Settings Audio

Settings: Audio

⋯ → Settings → Audio (Ctrl+P; the header reads Audio Defaults). The audio output and the speakers, the volume and its limits, loudness levelling, the equalizer and the other audio effects, the preferred audio language and the visualizations. These are the defaults of every media; the Effects panel of the player (Effects) changes the sound of what is playing, with the same VLC options. A row whose VLC module is missing from the installation is not shown. See how the Settings window works.

Output

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Enable audio	Toggle. Default: on.	Off: no sound at all; the audio is not even decoded, which saves processing power.	audio
Output device	Dropdown: System default, then the audio devices Windows reports. Default: System default.	The device VLC plays through. System default is the default device of Windows.	mmdevice-audio-device (System default = empty)
Speaker setup	Dropdown: Automatic / Stereo / Reverse stereo / Left / Right / Dolby Surround / Mono. Default: Automatic.	How a stereo output is arranged. Reverse stereo swaps left and right; Left and Right play only that channel; Mono mixes all the channels into one; Dolby Surround marks the stereo output as Dolby Surround encoded. Automatic keeps the layout of the media.	stereo-mode (Automatic = 0)

Volume

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Maximum volume	Slider, 100 % to 300 %, ticks every 25 %, labels 100 %, 200 %, 300 %. Default: 200 %.	The highest volume the volume slider, the mouse wheel and the volume keys reach. Above 100 % VLC amplifies the sound itself, which can distort it.	qt-max-volume
Startup volume	Two choices: Remember last volume, or Always starts at: with a percentage field (0 % to 125 %; a value outside is brought into that range). Default: Remember last volume (the field shows 100 %).	Whether VLC starts at the volume it had when it was closed, or always at the same volume. Clicking or typing in the field picks Always starts at.	volume-save (Remember = on), mmdevice-volume (the starting volume, 1.0 = 100 %)
Volume step	Number field, in percent, 0.4 to 100. Default: 5.	How much one volume-up or volume-down step (a key, a wheel notch) changes the volume.	volume-step (in 256ths: 5 % = 12.8)

Loudness

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Normalize loudness	Toggle. Default: off.	Turns on VLC's volume normalizer, which brings loud passages down towards the Target level.	audio-filter (normvol)
Target level	Number field. Default: 2.	When the average power of the last audio buffers is above this value, the volume is lowered. Values from 0.5 to 10 are sensible; a lower value levels more. Used while Normalize loudness is on.	norm-max-level
Night mode	Toggle. Default: off.	Narrows the gap between loud and quiet sounds, for listening at a low volume: it turns on the dynamic range compressor with a ratio of 8:1, a threshold of −30 dB and a makeup gain of +9 dB. Turning it off puts the compressor back as it was (on or off, with its values), even in a later session.	audio-filter (compressor), compressor-ratio, compressor-threshold, compressor-makeup-gain
Replay gain	Dropdown: Off / Track / Album. Default: Off.	Uses the ReplayGain values stored in music files to play every track (Track) or every album (Album) at the same loudness. Files without ReplayGain values play as they are.	audio-replay-gain-mode (none / track / album)
Replay gain preamp	Number field, in dB, one decimal. Default: 0.0.	Moves the ReplayGain target level (89 dB) up or down, for the files that have ReplayGain values.	audio-replay-gain-preamp

Effects

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Equalizer	Toggle. Default: off.	Turns on VLC's 10-band graphic equalizer.	audio-filter (equalizer)
Equalizer preset	Dropdown, each preset with its curve: None, then Flat, Classical, Club, Dance, Full bass, Full bass and treble, Full treble, Headphones, Large Hall, Live, Party, Pop, Reggae, Rock, Ska, Soft, Soft rock, Techno. Reads None while the equalizer is off (so a new profile shows None); the preset VLC keeps by default is Flat.	Choosing a preset turns the equalizer on, clears the bands set by hand and sets the preamp to the preset's own value; None turns the equalizer off. The Effects panel has the same 18 presets without None (there, the equalizer is turned off with its Enable toggle).	equalizer-preset
Open Equalizer / Close Equalizer	A bar that opens 11 vertical sliders: Preamp, 60 Hz, 170 Hz, 310 Hz, 600 Hz, 1 kHz, 3 kHz, 6 kHz, 12 kHz, 14 kHz, 16 kHz, each −20 to +20 dB with its value shown under it. Default: preamp 12 dB; the bands follow the preset until you move one.	Sets the bands by hand. Drag a slider (0.1 dB steps). The mouse wheel moves the slider clicked last, or any slider with Ctrl held (otherwise it scrolls the page), 0.5 dB a notch. Keyboard: Tab to a slider, ↑/↓ (or →/←) 0.5 dB, Page Up/Page Down 5 dB, Home/End to +20 / −20 dB.	equalizer-preamp, equalizer-bands (empty = the preset's)
Two-pass	Toggle. Default: off.	Filters the audio twice, for a stronger effect.	equalizer-2pass
Spatial audio	Toggle. Default: off.	Turns on VLC's spatializer, which places the sound in a virtual room (a reverb). Its room settings are in the Effects panel.	audio-filter (spatializer)
Spatial audio mode	Dropdown: Automatic / Stereo / Headphone virtualization / 4.0 / 5.1 / 7.1. Default: Automatic.	How multichannel audio is mixed for the output: Automatic keeps the channels of the media, Stereo mixes them down to two, Headphone virtualization renders them binaurally so surround sound keeps its directions in headphones, 4.0, 5.1 and 7.1 mix to that speaker layout.	mix-mode (Automatic = 0)
Stereo widening	Toggle. Default: off.	Widens the stereo image. Its settings are in the Effects panel.	audio-filter (stereo_widen)
Compressor	Toggle. Default: off.	A dynamic range compressor that brings loud and quiet sounds closer, with the values of the Effects panel (or of Night mode).	audio-filter (compressor)
Pitch shift	Number field, in semitones, two decimals, −12 to +12. Default: 0.00.	Raises or lowers the pitch without changing the speed. Any value other than 0 also turns on the pitch filter.	pitch-shift (and audio-filter: scaletempo_pitch)
Chorus/flanger	Toggle. Default: off.	A chorus and flanger effect (a short, modulated delay mixed with the sound).	audio-filter (chorus_flanger)
Karaoke	Toggle. Default: off.	Removes what sits in the centre of a stereo mix, usually the voice.	audio-filter (karaoke)

Tracks

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Preferred audio language	Dropdown: Automatic, System language (the language of Windows), then Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese (the language of Windows is not repeated). Default: Automatic.	The audio track VLC picks when a media has several languages. Automatic keeps the track the media marks as its default. A list of codes set elsewhere (fre,eng) is kept and shown as it is.	audio-language (ISO 639-2 codes; Automatic = empty)
Audio delay	Number field, in ms. Default: 0.	Delays the sound against the picture in every media; a negative value plays it earlier. For the media playing now only, use Audio delay in the player's languages and tracks panel (The player) or K / J.	audio-desync

Visualization

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Visualizer	Dropdown with icons: Disabled, Spectrometer, Scope, Spectrum, Waveform, VU meter, then the other visualizations of this build (for example Goom effect). Default: Disabled.	Draws an animation while audio without a picture plays. The OpenGL ones (3D OpenGL spectrum visualization, libprojectM effect) are only listed when the video window uses OpenGL, or while one of them is chosen; Automatic only while it is the one chosen. Changed in 0.3.0: the effects of the visualizer are listed by name (before: one "Visualizer filter").	audio-visual; effect-list for Spectrometer to VU meter (audio-visual = visual)

Advanced Options

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Audio output module (Developer mode)	Dropdown of the audio output modules of this build. Default: Automatic.	The method VLC uses to output audio; Automatic picks the best one (MMDevice, that is WASAPI, on Windows). Hidden when the build offers no choice.	aout (Automatic = any)
Output gain (Developer mode)	Slider, 0 to 8, its value shown with two decimals. Default: 1.00.	A linear gain applied to all the audio output.	gain
Keep the pitch when changing the speed (Developer mode)	Toggle. Default: on.	Plays the audio faster or slower without changing its pitch when the playback speed changes. Off, faster speech sounds higher.	audio-time-stretch
Pass compressed audio to the receiver	Toggle. Default: off.	Sends compressed audio (AC-3, DTS…) as it is to an amplifier or receiver over S/PDIF or HDMI, when the audio output cannot negotiate pass-through by itself.	spdif
Detect Dolby Surround	Dropdown: Automatic / On / Off. Default: Automatic.	For a stream that is (or is not) Dolby Surround encoded but detected wrongly. Even on a stream that is not, On can improve the sound, especially with the headphone channel mixer.	force-dolby-surround (0 / 1 / 2)
Resampling quality	Dropdown: Fastest / Fast / Balanced / High / Best. Default: Balanced.	The quality of the SoX resampler, used when the sample rate of the media differs from the device's, traded against processor time. Needs the soxr module.	soxr-resampler-quality (0 to 4)
Media role	Dropdown: Video / Music / Communication / Game / Notification / Animation / Production / Accessibility / Test. Default: Video.	Tells the operating system what kind of audio VLC plays, for its audio policy.	role
Visualization size	Dropdown: Match window / 1280 × 720 / 1920 × 1080 (and a size set another way, shown as it is). Default: Match window.	The size the visualizations are drawn at; Match window draws them at 800 × 500 and lets the window scale them. The same row is repeated in the Advanced Options of Subtitles.	effect-width, effect-height

Good to know

• Equalizer, Compressor, Spatial audio, Stereo widening, Chorus/flanger, Karaoke and Normalize loudness are all entries of one VLC list, the audio filters. Each toggle adds or removes its own filter and leaves the others.
• Night mode and Compressor share one filter. Night mode reads on while the compressor runs with ratio 8:1 and threshold −30 dB: turning Compressor off ends Night mode too, and changing the ratio or the threshold in the Effects panel makes Night mode read off.
• Above 100 % the volume is digital amplification. For a quiet film, Normalize loudness or Night mode raise the quiet parts without pushing the loud ones into distortion.
• No sound? Check Enable audio, then Output device (a device that was unplugged), then, in Developer mode, Audio output module (Automatic is right for almost everyone).
• Dolby or DTS to a receiver: turn on Pass compressed audio to the receiver. For a Chromecast, see Send Dolby audio as is in Recording.

Related pages: Effects · The player: Volume · Keyboard shortcuts · Casting

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