How to Fix Sound Level Problems in Windows 10
Windows 10 includes a configurable volume mixer, which sounds like a great idea on paper – who wouldn’t be able to control the volume of individual apps? This is incredibly useful when you need to get some audio back in the game so you can hear your guildmates on Discord (or the YouTube video you’re listening to in the background). It is not that useful when you forget that it exists.
Over the past weeks or two, some of the YouTube videos I’ve watched have sounded weak. I didn’t really think about it at first, assuming that I just pressed the dial on the external DAC that I use with my headphones. I increased it a bit, which solved the YouTube issue, but then I had to lower the overall volume of Windows 10 because my games and system sounds were getting too hot.
I didn’t really think about the relationship between my applications and volume. Instead, I kept moving my system volume up and down as needed when switching between apps. I thought some YouTube videos were just encoded at a lower volume. It happens. The difference between the size of these videos, the size of my system, and the size of my other applications was not enough to make me think something was wrong.
Something went wrong.
After about two weeks, it finally clicked. Maybe there is – something strange is going on with my audio levels. And right before I was about to dive into Windows 10 sound settings, I remembered that damn Windows 10 volume mixer.
You can see this in action for yourself by right-clicking the volume icon in the lower-right corner of the taskbar and then left-clicking “Open Volume Mixer”. In an ideal world, all sliders would be at the same level, for example:
If you see some sliders set up differently, or find that some apps are disabled while you can still hear sounds in others (or hear general Windows system sounds), you’ve found your problem.
To fix this, you will need to take part in a fun dance by moving all the sliders either up or down their ranges so that they all match. Then move the device volume (the leftmost slider) to a comfortable position and all other sliders should move at the same speed. Aligning everything can be a little annoying, but this is how you fix it.
I haven’t tried it, but there is another method to consider: I believe you can also open Windows 10 Sound Mixer options by searching in the Start Menu. On the screen that appears, scroll down a bit and then click the “Reset” button in the lower left corner. This should bring all your applications up to 100% – that’s one hundred percent of the system volume, as it’s a relative measurement – without disrupting the actual volume of your system and destroying the eardrums in the process.