Some videos arrive far too loud. The music drowns out the speaker, a shouted moment makes everyone flinch, or the clip is simply louder than everything else in your project. You can fix it by making the sound in the file itself quieter.
This page opens with the level set to half. Press play to listen, change the amount if you want, then press Change volume and save. The video is never uploaded, because the work runs in your browser. Read on to pick the right level and to check the result.
How to make a video quieter
- Drop your video onto the page. You can add more than one.
- The mode is Adjust and the Level starts at 50%, which is half as loud. Drag the slider lower for a bigger cut. It goes all the way down to 0%.
- Press play to hear the result before you save.
- Press Change volume and save the new MP4, or download a batch as a zip.
The saved file ends in _quieter, so you can tell it from the original. The original video is left as it was.
You can move the slider while the video plays. The change is heard straight away, so you can find the level where the loud parts are comfortable and the quiet parts are still clear. Nothing is saved until you press Change volume.
The waveform under the picture shrinks as the Level drops. That gives you a picture of the change as well as the sound of it.
Choose a level to lower the video volume
The Level slider works in percentages of the sound you have now, and also shows each value in decibels. Below 100% the sound gets quieter. The change is easier to judge by ear than by number, but this guide helps you start.
| Level | Change | A good fit for |
|---|---|---|
| 75% | About -2.5 dB | A clip that is only slightly too loud |
| 50% | About -6.0 dB (half) | Most loud clips |
| 25% | About -12.0 dB | Music that should sit well behind a voice |
| 0% | Silent track | Keeping the track but with no sound |
Quieter is not the same as muted
At 0% the video keeps a silent sound track. That can matter if a player expects one. If you want the track gone altogether, use Mute, or the dedicated mute video page.
Does turning it down fix distortion?
Not always. If a recording was already clipped when it was made, lowering the volume only makes the same distortion quieter. It cannot put the missing detail back. Lowering the level is the right fix for a video that is simply too loud.
When you want a quieter video, and what else to try
Turning a video down looks like a small job, but the reason behind it varies, and so does the best fix. The tool lowers the whole sound by one amount, which is exactly right for some problems and wrong for others.
Lowering the whole sound is the simplest fix, but it is not the only one. Match the tool to the problem.
- The whole clip is too loud: use this page and lower the Level.
- Several clips are at different loudness and you want them to match: normalise the video audio so each file has the same loudest point.
- The music is too loud under a voice: add audio to the video and set the New audio volume, so the track sits quietly under the original sound.
- A clip has a loud start and a faint end: this tool lowers everything by the same amount, so it will not even them out.
For a boost instead, see boost video volume. For every mode on one page, use Change video volume.
Videos that usually need turning down
Loud sound is easy to spot in some kinds of video. If one of these sounds familiar, half is a sensible first try.
- Game captures and screen recordings, where effects and music sit far above the speaker.
- Concert or party clips filmed close to a speaker, where the sound is full and loud.
- Clips you plan to place in a longer video, where one section would jump out in volume.
- Videos for a shared space, such as a shop or a waiting room, where a loud video would annoy people.
- Videos you will post, where you want viewers to be able to hear their surroundings.
Think of the Level as a ratio. At 50% the sound is half what it was, and at 25% it is a quarter. Because the ratio applies to the whole track, loud and soft parts keep the same balance with each other. Speech does not become clearer or muddier, it only becomes quieter.
In every case the aim is the same: a level that is comfortable without anyone touching the volume knob.
Check the result by ear
The preview plays the video with the new level applied, so you can judge it before you save. Listen to the loudest moment of the clip, not just the start. If it is still too loud, lower the Level a little more. If speech has become hard to hear, raise it again. Run the original through the tool as many times as you like, because it is never changed.
Free, private and easy to repeat
Everything happens on your own computer, in current Chrome, Edge or Firefox. The video is not uploaded, and the server does no video work. There is no account, no watermark and no charge. Video tools do not count towards the daily limit for document conversions.
The tool has no upload step to wait for. The sound is changed on your device, and the new MP4 is ready to save as soon as the job finishes.
Because the original is never changed, you can run the job again with a different level whenever you like. A batch of clips can be turned down together and downloaded as a zip.
There is no size limit for most videos. Some files, such as certain AVI or WMV videos, take longer, and those can be up to 2 GB.
Turn the volume down and save
To make a video quieter, drop it in the tool above, set the Level and press Change volume. Start at half and adjust by ear.
It is free, it needs no account, and your video stays on your computer from start to finish. Use it any time you need to make a video quieter.
