YouTube's Stable Volume Feature: A PSA
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- UA-cam's new feature rolling out is "Stable Volume". Stable Volume automatically normalizes audio loudness, but I consider it far too aggressive for normal use - especially for headphones and music, and I hope to spread word about this potentially intrusive feature.
Seems that sometimes the feature is there but grayed-out, as is currently the case on this video for me. I don't know the details, but it could be a processing thing. In any case, try it with other videos and see what you think. I mostly just want folks to be aware this is a thing.
EDIT: Thinking about it, it could be tied to video duration. Videos shorter than, say, 10 minutes (most music) may not be eligible. In any case, it affects non-music videos all the same and is still a major feature not to be ignored.
I see that I can enable it on this video now, so it might've just been processing. I've used the feature and liked it specifically on videos where the sound balancing wasn't great normally, but I don't think it should be a default thing that they enable (which probably means it will be, bleh).
The feature hasn't rolled out for me yet, but I think it might be a good thing once it's properly tested. Sound volume is all over the place with this many creators on the platform, and I think that with the rise in stream replays, where the creator is energetic at the start and thus speaks louder, and after a couple of hours, the energy level naturally falls, this "might" help that issue.
But yeah, like anything else youtube does, it takes a while to iron out bugs and other issues
Pretty sure I'm going to be making sure this is ON all the time. It's a long needed feature.
I think its usefulness is really going to depend on the content/creator in question. I know Yeti takes great care in his audio balancing, but other creators don't necessarily do that. I'm betting it will shine in videos from the early era of lets playing where people's audio was all over the place, like when people recorded game audio from their speakers on a shitty headset mic.
@@ecliptix1 Or, channels like mine; the background noise from the fans is a constant sound in my room, and people always claim it sounds like a jet engine; but it's a required component for air circulation in my residence, without which my room's temperature could easily increase by 15 degrees Fahrenheit in the course of a single 6-hour livestream.
I think this feature would make your fans louder to normalize with everything else because UA-cam thinks those fans are real audio. You need to quiet the fans during quiet moments (IE not speaking), and for that you want a "downward expander" (sometimes called just "expander") or, more aggressively, a noise gate. Quieting the fans _during_ speech needs a noise filter, but since fans are white noise that'll severely affect quality.
@@ClosetYeti I've actually been wondering how to filter them out during my live streams (I use OBS), but the problem is that they operate at the same decibel range as my speaking voice (I used the OBS Noise Gate filters to figure out that much).
If you had any specific advice to help with that, that would be wonderful, as your videos are always spot on with the audio quality.
When are there quiet moments when UA-camrs stop talking? 😀
I need an anti-shouting mode for some videos hahaha
This _might_ help with that. The target looks to be around -6dbFS (roughly where advertisements are), so extremely loud audio might get trimmed. Maybe. I don't think it'd be enough :P
I think this feature is stupid in general
Just appeared for me today and I had to search and see what ppl are saying about it! :D Actually to me in your example... it didn't really bother me that the BG music got a little louder... I may not have even thought about it except that you were pointing it out.
It turned out to be a fairly bad example. I suspect I had the music _too quiet_ so the DRC kept it low, but it seems mostly hit-or-miss for folks. UA-cam seems to be making adjustments to its strength and for the most part it runs unnoticed. Those who are bothered by it are also cognisant of it, so I don't think it'll be much of a bad thing for creators.
I hope they get rid of this POS or at least turn it off by default.
Most of the modern movie producers try to make the sound effects and music as loud as possible, making the characters' lines unintelligible.
At the same time, many people watch movies in their bedrooms or even in dinning rooms, so they need at first to recognize the characters' lines. So what UA-cam really need, is to make voices louder and the sound effects and music in movies quieter. Of course, this effect should be optional.
How can I turn it off, it's annoying af
Yeah sometime the volume high and sometime low....
i personally dont like it, i dont like normalized sound
I listed to 50 minutes of a live music set before i read the comments to turn it off and now I need to go back and relisten to the video. I thought the recording was garbage but it was a stupid button.
This would probably be useful for when I am trying to stay quiet and want to be able to hear what's going on.
Thank you for the PSA, this feature was giving me a migraine and I had no idea
Thanks for the PSA. I watched the video and didn't even knew that feature was on and only heard the music when you stopped talking. I rewatched with stable volume off and you sounded much quieter and I could only listen to the music if I tried focusing on it. So, at least for me, this feature is not that bad.
For me it's enabled in this video, on headphones, it's not that bad.
Maybe because i have tv in the background on...
Anyway, if this feature is for the commercials on youtube than it's a BIG win.
I think it'd help to bring audio to where advertisements are. Handy in some cases, but definitely not for everyone
I've had the feature there for a few weeks there and personally I've left it off since I always use headphones/earbuds so I didn't really feel much of a difference and didn't seem to have issues with it being off and quality is good so felt needless for me
It's a feature that it's existence is more of a statement that UA-cam is annoyed with creators not balancing their audio correctly.
So, creators, if you're concerned about this feature, remember that if you want people to keep this off... balance your audio correctly.
well i have my headphones balanced with all the system Soundsettings on my device so this "feature" just makes youtube to loude again in base settings. it felt like you where double the dB cpmpared to when i disable the thing.
This is actually just a simple feature to boost/normalize the sound, but done on the server side. Similar to EQ on our android and pc.
Not really an EQ as EQs target specific frequencies. This is more like an "upward compressor" or an expander. Values under a threshold (but over a floor, I suspect) get a boost based on a ratio like 4:1. I expect it to also quiet certain sounds, but their target threshold is around -6dBFS (coincides with advertisements at -6dBFS) so only very, very loud audio would get trimmed.
@@ClosetYeti You can set your dynamic EQ to either behave like a compressor or an expander.
Playback server-side. Mkay
It is on by default for me and I am unable to turn the setting off
thanks for the heads up my man
I searched this up and found this video as a result, because the feature is there on every video, but it's disabled on every video an this is the first video where the audio didn't sound unbalanced. Every single vid has the stable volume option turned off, and it can't be clicked to turn it back on. As in greyed out. which most likely means a paywall is being instituted to listen to videos normally at all.
Same, got here by looking up the feature. I hate when these things are enabled by default. Sound stabilization ends up always just sounding terrible cause it doesn't know what should or shouldn't be loud or quiet. It seems like they made audio quieter too if you turn it off so you have to have it on to keep things at the volume you were used to..
i need stable volume in first person shooter games
it is on my side, for now i have no problems :) have to check with youtube adds, cause those can jump in loudness annoyingly
edit: distorts voice :/
Kept toggling it and repeating the 5 second countdown and I'm not sure what it is I should be listening for - obviously, I haven't noticed any.
Might not have been the best example, to be honest, but keep it in mind! If things sound goofy, take a glance at the setting. You can hear it on most of my other videos - the gameplay audio is manipulated almost constantly outside of commentary
the feature has been available for me for over a year im almost sure.
though me with hypersensitive hearing i control my volume with interfaces and mixers so to not go deaf on what is probably considered "normal" volume levels, for example a usual yeti video i listen to 0.2% off what is considered normal. TLDR its generally good for people with sensitive hearing
as for constructive feedback on yeti's audio on his videos i think they are well balanced for the most part, if anything those times where he adds a dramatic music whenever axe is getting chased by a squirell in rimworld id really appreciate it if that music fades in instead of sudden "wham! music!" and then cut the music as soon the squirell is dealt with for that comedic relief.
It's a horrible feature for music videos where dynamics matters! It should be off by default!!!
Cant even listen to music
thanks
does stable volume, when it's on, need more data to play the same video?
I don't have a way to easily test that, but I wouldn't think so. Filtered audio comes through at practically the same size - certainly nothing adding up to megabytes or gigabytes for restricted internet
@@ClosetYeti Thank you. 👍Initially, I was interested in whether or not the stable volume feature requires any feedback from the receiving computer in order to function properly, thus, increasing the volume of traffic. But your answer makes total sense. Cheers😉
Now if only they didn’t lower content volume so that you have to turn things way up and then commercials come on BLASTING!
Always appreciate bringing something like this up. The handful of times I've had this show up, it has been entirely unwelcome - the first time I thought the video creator had screwed up their audio settings or had let a small child play with the mastering board - but maybe it'll get to a useful state eventually. Given the site's current track record, I doubt it, but who knows.
I've been re-rendering my own videos for hours on end with different encoder settings to get to the bottom of it, but it was a sneaky setting auto-enabled all along. Lots of wasted time. Hopefully this video saves a headache or two
I just notice with "stable volume" turn "on" bass - low and deep music sounds like compressed shit. I thought my soundbar get broken 😔😔
I didnt know this. Ill keep an eye out for it!
It works really badly on my ASMR videos. I edit background ambience carefully, and don't want it to fluctuate in volume depending on when I speak and not. Nice that we can just turn it off, hope the option to remove it is not taken from us at some point.