Questions tagged [audio]

For questions about the recording and playback of speech and music on your computer, as well as for problems about the sound component of videos.

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1583 votes
6 answers
164k views

How do I make a machine "blank screen" for a period of time (as a penalty) if certain noise levels are reached?

My kids (4 and 5) yell a lot when playing games on the computer. I found an effective cure for this. When I hear loud noises, I ssh into the game computer and do: chvt 3; sleep 15; chvt 7 This ...
Leonid Volnitsky's user avatar
607 votes
11 answers
256k views

From a quality perspective, what is better: turning volume up in the software, in the OS, or on the speakers?

If music isn't loud enough, how do I get the best quality (even if the difference is in fact so small it's negligible)? By making the music louder in my music player, game or other sound-producing ...
Qqwy's user avatar
  • 4,447
307 votes
16 answers
208k views

Combine one image + one audio file to make one video using FFmpeg

This should be pretty trivial, but I can't find a way to get it to work. I want FFmpeg to take one JPEG image and an audio file as input and generate a video file of the same duration as the audio ...
matteo's user avatar
  • 4,339
212 votes
6 answers
260k views

How can I normalize audio using ffmpeg?

I want the loudest peak sound in a movie clip to be as loud as the codec allows, then have every other sound amplified accordingly. What's a practical example in order to accomplish this using ffmpeg?...
Jon Skarpeteig's user avatar
171 votes
2 answers
120k views

ffmpeg - replace audio in video

How to replace the audio in a video file using an audio file using ffmpeg? I imagine the command looks like: ffmpeg -i v.mp4 -i a.wav -MAGIC video-new.mp4 This is very similar to How to replace an ...
qubodup's user avatar
  • 8,794
131 votes
9 answers
272k views

Is there a way to listen to the input sound on Mac OS X?

Is there any easy way to listen to the input on a Mac? For example, assume I have a microphone hooked up to the input (i.e. line in) of my Mac, and I have headphones hooked up to the output of my ...
Senseful's user avatar
  • 4,240
122 votes
6 answers
38k views

Can I write (200 MB - 150 min) music to a (700 MB - 80 min) CD?

I have mp3 songs of audio quality 320 kbps. The total size of the songs is around 200 MBs with a total playing time of around 150 minutes. Can I write these songs to an audio CD, whose specs are ...
skm's user avatar
  • 941
122 votes
14 answers
393k views

How can I control the master volume in Windows?

Some keyboards have volume controls on them that can be pressed anytime to control the master volume. My keyboard does not have that. Is there a way that I can create a key macro that will work like ...
Phenom's user avatar
  • 6,647
122 votes
7 answers
364k views

Is there a way to restart audio without restarting a Windows 7 computer?

Sometimes, when I start my machine, the volume control is set to 100, but it plays relatively quiet. I can fix it by rebooting my machine. Is there a way to restart audio devices, without rebooting ...
xylar's user avatar
  • 1,393
119 votes
7 answers
163k views

FFMPEG: Convert m4a to mp3 without significant loss

I have a load of audio files (about 1000) which I want to convert from m4a to mp3 so I can use play them on a CD player which has a USB port. I tried doing something simple like: ffmpeg -i FILE.m4a ...
user3728501's user avatar
  • 2,714
114 votes
10 answers
308k views

Play MP3 or WAV file via the Linux command line

I would like to make an alarm system backed by a Ubuntu (no graphical interface) box, which plays various announcement and alarm audio tracks (.mp3 or .wav) via the command line. For example: $ root&...
c2h2's user avatar
  • 2,423
114 votes
15 answers
519k views

Bad sound through bluetooth headphones

I have a problem with the sound quality of a pair of Acoustic CHP600BT Solutions Bluetooth Headphones - Black. When I connect these headphones to my phone (Samsung S2 plus), the sound quality is ...
iCoRe's user avatar
  • 1,241
113 votes
6 answers
631k views

Does DisplayPort carry sound as HDMI does?

Does DisplayPort carry sound as HDMI does? Specifically, I am looking at Lenovo Laptops T410 or T510. I'm wondering if the spec permits for audio over DP, and if possible whether the Lenovo laptops I ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 6,309
105 votes
6 answers
164k views

"reload" mac audio drivers without rebooting

I have an external audio interface (M-audio fast track c400). In order to get my macbook to recognize it (display in audio/midi setup), I have to reboot, which is a hassle. I have had other m-audio ...
RyanM's user avatar
  • 1,173
95 votes
2 answers
454k views

What's the difference between stereo and hands free?

Every time I connect a bluetooth headset it shows up as 2 things on sound playback devices. I can choose bluedio stereo or bluedio hands free. What is that? What's the difference? I often see the ...
user4951's user avatar
  • 4,695
93 votes
2 answers
263k views

What do ALSA devices like "hw:0,0" mean? How do I figure out which to use?

I've searched over and over and can't find any explanation of what "hw:0,0" means. How do I determine the number of my USB audio card? MPD requires me to enter something like this: audio_output { ...
endolith's user avatar
  • 7,627
87 votes
8 answers
104k views

Reduce background noise and optimize the speech from an audio clip using ffmpeg

I extract audio clips from a video file for speech recognition. These videos come from mobile/other handmade devices and hence contain a lot of noise. I want to reduce the background noise of the ...
Sudh's user avatar
  • 983
79 votes
2 answers
146k views

Windows 8 turns program sound volume down randomly

I recently upgraded to Windows 8 from Win 7 64 bit and have started to encounter a strange issue. When I have any program running which plays sound, such as a game or spotify, after a random interval (...
peacemaker's user avatar
78 votes
1 answer
125k views

Add audio to video using FFmpeg

I’m trying to add sound to a video using FFmpeg, but for some reason, when I play the resulting file, it doesn't have any sound. I also tried doing it with an aac audio file, as well as leaving out -...
Arlen Beiler's user avatar
  • 1,640
77 votes
4 answers
159k views

Disable "ding" sound when changing volume on Windows

Every time I change the audio level via Windows 7 Professional x64's Task Bar's audio control to up or down, Windows does a ding sound, which is quite annoying. How do you disable this?
Alex's user avatar
  • 1,287
76 votes
12 answers
216k views

Routing Applications sound to different sound device? (Windows)

Anyone know how I can set for an application to output its audio to a specific device in Windows? I'm dealing with applications where it's not possible to go into their settings and choose which ...
john41's user avatar
  • 761
75 votes
13 answers
136k views

Properly downmix 5.1 to stereo using ffmpeg

I have a 5.1 audio track from a film where front left and front right contains music, and center contains dialogue. Playing the 5.1 track in VLC blends everything together nicely. I'm trying to ...
forthrin's user avatar
  • 2,037
73 votes
2 answers
56k views

How do ALSA and PulseAudio relate?

While trying to get my sound to work, I was wondering about the roles of ALSA and PulseAudio. I have both installed and was wondering, for example, which of them needs to know about my sound card. ...
Hanno Fietz's user avatar
  • 1,565
72 votes
7 answers
187k views

Restart Ubuntu sound processes via command line

I tried to hibernate Ubuntu (which fails, but thats another issue) and resumed my system. After this, the sound doesn't get played. What command can/should I run to restart the ubuntu sound system.
lprsd's user avatar
  • 2,885
70 votes
10 answers
195k views

Windows 10 volume randomly jumps to 100%

Today I installed Windows 10, and I love it except for this bug: The volume has a bug. When I'm watching YouTube videos on Microsoft Edge and I click next video, my ears will be blown off because, ...
Sebastian Olsen's user avatar
69 votes
9 answers
681k views

How do I play audio through a Bluetooth headset in Windows 7?

I recently did an in-place upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 RTM. For the most part, things have gone brilliantly. The only issue I've been facing is regarding my Bluetooth headset, a Dell BH200. The ...
palehorse's user avatar
  • 1,362
66 votes
2 answers
46k views

Computer volume drops when USB deviced plugged in

This is really an odd issue. When I close the laptop (I use it on a docking station; it doesn't leave the docking station when this issue occurs) or when I open iTunes, the volume output on the ...
Justin's user avatar
  • 886
66 votes
10 answers
395k views

Windows keeps making these random "device connect" and "device disconnect" sounds

Throughout the day I notice that my computer makes apparently random device-connect and/or device-disconnect ("boink") sounds. I suppose it is the same sound you hear when connecting or ...
Steve Elmer's user avatar
66 votes
4 answers
53k views

How do you mute the ding sound in Google Chrome when find on page returns no results?

In Google Chrome, on Windows 7, if you hit Ctrl+F and you type in random letters, you will hear a ding sound. I want to mute that sound. How would I go about doing that?
Deets McGeets's user avatar
62 votes
10 answers
135k views

Can I increase the sound volume above 100% in Linux?

I am running KDE 4.6 in Debian Testing. Is there a way to increase the sound (i.e. more than the standard 100%)? The current settings with my speakers seem a bit too quiet in some cases. I found a ...
Grzenio's user avatar
  • 2,967
62 votes
3 answers
139k views

How to encode audio with Opus codec?

The Opus audio codec looks like the best codec so far for compressing audio. It has recently become supported in the latest ffmpeg and VLC players. However, there is no documentation I can find on how ...
MrDrMcCoy's user avatar
  • 997
62 votes
8 answers
344k views

How do I swap audio output of the left and right speakers?

I have two speakers stereo speakers but when I use the sound control panel applet to test my audio configuration I get sound in the right speaker when the user interface indicates the right speaker ...
Manga Lee's user avatar
  • 1,363
61 votes
12 answers
198k views

How to make the PC speaker beep from the Windows 7 command prompt?

I'm running some lengthy video encodes using the Handbrake command line interface. After all my encodes are done, I would like to have the PC speaker beep, as I usually turn my large external speakers ...
oKtosiTe's user avatar
  • 9,578
60 votes
4 answers
116k views

Is it possible to have two sources of audio output to different speakers in Windows 10?

I have a Bluetooth speaker that I’d like to stream my Spotify music to while at the same time having my YouTube video from Chrome output sound to my monitor speaker. I’m using a DP cable. Is this ...
Pandaria's user avatar
  • 653
59 votes
6 answers
15k views

Do most music CDs contain the needed info about their tracks?

I see that many audio players (I mean multimedia software like Winamp or Foobar2000) have the ability of searching music information on databases like CDDB. Shouldn't such info already be available on ...
user avatar
59 votes
3 answers
159k views

Convert mp3 to wav using FFmpeg for VBR

What command should I use to convert a mp3 file to wav whose bitrate is variable. Or better how would I know whether that source audio is fixed bitrate or variable?
Soham Dasgupta's user avatar
59 votes
6 answers
88k views

How to stream my GNU/Linux audio output to Android devices over WI-FI?

I want to stream my audio output over the network (Wi-Fi) to my Android devices. I'm not looking for a music/video streaming solution, but I would stream any audio output of my GNU/Linux desktop to my ...
semente's user avatar
  • 590
57 votes
8 answers
10k views

How do I check if a 2-track WAV file is "really" in stereo?

I have an audio file (WAV format to be specific). When I open it with an editor (e.g. audacity), I see two channels I suspect that the recording is actually mono rather than audio, i.e. I suspect the ...
einpoklum's user avatar
  • 9,423
57 votes
4 answers
18k views

Can I losslessly increase the volume of an MP3 file?

I want to increase the volume of some MP3 files that I have. Is there a way to do this in a lossless way (without re-compressing the MP3 file and hence decreasing its quality)?
user602675's user avatar
56 votes
9 answers
518k views

How to use two audio devices simultaneously with Windows 7?

I have an audio connector on board (Asus P8H67-I) and an USB audio card (Teufel). How can I use the two devices simultaneously? As far as I can see I have to set one device to the standard output ...
ceving's user avatar
  • 1,957
56 votes
9 answers
228k views

Turn volume up over 100% in Windows 7

I find that for some applications, even turning the volume up to 100% on their application or the master volume just isn't enough. Is there some setting somewhere where I can push the limit?
Matt's user avatar
  • 6,309
55 votes
3 answers
33k views

How can I play a sound from the command line in macOS?

I would like to play a short sound file from the command line in Mac OS X, independent of any audio player application, in order to provide notification that a long job has finished.
Kevin Reid's user avatar
  • 3,412
53 votes
15 answers
51k views

Does it make sense converting a file to a higher audio bitrate?

When a certain file (mp4, flv, etc) has a 95 kbps audio bitrate - does it make sense outputing to a higher bitrate when converting to mp3 or other format (be it lossy or not)? Would this result in ...
user avatar
52 votes
8 answers
111k views

How to decode AAC (.m4a) audio files into WAV?

How would you convert (decode) AAC files into WAV format? (Or, if you prefer, how to decode & re-encode them into MP3 or Ogg Vorbis? But WAV is sufficient as I already have good tools for WAV ➔ ...
Jonik's user avatar
  • 5,750
51 votes
3 answers
270k views

How can I switch an application to a different playback device on Windows 10 [duplicate]

Googling for solutions to this problem seems to lead to third party solutions like this, sometimes with scripting like this. I'm no stranger to either, but It seems crazy to me that there isn't a ...
kdbanman's user avatar
  • 1,976
50 votes
8 answers
40k views

Disable audio output to DisplayPort device

I'm on OSX 10.9.2 using a Samsung SA850 Display connected to the display port of my MBP 15" Late 2012 Model. All seems fine, but there is a problem with audio. Generally, whenever the display goes to ...
SQRCAT's user avatar
  • 657
49 votes
3 answers
77k views

Windows 10, manually reconnect to already paired Bluetooth device?

On Windows 10 and I've already paired the Bluetooth headset previously. When I turn it on it connects to the last used device (my iPhone; I manually disconnect). How do I tell Windows "Please ...
DeepSpace101's user avatar
  • 8,837
49 votes
5 answers
265k views

Google Chrome adjust volume per tab

Is it possible to adjust the volume of individual tabs in Google Chrome? I've found an extension that allows the volume to be muted, but it does not allow variable volumes. UPDATE Years after asking ...
dtmland's user avatar
  • 2,783
48 votes
3 answers
367k views

How to create a virtual audio device and stream audio input with it

Here's my concrete problem: I am broadcasting a game via XFire and it uses the Windows audio device to capture any audio I receive. As I am broadcasting, other users who watch the video stream are ...
Steven Rosato's user avatar
48 votes
5 answers
525k views

HD Audio or AC97 connector - Which to use when, and what's the difference?

I'm currently setting up a older system in a new case (i'll be upgrading it in stages, and the old parts then go back into the old case ;p), and i'm having a bit of confusion over which cable to use, ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 129k

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