You filmed a talk, a birthday or a phone call, and now the voices are too faint to follow. You turned the speaker up as far as it goes and it is still not enough. The fix is to increase the video volume in the file itself, and that is what this page does.
This video volume booster opens with the level already at double, which is often enough to make a video louder and easy to follow. Press play to hear it, adjust if you like, then press Change volume and save. It runs in your browser, so the video is never uploaded. Below, you will find how much to boost, how to spot distortion, and what to do if boosting is not enough.
How to increase video volume
- Drop your video onto the page. You can add several at once.
- The mode is Adjust and the Level starts at 200%, which is twice as loud. Drag the slider to any value up to 400%.
- Press play. The preview is run through a gain control, so you really hear the boosted sound, even above 100%.
- Press Change volume. Save the new MP4, or download a batch as a zip.
The saved file ends in _louder, so it is easy to tell apart from the original. Your original video is not changed.
You do not have to commit before you save. Play the video with the boosted level, drag the playhead to the loudest moment, and listen there. If it sounds clean, press the button. If it sounds harsh, lower the Level and play it again. Nothing is saved until you press Change volume.
How much louder should you make a quiet video
The Level slider is a percentage of the sound you have now. 100% is no change. The quick chips are Half, 1.5×, Double and Triple, and the slider's top end is 400%. Each value is also shown in decibels, so you can see what the number means.
| Level | Change | A good fit for |
|---|---|---|
| 150% | About +3.5 dB | A recording that is only a little low |
| 200% | +6.0 dB (double) | Most quiet phone videos and talks |
| 300% | About +9.5 dB (triple) | A voice recorded from far away |
| 400% | About +12.0 dB | Very faint sound, with the red warning in mind |
The decibel figures are there for reference. Every doubling of the Level adds about 6 dB, so 200% is +6 dB and 400% is +12 dB. Judge by listening, and use the figures to compare your options.
Start at 200%, listen, and only go higher if you must. Louder is not always clearer. A faint voice recorded across a room carries a lot of room noise, and boosting lifts that noise by the same amount.
Why a bigger number can sound worse
A recording has a ceiling, called full scale. If you boost so far that the loudest peaks would go past it, they are cut flat. This is clipping. It can make speech harsh and music crackly, and once the file is saved, it cannot be undone.
Spot clipping before you save a louder video
The waveform under the picture grows as you raise the Level. Any bar that would go past full scale turns red, and a note appears: the loudest parts go past full scale and will be clipped, and they may sound harsh.
- No red: the boost is safe. Save it.
- A little red on a few peaks: listen to those moments. If they sound fine, keep the level.
- A lot of red: lower the Level until it clears.
- Still too quiet with red showing: the loudest parts of the recording are already close to the top, and the faint parts are the problem. Gain cannot fix that. Try Normalise video audio and compare.
If the problem is the opposite, a video that is far too loud, see make a video quieter. For all three modes in one place, use the main Change video volume page. Need only the sound? Boost it here first, then convert MP4 to MP3, or extract the audio as WAV or AAC.
Videos that usually need a boost
Some recordings are quiet almost by nature. If yours is one of these, a boost to around 200% is a good first try.
- Phone videos filmed from the back of a room, where the speaker is far from the microphone.
- Screen recordings made with a low microphone setting.
- Old family videos that were transferred at a low level.
- Interviews recorded outdoors, where the voice is lower than the wind or traffic.
- Clips exported from an editor with the sound turned down.
If your clip has a quiet voice and a loud background, a plain boost will lift both. The sound is a single track, and this tool cannot pull a voice out of the noise. In that case, pick the smallest boost that makes the words clear.
A boost, then a check
After you save, play the new file on the device where it will be heard, such as your phone. Speakers differ, and a level that sounds right on headphones may be too much on a small speaker. If it is, go back to the tool and run the original again with a lower Level. The original is never changed, so you can try as often as you like.
Boost MP4, MOV, MKV and WebM files, privately
The tool reads MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM and M4V files, and the louder copy is always saved as an MP4. So to increase the volume of an MP4, drop it in as it is. Only the sound is changed. The picture is not edited, and when it is already H.264, the usual choice for MP4, it is copied across as it was.
The boost happens on your own computer, in current Chrome, Edge or Firefox. The video is never uploaded, and the server does no video work. There is no account, no watermark and no charge, and video tools do not count towards the daily limit for document conversions.
Video tools on Whatafile run the job on your device, so the speed depends on your computer and the length of the video. A short clip is quick. A long one takes longer, and you can keep an eye on the progress bar until it finishes.
You can boost video volume on many clips in one go, for example every video from the same event. Choose the level once and it is applied to each file.
Most videos have no size limit. Some files, such as certain AVI or WMV videos, are handled more slowly, and those can be up to 2 GB.
Make your video louder now
To increase video volume, drop your file in the tool above, check the Level, and press Change volume. Watch the waveform for red, and you will get a louder video without the harshness.
It is free, it needs no account, and your video never leaves your computer, so you can boost video volume on as many clips as you like.
