I have had around 15 users comment on my new video, "The narcissist", that the background music is too loud, making it hard for them to hear me.
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I have had around 15 users comment on my new video, "The narcissist", that the background music is too loud, making it hard for them to hear me.
I need to know how many are affected by this. If this is a widespread problem, I may have to delete the video, and create an improved version. This is a problematic choice, at it will make less viewers watch the new video, which will likely make YouTube think the new video is not interesting.
Please participate in this poll:
@randahl can’t you just edit the video and “duck” the music track?
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@randahl I have normal hearing and could hear your voice without much trouble. But people with hearing problems should not be excluded. I am not a big fan of background music in general, usually I find them annoying. Keep the music, but limit it to intro, outro and interludes.
@jantzen for the longest time, my thinking was exactly what you just wrote: No music while talking. However, last year I began making a serious sound track to each video with both music and sound effects, and I suddenly saw my videos go from 2000 views to 90000 views.
That progress is hard to ignore.
But obviously, the mix must work for everyone, and as the comments clearly show, I have not hit the mark this time.
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@randahl maybe just upload a version without music to a platform without algorithms, like a peertube instance. Would be cool anyway to be able to watch your videos without using big tech.
@kleisli when I upload to YouTube, I earn a salary for this full time job, which allows me to pay my bills. If you know a way I can pay my bills by uploading to Peertube, please let me know.
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@randahl maybe they should increase the center speaker volume?
@aho I can do that in my mix. Apparently I just did not do this enough this time.
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@randahl can’t you just edit the video and “duck” the music track?
@Catawu YouTube only has some very basic tools for editing a video after upload. For instance, I can blur a section, if there is an image which must be blurred, or I can cut away an entire section of a video.
As far as I know, there is no mixer tool that allows me to gently lower the volume of the music in specific areas.
I can delete the video, and upload an improved version. But then I lose all the views and positive comments.
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@kleisli when I upload to YouTube, I earn a salary for this full time job, which allows me to pay my bills. If you know a way I can pay my bills by uploading to Peertube, please let me know.
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I have had around 15 users comment on my new video, "The narcissist", that the background music is too loud, making it hard for them to hear me.
I need to know how many are affected by this. If this is a widespread problem, I may have to delete the video, and create an improved version. This is a problematic choice, at it will make less viewers watch the new video, which will likely make YouTube think the new video is not interesting.
Please participate in this poll:
It depends on the sound system, or the TV set. Some might watch on a phone or laptop, and they have their own problems with frequency peaks from tiny speakers.
My TV (LG) has a dozen sound modes and on most your music was distracting. When Trump speaks he's clear because his audio is probably compressed. But your audio has dynamic range so is more affected by the music.
One solution to cover all these viewer variables is to use less distracting music. Soft and continuous, almost subliminal. Some movies and TV shows get it just right. Others indeed make the speech almost impossible to hear - one of my gripes.
PS: I've a 5/1 amp and speaker system hanging off the LG TV, which is my VDU for the PC, which also feeds movies and TV shows to it. When the 'mood' music gets too much, the only cure is to use high quality headphones rather than the speakers.
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I have had around 15 users comment on my new video, "The narcissist", that the background music is too loud, making it hard for them to hear me.
I need to know how many are affected by this. If this is a widespread problem, I may have to delete the video, and create an improved version. This is a problematic choice, at it will make less viewers watch the new video, which will likely make YouTube think the new video is not interesting.
Please participate in this poll:
@randahl The music was a bit to loud, specially the epic parts that, didn’t prevent from listening your voice, but feels very distracting. The calmer parts fit correctly. I think is more of a level issue that all music is at same volume regardless if it is intense or not. I would keep the video as it is but take a bit of time editing volume on future videos.
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I have had around 15 users comment on my new video, "The narcissist", that the background music is too loud, making it hard for them to hear me.
I need to know how many are affected by this. If this is a widespread problem, I may have to delete the video, and create an improved version. This is a problematic choice, at it will make less viewers watch the new video, which will likely make YouTube think the new video is not interesting.
Please participate in this poll:
@randahl
Does Youtube allow videos with multiple audio tracks?Hmm, if it does, either I've never watched one, or switching audio track is hidden. I know I have accidentally watched translated videos, but that may be something Youtube does later. And that has only been in apps like Newpipe, and was a bug in the download code, so I don't know how that's supposed to work. Maybe there isn't supposed to be a way to switch, Google is infamous for giving you the choice they want you to see with no option to select a different one.
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@randahl The music was a bit to loud, specially the epic parts that, didn’t prevent from listening your voice, but feels very distracting. The calmer parts fit correctly. I think is more of a level issue that all music is at same volume regardless if it is intense or not. I would keep the video as it is but take a bit of time editing volume on future videos.
@danielgibert thank you for the constructive input, Daniel. That may be the outcome.
Currently my thinking is, if 90 percent can hear things just fine, I am leaning towards leaving the video as is and improving the audio in upcoming videos. On the other hand, if 50 percent say there is a problem, I should probably delete and reupload.
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@randahl
Does Youtube allow videos with multiple audio tracks?Hmm, if it does, either I've never watched one, or switching audio track is hidden. I know I have accidentally watched translated videos, but that may be something Youtube does later. And that has only been in apps like Newpipe, and was a bug in the download code, so I don't know how that's supposed to work. Maybe there isn't supposed to be a way to switch, Google is infamous for giving you the choice they want you to see with no option to select a different one.
@leeloo Yes. For instance, if I want to overdub myself in Danish, I can do that with an additional audio track. But each audio track has to be for a specific language, and there can only be one audio track per language.
I was hoping I could upload an audio track that I could name "Dialogue focus", but that is not supported. They do not even have an option to upload specific audio for the hearing impaired, which I find quite surprising in 2026.
