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[Maxxwire]

I have decided to use JRiver to rip my CD collection to flac files and I am wondering what ramifications the 'normalize to xx% before encoding' option carries with it? Is the information from the 'normalization' process designed to be used along with the optional volume leveling and adaptive volume features in the JRiver DSP Studio, or will the music files be permanently altered for automatic normalized playback after ripping?

[blgentry]

I'm not 100% sure what that option is designed to do.  But it would seem to alter the volume of the files permanently.  I wouldn't use it.

I'm quite sure that the R128 volume normalization that's built in to MC's DSP Studio does not require any sort of option like that on rip.  The volume leveling that MC does is based on an analysis of the audio that's done after import and then two options in the DSP Studio that you can turn on and off.

Brian.

[Maxxwire]

Thank you for the prompt reply bigentry.

After comparing the metadata of flac files which were pre-encoded for normalization with non-encoded ones I found that the R128 volume and peak levels matched exactly so I did some comparisons using the JRiver Audio Path window.

I found that regardless of whether a track was normalized to 100% prior to encoding or whether it was not normalized at all that during playback of a track which let’s say measures Peak Levels of -3.0 dBTP; -3.0 Left; -4.8 Right when using the Adaptive Volume feature the Audio Path display in JRiver shows: Adjust volume by +2.0 dB for peak level normalize (fixed)

Playing back a track with for example a -4.0 dBTP Adaptive Volume was likewise being compensated by +3.0 to reach the -1dBTP standard maximum volume.

I also noticed that when Adaptive Volume was disabled that a track which had been pre-normalized to 100% before encoding that the Audio Path window did not indicate any processing or volume adjustment due to normalization pre-encoding.

I went on to compare the Adaptive Volume playback of a un-normalized track with the same track ripped at 80% pre-encoded normalization. Both tracks measured -0.7 dBTP and showed an identical -0.3 dB compensation in the Audio Path when played back. Neither track showed any indication of processing when Adaptive Volume was turned off.

To me so far playback volume normalization using the Adaptive Volume Feature seems to be a selectable feature and appears to treat music that was encoded prior to ripping to flac in the exact same way same as files that have not been previously encoded whether or not it is enabled or not at least from what I can see in JRiver’s Audio Path window.

Here are the results I got after ripping the same CD using 100%, 80% and 0% normalization pre-encoding...