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[Qythyx]

I have some tracks that are significantly too quiet. I was wondering if there was some way to manually adjust the Replay Gain. It looks like I might be able to select a value from a list, but no way to input one.

[Alex B]

What is the file format?

What is the Genre? -- Or more specifically: what kind of music the files contain? For example: Are they originally quiet tracks with only a few or no louder passages or are they originally very loud tracks from the beginning to the end?

Could you post the Replay Gain and Peak Level values of a few example files? It would be good to include the Artist, Album and Track names too in case I happen to have the same or similar tracks in my library.

There is way to adjust the Replay Gain and Peak Level values (outside MC) but I would need to get answers to my questions first.

[Johnny B]

There is way to adjust the Replay Gain and Peak Level values (outside MC)...

Really? I am interested - how can it be done?

[Qythyx]

The format is lossless WMA. The genre is Jazz, specifically Billie Holiday recordings from the 1930s. I was wondering if the scratchiness of the old originals is somehow to blame.

Anyway, I'm not actually sure how quite/loud the CD is, cuz I almost never listen to the original media anymore. It's somewhat silly, I own all these CDs many of which have only been read once when I ripped them.

Here are some numbers:

Peak / Replay Gain
74% / -10.63
66% / -7.43
92% / -8.82
80% / -8.84

Quickly scanning through all the tracks (it is an 8 CD set) these look like pretty typical numbers.

[JONCAT]

I believe have heard those recordings and her voice does tend to be buried in noise however well remastered.

What does the Intensity tag read for these?

If the content you want to hear is buried in a lot of noise, ReplayGain isn't smart enough to pull a voice, for example. I would think RG is doing it's job correctly; still would be nice to be able to compensate for this manually when indivdual tracks or of this nature/quality.

DC

[jgreen]

While Replay Gain is a non user-editable field, you can add a predetermined (or interactive) gain offset via scthom's brilliant plugin "EQdb". Search the third-party plugin area for the link to his site. 

While I think Replay Gain does a great job, I also agree that some tracks sound out of adjustment, due to "intensity", I guess.  Interestingly, since I switched to a better class of DAC, those differences seem to have faded or gone away. 

All the same, if you're hearing a difference, EQdb will get this straightened out.

[JONCAT]

My understanding of the EQdb plugin is that it can change gain "after" replay gain has applied reduced volume levels, assuming you're using it.
Is this how it works?

If I'm right, this is similar to boosting the gain of the output on my external DAC (with jumpers and pots) except it's software based. After setting RG to achieve all audio tracks at the same volume, there is no workaround for the resulting reduced output. Sure you can turn up the volume on your preamp or integrated, but I lost a lot of volume. The standard output of a standalone CD-player direct into my amps with no preamp was somewhat of a benchmark for me, but I could easily observe too much of a reduction with the preamp in the loop.

Using one RG manual adjustment across the board, +7 for example, results in problems with clipping or over-boosting tracks that don't get the average RG reduction (depending on your content). I thought I could compensate for the across the board RG reduction this way but quickly discovered the inherent problem. I don't use the Album volume option in RG because while it may be more true with regard to relative volume between tracks of the same album, I find that my goal, implied in the use of RG, is to make all my music play back at similar enough gain that I won't notice the difference (thank god I don't have to use iTunes at work!).

The EMU cards' Patchmix allows you to boost gain with software (also has -10 +4 hard switch for most cards). Before getting the external DAC, and a hardware gain boost, I relied on the software gain boost - am I correct about the EQdb plug-in or does it have some tricks up it's sleeve?

DC

[JONCAT]

From scthom's site:

" Usage

Add files to Playing Now. Use the Mixer to select presets or custom EQ settings. Use the Save/Save To All/Remove/Remove From All buttons to save or remove the current Mixer settings to the files in the Playing Now list. The EQ settings are stored as an ASCII string, where "0" (zero) is the highest setting and "n" is the lowest setting. This is the same string that the Mixer uses to store presets in the registry.

As long as the plugin is running (you can stop it from Tools->Plugin Manager->Interface->EQdb->Stop), it will update the EQ settings for each track as it plays. Each track can have it's own settings. You can still turn on and off the Mixer separately.

When the current file has no setting, the plugin defaults to flat EQ settings."

[jgreen]

Doc--

According to Matt, or at least my impression of his answer to me was, that MC sums ALL DSP fx and then applies the result.  If I understand your question/point, EQdb can make an adjustment to the "preamp" setting under DSP studio/Equalizer.  This will add or subtract a value when MC calculates Replay Gain. 

[Alex B]

The format is lossless WMA. The genre is Jazz, specifically Billie Holiday recordings from the 1930s. I was wondering if the scratchiness of the old originals is somehow to blame.

Anyway, I'm not actually sure how quite/loud the CD is, cuz I almost never listen to the original media anymore. It's somewhat silly, I own all these CDs many of which have only been read once when I ripped them.

Here are some numbers:

Peak / Replay Gain
74% / -10.63
66% / -7.43
92% / -8.82
80% / -8.84

Quickly scanning through all the tracks (it is an 8 CD set) these look like pretty typical numbers.

Those numbers look normal for the music type. You can safely reduce the negative correction a few dBs withtout making the files to clip. If the values would have been postive numbers the situation could have been different.

Here's how you can do it:

1. Add the files to Playing Now
2. Export the Playing Now playlist in MPL format (File > Export Playlist)
3. Open the exported playlist with Notepad. It will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<MPL Version="2.0" Title="Playing Now">
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">X:\Billie Holiday\The Essential Billie Holiday\CD3 - 11 - I'm Gonna Lock My Heart.mp3</Field>
<Field Name="Artist">Billie Holiday</Field>
<Field Name="Album">The Essential Billie Holiday</Field>
<Field Name="Name">I'm Gonna Lock My Heart</Field>
<Field Name="File Type">mp3</Field>
<Field Name="Genre">Jazz</Field>
<Field Name="Comment">CD3</Field>
<Field Name="Bitrate">122</Field>
<Field Name="Image File">Billie Holiday - The Essential Billie Holiday.jpg</Field>
<Field Name="Media Type">Audio</Field>
<Field Name="File Size">2051007</Field>
<Field Name="Duration">134</Field>
<Field Name="Track #">11</Field>
<Field Name="Date Created">1203466218</Field>
<Field Name="Date Modified">1203472618</Field>
<Field Name="Date Imported">1203472824</Field>
<Field Name="Replay Gain">-7.4301199913024902</Field>
<Field Name="Peak Level">0.7818899750709534</Field>
<Field Name="Intensity">1</Field>
<Field Name="BPM">78</Field>
<Field Name="Date">37257</Field>
<Field Name="Complete Album">1</Field>
<Field Name="Album Gain">-8.0070285797119141</Field>
<Field Name="Disc #">3</Field>
<Field Name="Sample Rate">44100</Field>
<Field Name="Channels">2</Field>
<Field Name="Bit Depth">16</Field>
<Field Name="Compression">VBR (MPEG-1.0 Layer 3)</Field>
<Field Name="Use Bookmarking">Default</Field>
<Field Name="Skip Count">1</Field>
<Field Name="Last Skipped">1203556409</Field>
<Field Name="Stack Top">-1</Field>
</Item>

This is the line you want to edit:
<Field Name="Replay Gain">-7.4301199913024902</Field>

You could try something like a +5 dB correction. After the edit the line would be like this:
<Field Name="Replay Gain">-2.4301199913024902</Field>

Repeat edit for each included track and save the file.

4. Import the edited MPL file with the File > Import Playlist tool. This will update the library. (you need to select "Common playlist types" from the Files of type" dropdown menu to make the mpl type visible.)

[Qythyx]

Ok, thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it.

I'm wondering if there is any good reason the RG field in read only. Although it shouldn't be something that needs to be changed often, the ability to tweak it would be nice.

[Alex B]

I forgot to mention that you may want to change the Album Gain value too. Normally MC calculates it automatically, but I am unsure if it is automatically recalculated without reimporting the files or rerunning the analyzer.