Quiet Audio

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Hi. I have noticed the volume on my computer has decreased.

I have only recently (last Friday) connected my computer to the Internet and updated WMP from version 9 to version 10 and I have been to the Microsoft Security Centre to update my patches.

I have encoded my MP3's at 128kbps (they are all legal).

Is it possible doing this has affected the sound volume?

Help!

Your Master Volume control is most likely turned down. You can access it either through your system's Volume control Tray Icon, (looks like a little speaker) by douple clicking on it, or accessing it through your control panel via clicking on Sound and Audio Devices, going to the Volume tab, and clicking the "Advanced" button in the Device Volume Box. By doing this, you will get a Volume Mixer. The Faders you will want to turn up will be either the Volume control, or the Wave Volume control.

The Bitrate you encode mp3's will have no real effect on the overall gain makeup of the mp3 file, (IE, how 'Loud' it sounds) unless you encode at either a low bit rate/ sample resolution.

The sample resolution should be RIAA standard (44 Khz), and the bitrate should be at least 128k. --For the record, I prefer to encode at the highest bitrate possible to keep compression artifacts to a minimum, but that's a personal preferance.

I also prefer to use Winamp for playback, because it's much more flexible than Windows Media Player. I use a freely available Winamp plugin that allows me to use VST audio plugins. I currently use a Parametric EQ plugin in place of the default Graphic EQ that comes with the player for much more accurate EQ control, but that too, is personal preferance.

Thanks for the help, it was the WAVE slider.