Hey guys,

Title says it all. I have a lot of music that I ripped to MP3 and between the old CDs and remasters/new releases the volume fluctuates a lot. My last mp3 actually tuned the volume up and down for me so the levels were relatively equal, but my new one does not.

I'm looking for a program that I could basically have scan and adjust the levels on mp3s automatically, one that is free or cheap.

I know I can change levels with Audacity but that would be a slow and inefficient process and I can't be bothered. Anyone have any suggestions at all, anything like this exist?

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio...Replaygain

try foobar and replaygain
[Edited 1/2/10 15:00pm]

I let iTunes do it. It has a setting in there that checks the sound of the files. I believe it's in the iPod settings as well. 99% of the time it works for me, and I rarely have to adjust the volume between an old Barbara Mandrell song and something from The Gold Experience (which is rather crisp and loud by default).

whatever portable player you use or software you play them on your computer probably has a "sound check" or "normalize" setting for playback.

ernestsewell said:

While this might work, it doesn't actually adjust the audio levels on the files, merely adjusts them as they play. I'm looking for a permanent adjustment to my files. But thanks for the suggestion.

errant said:

I went with zune for a host of reasons, though much to my surprise this feature wasn't available on it (even though it was available on my 2006 Creative Zen Vision:M)...

Still, the software doesn't do it for some reason. I know WMP can do it, but it's only for the WMP interface, once again doesn't allow you to physically edit the songs.

unique said:

Thanks, this sounds like what I might be looking for. Will check when I get home from work.

Audacity: http://audacity.sourcefor...t/features




Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

savoirfaire said:

replaygain can fix it permanently. just have a play about and google up how it works. you drag and drop the files you want normalized into foobar, and select the ones you want normalised and regain will calculate the values and same the values in the tags, as some players can normalise with just that data, but you can also save the files as new ones with the adjusted volume

foobar also works with flac, ape, ogg, etc and can save the adjusted files to a different format if you want. it's pretty quick and easy to use for batch converting loads of files

I don't use it (yet) but ReplayGain is widely considered the industry standard.

One benefit of simply using iTunes, though, is that it only affects playback -- no files are altered. You can turn it off if you want.

Se7en said:

Yeah, I was wondering - does the poster want to actually edit the dB volume on all their files? I'm not sure I'd want to do that. At least with iTunes and the iPod, you can turn it off if you don't want it.

ernestsewell said:

Yeah, this is what I want to do... I will be mass copying all my mp3s in case it goes wrong... but like I said, I want to physically alter the levels of the mp3s for use on zune/other playback software (this is an admittedly good feature of itunes, but I find the software to otherwise be pretty poor)...

Foobar seems like the way to go.

savoirfaire said:

if that's what you want to do then foobar is the way to go as you can drag and drop all your files into it, set it going and leave it running. it will actually create new changed versions of your mp3s etc (it can do it with flac, ape, etc, so just drag all your music in) with your new settings, and it will leave the original files as they are. if you have thousands of files you can just leave it running overnight or whatever. the only thing about batching like that is you have to choose one output setting and bitrate, you would have to manually select and convert seperate bitrates in batches

I use mp3gain and use the album gain to set the album volume to 89db. With album gain, all the tracks retain the relative ups and downs in volume, but without any overly nasty dips.

Superstition said:

mp3gain just uses replaygain and adds tags to the files, it doesn't do what the OP wants, which is to adjust the volume of the mp3s, it relies on players being able to read the tag and adjust the volume accordingly. as the zune doesn't do that (according to the op) the alternative is to adjust the mp3s themselves

unique said:

From the link you posted:


I've used this program for years, and the volume changes have worked on every mp3 player I've tried them on, including ones without replaygain support. I don't even have the program set to write tags.
[Edited 1/3/10 2:30am]
[Edited 1/3/10 2:41am]

Kara said:[quote]

unique said:

but the op has a player that needs the files to be changed. foobar uses replaygain to write the tag data, which appears to be all you need for your players, but as that's not enough for the OP, they need something like foobar to read the tag data and amend or create new mp3s with the volume actually adjusted, rather than being adjusted by the player via the tag

unique said:

My players don't read replaygain tags. MP3Gain does change the files, that's why it works for me. I'm just saying.

Kara said:[quote]

unique said:

ah, it's not clear on the site, as it says "lossless" change and metions the change can be reversed. anything that changes the mp3 itself isn't lossless and can't be reversed, it would have to be re processed a second time to change the data back

unique said:

Okay

It just seems like a lot of work, with iffy results. You could lose clarity in some files, and gain more hiss in others, especially when, and if, you're changing bitrates. You can't rip up, you know. You won't get better quality that way. So is it going to rip all your files in the same format and bitrate as the originals, AND adjust the volume to your liking? A 128k bitrate MP3 ripped up to 256k and volume adjusted isn't going to sound better in quality than what it was at 128k. Once that shiz is compressed, the file is forever changed, so the new 256k is just going to take up more space, and still sound like a 128k file. (I'm sure you're aware of that though.)

.
[Edited 1/3/10 9:35am]

ernestsewell said:

if you had as many mp3s as i do it would take forever, but most normal people don't have anything like me and can fit it all on an ipod

with foobar you could potentially drag all your files in and leave it to get the replaygain tag, and then sort your files by bitrate and batch convert those files to the same bitrate. there's only so many different bitrates someone is likely to have, so even if it takes 8 seperate batches to convert, you just set it going, watch some tv, set the next batch, watch more tv and so on. in my day we had to handwrite mp3 code as there wasn't fancy software about like the kids today. we also had to shoplift for our music instead of sitting on our fat arses in front of computers with pizzas downloading from other kids. and before cds came out it took real skill to hide LP's from store staff. kids today don't know they are born

unique said:

Yeah I get the "you can do other stuff while it does its thing" thing. Not a new concept of course.

I have over 21,000 mp3s. I'd never attempt anything like the original poster wants. Of course when you buy M$ product....

theAudience said:

Audacity is the best. And it's freeware.

ernestsewell said:

That Zune owned the Ipod Classic in all aspects, which is what I required when I bought it, as I needed the 120GB of space for my mp3s. I was shocked that the audio leveller didn't exist for it however....

all my music is ripped at 256k as I didn't have enough room for 320kbps, so it would not be an issue to run it through and wait, even in batches if need be...

I don't have 21,000 mp3s, but I have enough. I appreciate everyone's help. Thanks again.

ernestsewell said:

I'm not sure who this was directed at, but MP3Gain doesn't change the bitrate or re-encode the file. There's some argument over whether it's truly lossless or not, but if someone is that concerned over losing quality, they probably shouldn't be using a lossy format like mp3 to begin with. I've used MP3Gain on thousands of files over the years and never had an issue.