How to Reduce Music Background in Movies
By Jacob Stover
Updated September 22, 2017
It is nearly impossible to follow a movie when you are unable to hear the dialog. This can lead to a lot of frustration when dealing with low-quality speakers, or poorly mixed background music. If you find yourself frequently turning your television or computer to uncomfortably loud levels of volume just to make out what the characters are saying, you may need to normalize the audio from your playback device. Normalizing is a feature found in nearly all video playback software that changes the innate playback volume of sounds in the human vocal range to make them easier to understand.
Using Media Player Classic
Open up the movie file you wish to view.
Right-click the viewing window and select "Audio."
Locate the box next to "Normalize" and click it. Then click "OK" to save your settings.
Using VLC
Open the video file you wish to watch.
Select "Options" from the program toolbar and then select "Audio Preferences."
Set your default volume to "200%" and set Replay Gain to "None." Check the box next to "Volume Normalizer" and then set the Normalizer option to "0.5." You can adjust the normalizer value higher or lower depending on the desired volume.
Using iTunes or Apple TV
Right-click the video file you wish to view.
Select "Preferences" from the right-click menu.
Select the "Playback" tab.
Click the box next to "Sound Check." Then click "OK" to save your changes.
References
Writer Bio
Jacob Stover is a writer and editor from Ann Arbor. He has been writing professionally since 2009. His work has been published in the "Wayne State University Literary Review." He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and film studies from Wayne State University.