# Is it possible to adjust the volume within an MP3 file? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 15, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868 "2020-05-15T16:36:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/1 "2020-05-15T16:36:04Z")
Suppose you have an MP3 file with some song which plays at a lower or higher volume than most of your other songs, which is jarring when you have it in a playlist with some other music. You can obviously just adjust the volume in your computer or media player every time that song goes on and again when another song comes on, but it’s a pain in the neck. So the question is: is there some simple way to permanently modify the MP3 file so that it will play it at a higher/lower volume? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/2 "2020-05-15T16:38:42Z")
MP3Gain will do it. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/3 "2020-05-15T16:55:51Z")
The free version of MediaMonkey will also do this. It will even take a group of MP3 files and normalize them in relation to each other so they play at similar (not identical) volumes. ---
**Author:** ![J-P\_L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/j-p_l/32/3156_2.png) [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/4 "2020-05-15T16:59:46Z")
Audacity can also increase the volume. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/5 "2020-05-15T19:54:27Z")
Another vote for MP3Gain. It’s a command line app, so if that’s the way you like to do things, it’s pretty neat. At one time I had it set up with a cron job and a script that would find new albums and normalize all files within the folder relative to each other, as new folders appeared. I don’t believe it’s re-encoding anything; it’s simply tweaking a gain setting in the MP3 header that is applied to the file content. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/6 "2020-05-15T20:11:48Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Another vote for MP3Gain. > > It’s a command line app, so if that’s the way you like to do things, it’s pretty neat. > At one time I had it set up with a cron job and a script that would find new albums and normalize all files within the folder relative to each other, as new folders appeared. > > I don’t believe it’s re-encoding anything; it’s simply tweaking a gain setting in the MP3 header that is applied to the file content. I was curious about this so checked Wikipedia - [MP3Gain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3Gain) and you are correct, the utility applies the [ReplayGain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain) loudness determination algorithm and then sets the ReplayGain parameter, as well as saving the original value if present. Give yourself one Ignorance Fought token… ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/7 "2020-05-15T21:58:39Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I don’t believe it’s re-encoding anything; it’s simply tweaking a gain setting in the MP3 header that is applied to the file content. Yes, but I think this requires that whatever MP3 or media player you are using recognizes and properly acts upon this header. (Some media players _can_ support this, but you may need to enable this support in the preferences.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/8 "2020-05-16T04:45:27Z")
You can do it easily in iTunes. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/9 "2020-05-16T15:07:26Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Another vote for MP3Gain. > > It’s a command line app, so if that’s the way you like to do things, it’s pretty neat. There is a command-line version, but the [normal Windows version](http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php) runs in a window. > [@psychonaut](#): > > Yes, but I think this requires that whatever MP3 or media player you are using recognizes and properly acts upon this header. (Some media players _can_ support this, but you may need to enable this support in the preferences.) I’ve used MP3Gain for decades to balance my entire MP3 collection, and I’ve never run across an MP3 player that didn’t recognize and support this by default. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/10 "2020-05-16T20:08:01Z")
> [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > I’ve used MP3Gain for decades to balance my entire MP3 collection, and I’ve never run across an MP3 player that didn’t recognize and support this by default. I don’t believe you. [The ReplayGain spec wasn’t even published until 2001](http://web.archive.org/web/20010804214433/http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~djmrob/replaygain/index.html), and the earliest release of MP3Gain I can find is from 2002. Support way back then was extremely spotty across software players, and nonexistent for hardware players. If you’ve never run across an MP3 player that didn’t support ReplayGain by default, then (at least in the first few years or so of its existence) you must have had the luck of choosing only the very early adopters. Even today it is not unusual to find people online bitching about certain media players or devices (car stereos, etc.) not supporting ReplayGain. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/11 "2020-05-17T19:21:25Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I don’t believe you. nm, this isn’t the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-adjust-the-volume-within-an-mp3-file/853868/12 "2020-05-19T15:12:24Z")
There are many ways to do it. . .but most involve some additional software. If you’re comfortable doing that it’s easy.