A useless MP3 gripe (and a question)...

[ptwining]

The volume levels of my MP3 collection are insanely unbalanced. Some files are really "hot" (that is, loud) and others are desperately quiet.

It doesn't seem to correlate to bitrate either - some of my best sources just can't be cranked up enough to really enjoy.

Do any of you know of a really good volume levelling program I can apply to my library without getting everything smashed into inaudibility?

Pardon my ignorance but does volume levelling affect audio quality? Can I bring everything up to a decent level or do they all have to go down to the lowest common denominator?

I have over 7k tunes and it's driving me mad! Playlists are a wreck...

(picture Ren Hoek - paws outstretched - eyes bugged out - "It's MAD I tell you, mad!")

Regards,
Tom

[daatkins]

What do you use to play your MP3s?

Most playback software has a volume equaliser function, usually labelled as a “normalizer”. One exception is iTunes which calls it “sound check” (found under the edit/preferences/playback menu).

I don’t think it should affect sound quality: the source is digital so to my mind a simple multiply function is all that’s needed, which I imagine is exactly what the slider controls on WinAmp etc do!

Nice one,
David.

[Tim__x]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_Gain

[ptwining]

I'm looking into what you pointed me to! Maybe this is fixable...

Regards,
Tom

[jeff mai]

Originally posted by ptwining
The volume levels of my MP3 collection are insanely unbalanced. Some files are really "hot" (that is, loud) and others are desperately quiet.

It may not be the fault of the mp3 encoding in many cases. Older pop recordings are generally far less compressed than modern ones and may seem dramatically less loud as a result.

Replaygain works, but be careful how it is applied. The default settings for the interface to replaygain I used altered the MP3 audio stream in the saved MP3 file.

It is better to have replaygain store the info it needs as tag data in the MP3 and then use it to alter the level during playback. This way you can turn the replaygain off if you want to listen to an entire album and preserve quality. You have to use a player that supports this mode.