Changing Volume Scroll Increments In VLC

VLC measures volume in percentage from 0 to 100. It allows you to increase the volume beyond this but that’s another story. Instead of clicking and dragging to adjust your volume, VLC media player allows you to adjust the volume using the scroll wheel on your mouse. If you’re using a laptop without a mouse, the track-pad can be used for the same function by applying whatever method it uses to emulate the scroll function. This works just as long as the VLC application is the currently active app and in the foreground.

By default each mouse scroll represents 5% in both directions. So if the volume was at 50 percent, one “upward” mouse scroll would increase the volume to 55 percent. One mouse scroll in the “down” direction would decrease the volume to 45 percent. No problem, right? Sure, but there are many times when you need to hear the audio at a very particular level for technical reasons. It can also be a matter of taste or feeling, when 75 is a bit too loud but 70 is a hair string too quiet. Well I say if I want my volume at 77 dammit then I should be very well able to set it to such and play my favorite hit record 77 times! If you feel the same (and I knoooooow you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this) here is how to change the volume scroll increments to whatever you like.

1: In VLC, go to “Tools” in the menu bar.

2: Click “Preferences”.

3: In the preferences menu, select the “All” option under “Show Settings”.

4: Click the “Audio” section.

5: In the right menu pane, locate “Audio output volume step”. It should be set to 12.80, if not who cares.

6: Whatever it’s set to, change it to whatever you like!

A few notes:

**12.80 is the equivalent of 5% increments. Setting it higher will increase the increment, as lower will decrease it. You can experiment with the numbers to find the setting that actually makes you comfortable and makes your heart sing!

***If you want each mouse scroll to equal 1% increments, set the numbers to exactly: 3.20 (the lowest setting possible) Or set it to: 256.0 (the highest setting possible) to go from 0 to 100 in one mouse scroll click flat! Beat that McLaren F1! Don’t ask about the math, it’s complicated……+ Simple. Hope that solves that pesky little VLC problem. There are tons of other customizations and hidden functions under the hood of VLC Media Player, one of the best, most universal media players around. I’ll be covering the top features in future posts so stay tuned. In the meantime, turn it up! Do let me know if this worked for you in the comments. Tell us what song you were trying to get that perfect volume for! I know what I was listening to? 🙂