volume control slider / button.

I don't know if it's just me, but I tend to have my headphones on a lot and my system sound on full. It may sound like a weak point, but I don't have a volume control option on my headset and I would really appreciate my best and favourite sound effects website to include the option to adjust the source audio volume when previewing wildly different submissions. Maybe a slider or knob between the 'Stop' and 'Display' buttons, at least that's where I've always expected to find one. Even if it's just to play a sound alongside another source that I wish to compare with different volumes, I think it's a long needed feature and a basic one that every sound/video hosting site should have.

Compared to all the other free sound websites alike, this is certainly my first pick and I owe a lot to the FreeSound community in my work as a foley artist and sound editor. So my best regards, whatever you choose for the future.

I would love this as well, I have the same problem with my headphones and I think it would help users find out what a certain sound would sound like at different volumes. I know I sometimes find sounds that sound like something else at different volumes and then I edit them and change them a bit but for me I never turn down my volume when listening to sounds(Not even for loud sounds) so I think this would be perfect for the site.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned this sooner.

Best Regards,
18hiltc

Just here to say after 11 years, I would also love a level / volume slider.

Changing Chrome's level each time isn't as comfortable and I usually browse Freesound with my DAW open to test compatibility with my project.

Great website & amazing project,
Cheers!

I would love a option to normalise loudness of sound in the preview.
Cheers

I wouldn't like the idea of normlizing, in any way, the sound.
As a producer, I like to make my own choices in quality and volume.
I am glad that freesound chooses to leave things as they are.

I insist it would be good, and user comfort should come first.
To clear things, I'm only talking about preview, not the downloaded file.

Although people do generally manage their levels and the general quality here is great, really quiet sounds do happen, some users aren't experienced enough yet to manage their gain.

To hear what goes on, the user must either download on their end, and add gain to the sound, or crank their computer/amplifier volume up, which is IMO undesirable (loud sound incoming?)

I don't believe normalising would change the dynamics or quality of the sound. As long as we don't clip it. Maybe lowering the volume would? Normalising should only be up in those cases.

Given the heavy preview compression, I believe sounds would actually have better quality being normalised then converted to mp3 preview, than a quiet recording converted and boosted up on the user end on their speakers.
If quality is really an issue here, we'd both agree to battle on better compression; rather than a negligible gain increase.

I do sympathise that sometimes leaving things quieter is an artistic choice. I have uploaded intentionally padded sounds (say -18db peak) because I expect users to incorporate the sound at around my chosen volume, and it hides noise which would be overwhelming if normalised, but unnoticed at an expected level. Example, a river at full blast can be dishonest compared to it being quieter.

I still believe the user should have an option for a normalised preview from the website, rather than by downloading and doing it on their end. The result would be the same just more practical, and perhaps showcase a great sound over missing it by lazying over the process to hear it comfortably.

It could, and should be an option to which one is the default (normalised or original upload).
Or at the very least, have the normal version by default, and have a easy button to toggle a normalised version if the user wishes.

We could even imagine, this feature to be lockable on the uploader's end. So people who intentionally chose a quieter recording can lock their desired level, and a less experimented user can allow the normalisation process. But then that's probably a unnecessary extra step/checkbox in the uploading process.

Cheers for hearing me out. I hope I was loud and clear (Just for the pun )

Hey friends !
If normalised preview becomes an option, personally, I would rather deactivate it, as I prefer to hear the sound with its original volume and dynamic range.
So, in any case, it wou be great if the users could keep control.

Wishing you all the best !

Kevin