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[kavanagh.matt]

Hello,

Great looking software.

I've imported FLAC files from my existing music server and am experiencing wildly different volumes between different albums. Some very quiet, despite being on highest system and Media Centre volume, some very loud. The files sound pretty much the same in the original player they came from.

I have found a part of the application where it implies that it can even this out. It makes a small difference but doesn't address the problem of hardly being able to hear some music.

Any ideas?

MATT.

[blgentry]

1.  It sounds like you know about both of the Volume Controls.  But it might make it easier on you if you keep one of them at max and never change it.  Maybe max out MC's volume at 100%.  Or system at 100%.  If you have an external volume control (on an amp or receiver for example), you might just max out both.  I don't think this is your problem; I'm just addressing it to be sure.

2.  It's normal for some songs to be very quiet and some to be very loud.  An average stereo system should be able to play either at a somewhat normal volume.  I'm not sure how much of a difference you're hearing.  Really quiet classical, compared to full volume Pop, Rock, Metal will DEFINITELY be a big difference.

3.  Your old player might have used volume leveling.  It might have used dynamic range compression.  It's hard to say.  You can definitely enable Volume Leveling in MC.  But, for best results, MC needs to analyze the volume of each song.  Here's what I would do as a test:

Find 3 to 10 songs that you like that seem to play at different volume levels.  Analyze them in MC:  <right click on songs> Library Tools > Analyze Audio > (run it)

It should only take a few seconds per song to analyze.  Once that's done, set up the DSP Studio to do Volume Leveling:  Player > DSP Studio > Volume Leveling > (check the box next to it)

You may find that this reduces the overall volume; this is normal.  To bring some of it back, turn on Adaptive Volume:
Player > DSP Studio > Adaptive Volume  (check the box) > (Select Peak Level Normalize)

If that works (and it should), you'll want to do Analyze Audio on all of your files.  It might take a while with a large library.  You can leave it running while you do other things.

Good luck!

Brian.

[Jumpsturdy]

One thing I have wondered about volume leveling is whether that means if you have a few very low volume songs within a very large library, will all the other songs be reduced in volume to match the level of those songs. Because I guess I would be a little concerned with the effect of having most songs reduced by 40 or 50 percent, if that's what it took to match the few low volume songs. Or are the low volume songs increased? Or a combination of both raising and lowering to match a median value?
The concern is with significant digital volume reduction and the effect on audio quality. I don't know if this concern is legitimate or not, but would appreciate if someone could speak to the issue. Thanks.

[blgentry]

^ Regarding very low level songs:  Those lower level songs are raised to match the level of others.  The (approximate) average level is used though, so if a song is really quiet in parts, but loud in others, it's not going to be increased much.  If the whole song is quiet, it's level will be raised to be close to the level of the louder songs in your library.

There will be an overall reduction in volume due to the way this works, but it's not a huge reduction.  Something like 8 to 10 dB overall has been my experience.  But there's another DSP setting which will bring back some of this volume.  It's the Adaptive Volume (peak level normalize) DSP.

For reference:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Volume_Leveling
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Adaptive_Volume

Brian.

[Jumpsturdy]

Thanks, Brian. Glad to hear it works that way. Even gladder than I don't have try and weed out the low level stuff, as I know I have a few in my library that were recorded at very low levels, but don't remember which they are.