How to make an audio file louder than your maximum speaker volume ?
Currently writing my dissertation on Blockchain technology, I have to transcribe recorded interviews.
I have recently recorded with my macbook an interview conducted over a phone.
Problem: I can’t hear properly the voice of the interviewee and therefore, it is really difficult to transcribe. Simply because I do not understand it.
Such a nightmare situation. So how to deal with that ?
By simply increasing the maximum decibels of your audio file:
This is a quick and easy solution using the free software Audacity, in only 4 steps !
Step 1: Download Audacity Software
Go to: File > Open and Select your audio file that you want to open. Beware that Audacity accepts not every audio files format (see this page for more details):
- Uncompressed audio formats: most WAV and AIFF files including all PCM variants.
- Compressed audio formats: Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP2 and MP3.
Step 3 : Select the entire frame of the audio file
Sorry if my vocabulary is not precise or incorrect. I call the frame the part of the audio that you could select by dragging your mouse over. Here simply go to Select > All in the top bar Menu.
The frame should be highlighted in light blue. Notice the height of the waves lines at this stage of the process. This reflects the low volume of your audio.
So now let’s jump to the final step ! ;)
Step 4 : Increase the decibel of your audio.
In the top bar Menu, click on Effect > Amplify. You should now see the windows displayed above.
Increase the decibel and do not forget to select “Allow Clipping”, like in the picture below.
The height of the line waves should have increased as a result (See picture below). Test it out and normally, you audio file should be significantly louder ;)
Hope this article was useful ! :)
