diff --git a/config.json b/config.json
index f8fdbcb..e1b0456 100644
--- a/config.json
+++ b/config.json
@@ -3,4 +3,4 @@
   "model": "medium",
   "language": "de",
   "sample_rate": 16000
-}
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/dictate.py b/dictate.py
index bc5bb10..96db8b1 100644
--- a/dictate.py
+++ b/dictate.py
@@ -231,11 +231,17 @@ def stop_and_transcribe():
     rms = float(np.sqrt(np.mean(audio ** 2)))
     print(f"Audio: {duration:.1f}s  RMS: {rms:.5f}", flush=True)
 
-    if duration < 0.3 or rms < 0.0005:
+    if duration < 0.3 or rms < 0.0001:
         print("Too short or silent — skipped.", flush=True)
         set_state(AppState.IDLE)
         return
 
+    # Normalize to target RMS so Whisper gets consistent signal level
+    target_rms = 0.05
+    if rms > 0:
+        audio = audio * (target_rms / rms)
+    audio = np.clip(audio, -1.0, 1.0)
+
     lang = config["language"] if config["language"] else None
     prompt = get_initial_prompt()
     segments, _ = model.transcribe(
diff --git a/install.bat b/install.bat
index 7af6d26..c0dbcf6 100644
--- a/install.bat
+++ b/install.bat
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ py -3.13 -m venv .venv-windows
 
 set "VENV=%~dp0.venv-windows"
 echo Installing dependencies...
-"%VENV%\Scripts\pip" install --upgrade pip
-"%VENV%\Scripts\pip" install -r requirements.txt
+"%VENV%\Scripts\python.exe" -m pip install --upgrade pip
+"%VENV%\Scripts\python.exe" -m pip install -r requirements.txt
 
 echo Installing CUDA 12 DLLs (required for GPU acceleration)...
-"%VENV%\Scripts\pip" install -r requirements-cuda.txt
+"%VENV%\Scripts\python.exe" -m pip install -r requirements-cuda.txt
 
 echo.
 echo Done. Run start.bat to launch.