How Do I Manage Volume Fluctuation In My Music?

What is volume fluctuation? Discover how to tackle volume fluctuation should it happen to some of your songs / playlists and let Ambie help.

Volume fluctuation occurs when the volume of the tracks does not remain consistent throughout the song - it either goes up or down making the music less seamless. All the tracks on your playlists are ‘normalised’ when ingested into our system to avoid volume fluctuation as much as possible. To normalise audio involves tweaking or changing the overall volume by a fixed amount to reach a target level which is done by our inhouse Curation team. When the played songs are normalised and the sound levels are consistent, this will enhance the overall sound quality in your hotel, restaurant, or bar.

However, volume fluctuation is still possible with certain songs, especially when they’re from different decades, as they would have been mixed and mastered differently. It’s also common with “lesser-known” songs, that have gone through less vigorous mastering than “commercial” music.

For your guests, consistent sound levels are important. You want music to either fit conveniently into the background or set the scene and create a mood - without being distracting.

There are some solutions below which can be trialled to see if this helps tackle the fluctuation:

1. Ambie offers two different types of audio output – Mono and Stereo. If your business is using Mono, we can switch you to Stereo to see if sound improves.  If there’s no change, we can switch you back. This often makes a difference to the naked ear, depending what type of sound system you’re using.
2. If you’re noticing fluctuation on certain songs, Ambie can remove and replace these certain tracks from your playlist.
3. You can manually adjust your volume levels.

If you’re experiencing fluctuation or need advice on sound quality, please email [email protected]  or contact your Customer Success Manager.