Recording Too Quiet? Gain, Clipping and the Right Order
Diagnose why a recording is quiet before touching gain — wrong order amplifies hiss along with speech.
Why it is quiet in the first place
Low recording level (mic too far, system input down) means speech and hiss are both quiet — boosting raises both. Denoise first, then amplify.
If only speech is quiet while ambience sounds normal, the input gain was low at capture. Straight amplification works; aggressive denoise may damage the natural room tone.
Multiplier ranges and clipping
Gain is applied as a multiplier: 2x is a safe start, 3-4x approaches the ceiling for most recordings. Beyond that, peaks flatten into harsh distortion — irreversible.
Listen to the loudest phrase after boosting; fuzzy or crackling peaks mean overshoot. Step back one notch. Slightly quiet beats clipped — the player can raise it.
Boosting a batch uniformly
Recordings from the same device and setting sit at similar levels — batch-apply one multiplier, then fine-tune outliers individually.
If the goal is "equally loud", use loudness normalization instead: it measures actual perceived loudness and evens everything to a standard level.