# Making all the mp3 within a playlist the same volume... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 1, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888 "2004-03-01T11:22:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/1 "2004-03-01T11:22:08Z")
Hi all, I am currently using WinAmp 3.0 for my MP3 listening pleasures. One problem I have experienced is that as the MP3 are off different sources (some are original tunes composed by artist online, remixes or tracks which I ripped from my own cds), and hence the volume of the songs varies from one MP3 to another. This is annoying, as I often have to raise the volume for soft, mellow classicial music pieces only to race for the volume control when the next song happens to produce a sonic boom. Is there a tool which allows me to set all the MP3 to a consistent volume level? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/2 "2004-03-01T11:26:05Z")
iTools (free download from Apple; works on PC) has this feature. ---
**Author:** ![Planet\_of\_the\_Shapes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Planet\_of\_the\_Shapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Planet_of_the_Shapes)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/3 "2004-03-01T11:46:58Z")
I think MP3Gain should do it. However i think you’ll have to use it on your playlist each time you change it before you play them with Winamp. Otherwise you could use foobar2000 as your mp3 player, which can automatically do it, which would be the simpler solution. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/4 "2004-03-01T21:09:36Z")
Another vote for MP3Gain – I recently used it to normalize several songs for my CD-buring efforts, and while it’s a tad slow, it does a terrific job. It’s a UNIX program that’s ported to a zillion different platforms, and free to boot, so there’s no reason not to use it. Apple’s iTunes has a “sound check” feature (which is what I believe **jjimm** was referring to), but that doesn’t change the MP3s themselves; it merely instructs iTunes and/or the iPod to determine the average volume of a song, then adjust the playback volume so all your stuff sounds to be about the same volume. Unfortunately, it tends to be inaccurate about 10% of the time, and the sound check adjustment doesn’t apply for burning audio CDs, hence the recommendation for MP3Gain instead. ---
**Author:** ![swansont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@swansont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swansont)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/5 "2004-03-02T01:51:24Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > iTools (free download from Apple; works on PC) has this feature. iTunes ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/6 "2004-03-02T08:57:29Z")
> [@swansont](#): > > iTunes D’oh. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-all-the-mp3-within-a-playlist-the-same-volume/231888/7 "2004-03-02T11:57:56Z")
There are a few plugins for WinAmp that will do on-the-fly normalization. TomSteady is quite good. And if you use WinAmp to write WAVs, the plugin will normalize those as well. Not real efficient, though.