Audio Normaliser

How to use the audio normaliser

1. Open the audio file to see its current peak and average levels.
2. Choose a target peak — −1 dB is a safe default.
3. Normalise, listen, then download.

About this tool

Peak normalisation finds the loudest moment in the file and scales everything so that moment lands on your target. It is the right fix for a recording that is simply too quiet, and the wrong fix for one where the quiet parts are too quiet — that needs compression, which changes the balance between loud and soft rather than moving the whole thing.

The target defaults to −1 dB rather than 0. That headroom matters because encoding to MP3 or AAC afterwards can push samples slightly above their original peaks, and a file already at 0 dB will clip audibly when it does.

Both peak and RMS are shown, because they answer different questions: peak is the single loudest sample, RMS is closer to how loud the file actually sounds.

Browsers can decode MP3, M4A, OGG and FLAC, but the only format they can reliably write is WAV — so the output here is WAV. Exporting MP3 would mean bundling an encoder several times the size of this entire site, which is not a trade worth making for a tool you use once.

Common uses

• Making a quiet voice recording usable.
• Matching levels across several clips.
• Adding headroom before encoding to MP3.

Frequently asked questions

Why not normalise to 0 dB?

Encoding to a lossy format afterwards can push peaks slightly higher than the original, and a file at 0 dB then clips. A decibel of headroom avoids it.

Will this make quiet passages louder?

No. Everything is scaled by the same amount, so the balance between loud and quiet is unchanged. Evening that out is compression, not normalisation.

Will it make a noisy recording sound better?

No — the noise is raised along with everything else. Normalising makes a quiet recording louder, not cleaner.