I have lots of files. If I make a mix I can wind up with huge variations in sound level. Are there workarounds for this?
what do you use to play them? iTunes has something called “Sound Check” which will address this, other playback software can use plugins like ReplayGain.
There’s a free application called mp3gain which can non-destructively set the volume of a collection of files to be similar. It includes an undo function.
Most players will feature a volume normalization or volume equalizer option. You probably want to have the app you’re listening from do this rather than normalize all your mp3 files.
I am using foobar, but I’m not an expert in it. Anyone know if there is a fix built in?
(I detest itunes and never use it.)
No idea about foobar.
I personally use Audacity to adjust the volume level of my mp3 files. If you select the entire file and select the volume, it will automatically calculate out how much it can scale up the volume without distorting the sound.
See if I got this.
You apply an operation through audacity to your files, changing the files permanently?
Then you can play the files in another player and the volume is leveled?
(Foobar seems to have been one of the first programs to have some leveling function. I’m trying it now but it seems to be a little cumbersome. It seems like it wants you to apply an operation to each playlist. I like to use foobar as a spontaneous jukebox dragging and dropping as I feel like.)
Do you use audacity as a player? How is it for that?
If you do that with MP3 files, I think you’ll end up recompressing them when you save, which will result in loss of quality. The utilities that adjust the gain factor on the MP3 files directly, can do this without re-encoding, and so should not result in any additional loss.
Yep.
If you only want to play one file, it’s fine. If you want to listen to music all night long, it’s horrible. It’s a clunky but powerful editor. It’s not made to be a jukebox.
Most of the time I am starting with something lossless like a wav file so I don’t have to worry about the loss in quality. With a lot of music the loss in quality isn’t really that noticeable anyway (and I’m a musician so I tend to notice quality loss).
In foobar, select the files you want to adjust, right click, scroll down to “ReplayGain” and choose how you want to adjust.
Much quicker than doing individual files, and it’s nondestructive, as it only modifies the tags, not the audio.
If you’re using Windows, apparently there is an option for loudness equalization. You can also look here for some other suggestions. iTunes also has a volume normalization option as seen here. From what I can find, it does not seem like foobar has a global normalization option, but ReplayGain can be used as mentioned above.
Kinda. Audacity is a “sound processor.” You import the file into it, and then can perform operations such as amplification, speed change, tone and pitch change, click reduction (useful for old LPs) and the like. So if the file plays too softly, you import it to Audacity, amp it up some, and then save it (export it to mp3.) For safety, you can save it to a new file-name, preserving your original unchanged.
(The speed change feature is also useful if you have a modern USB turntable that plays at 33 or 45…and you’ve got some old 78s. You play them, they sound like hell, but then you change the speed, and, presto, you’ve got properly-sped-up audio files.)
Also, Audacity is user-friendly enough that even a clod like me can get good results from it. Also it’s free, so what the heck?
OK let me throw this out.
I can use Foobar and as I retrieve each file or group starting now I can do the operation. It will tag the file so that whenever I drag and drop the file into foobar in the future from my music storage it knows how to level it. This will work for Foobar only and not change the file.
I can also use audacity to modify my mp3 files using an operation, say selecting 50 files at a time? And it will change the file to comport with all my other files, whatever player is used. It will do this by gauging how much it can push the volume level up and without distortion.
Does Audacity lose information from the file?
So would you trust the process and just mod all your files? Are you comfortable with it?
How cumbersome will it be to work with hundreds of LPs, say?
I use MP3Gain:-
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/
Like I said, if you save to a different file-name, there’s no risk at all.
I used an Ion USB turntable and Audacity to convert all my LPs. It took a while, but I’m happy with the result. Be sure to use the click-removal feature. If you’re really obsessive, you could go with SoundSoap or some other noise-removal software.
I can go into more detail if you want. It really wasn’t hard.
I think I got a terrabyte of music. It becomes prohibitive to have two of everything.
I like audacity. I use it to convert my cassettes of my music to mp3. I haven’t used it for other things yet.
Okay, yeah, that’s a big gob of music!
But you could save a few files with different names, experimenting with the process, till you feel secure in it. If you’ve used Audacity to convert cassettes, you’re probably familiar with the process.
I do not know if Audacity is “lossless.” i.e., if you use it to amplify some music, and then later de-amplify it, have you lost any actual data resolution? My experience is that it amplifies very nicely, taking very soft music and making it as loud as you like.
I believe it also has a “balance” function, that smooths out dynamic range, so that a whole file is more uniform in volume. This isn’t something I’ve ever actually used.
If you’re saving in a lossy format such as MP3, then yes. Audacity will compress the files again and there will be loss of fidelity (perhaps not especially noticeable if the initial quality was high). I don’t think Audacity can adjust lossy files without uncompressing, then recompressing.
If you’re opening from a lossless format and saving in a lossless format, assuming the file and project bitrates are the same, there should be minimal loss of fidelity (you could still lose some as a result of clipping or some such - just as an outcome of changing stuff). If there’s a mismatch of bitrates between source/project/target, you could lose quite a lot.
I use mp3gain as well. I ran it against my entire 40Gb music folder, and everything was adjusted perfectly. It uses a psycho-acoustic model of apparent loudness, so all the songs on average sound about as loud as each other. It also maintains the relative loudness of albums, so for an album, the balance of loud and quiet songs is maintained.
I targeted a volume level that means that my phone cannot play music loud enough to hurt my ears, even on maximum volume, but is still loud enough for reasonable listening in a moderately noisy environment.
YMMV.
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