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[nwboater]

We are giving some Audio CDs as gifts to friends this Christmas. Unfortunately there is a lot of variation of levels between tracks. This came up for us a year and a half ago and in this thread http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=65180.0  it was suggested how to burn the CD with Replay Gain Data. It ended up that I didn't need to do it at that time since I ended up playing the music directly from MC so only now have I tried the technique.

The way it works is that after doing an 'Analyze Audio' the Replay Gain values are burned on the CD as tag information. Then when a player that recognizes them is used it will properly adjust the volume of each track. This works fine in several media players that recognize the Replay Gain data. Unfortunately as best I can determine the typical CD player does not.

So what is needed is a way to actually alter the volume of the various tracks before, or as they are burned. I can't find any way in MC18 to do this. Is there a way?

If it cant be done in MC does anyone have experience of an external way of doing it?

Thanks,
Rod

[Matt]

Are you burning an audio or data CD? 

If you're burning audio, you simply turn on Replay Gain in the burn settings and the corrected levels will be burned into the audio CD tracks.  It will work on all CD players.

[nwboater]

Are you burning an audio or data CD? 

If you're burning audio, you simply turn on Replay Gain in the burn settings and the corrected levels will be burned into the audio CD tracks.  It will work on all CD players.

Audio CD.

Matt, I gather you mean to enable 'Volume leveling' in the burn settings. I have done that. I may have to dig out an old CD player for a final test, but here is what I tried earlier after doing as you suggest:

Played the newly burned CD in MC18. With Volume levelling 'Off' in DSP for Playback there was variation between tracks. When I enabled it for Playback all tracks were similar volume. That tells me that the actual audio levels burned on the CD have not been adjusted. When enabling volume Levelling in Playback MC is adjusting via the Replay Gain values.

What might I be missing here? I sure would like it to be as easy as you said.

BTW, a big congratulations! Darn well deserved!

Thanks,
Rod

[nwboater]

Are you burning an audio or data CD? 

If you're burning audio, you simply turn on Replay Gain in the burn settings and the corrected levels will be burned into the audio CD tracks.  It will work on all CD players.

Okay I took the Audio CD that was burned with Replay Gain On and played it in a regular CD Player. Still has big variation between tracks.

Hope someone can help.

Thanks,
Rod

[Vocalpoint]

Okay I took the Audio CD that was burned with Replay Gain On and played it in a regular CD Player. Still has big variation between tracks. Hope someone can help.

I have tried this on numerous occasions - all to no avail. No matter what I click on or off - the tracks burned to the CD still had unbelievable volume swings - as if the actual level of the file had no been altered at all prior to burning.

I too would like to know what to do about it - if anything.

VP

[Matt]

I found a little issue.  Fixed next build:
Fixed: In certain cases, 'Volume Leveling' with Replay Gain might not be enabled even if it looked enabled in DSP Studio (please double-check your DSP Studio setting with the new build).

If you uncheck and recheck 'Volume Leveling' in DSP Studio, it should fix this.

Or if you wait for the next build, it'll be fixed.

Sorry for the trouble.

[Vocalpoint]

I found a little issue.  Fixed next build:
Fixed: In certain cases, 'Volume Leveling' with Replay Gain might not be enabled even if it looked enabled in DSP Studio (please double-check your DSP Studio setting with the new build).

If you uncheck and recheck 'Volume Leveling' in DSP Studio, it should fix this.

Or if you wait for the next build, it'll be fixed.

Sorry for the trouble.

Thanks Matt - and I take it this is a v18 fix? I am still on v17 (hopefully getting to v18 over the holidays

Would the "toggle on off" trick work in v17?

VP

[Matt]

I'm not sure if the same issue applies to v17, but it might.  It's worth a try.

[nwboater]

And Matt, you are talking about DSP Studio selection from Options in Burn CD. Right?

Thanks very much for your prompt dealing with this.

Rod

[JimH]

All development is now focused on MC18.  Only major bugs would be fixed in MC17 now.

[nwboater]

This problem has now been fixed (V18.0.98). Thanks very much Matt. We are now burning CD's that have similar volume on all tracks!

I followed the procedure outlined by Alex B in the MC16 Thread. Thanks again Alex B.

First analyze the files and when burning use the "Apply Cross-fade and DSP effects" option and enable DSP Studio > Volume Leveling (aka Replay Gain) in the burning DSP options (the playback options are not effective when burning).

You can use the "Adjustment > Automatic based on current playlist" Volume Leveling option to make each disc as loud as possible without causing clipping (Replay Gain will usually reduce the volume level - more or less, depending on the source material).

You may want to prepare a playlist for each audio CD. For example, make each list less than 80 minutes if you have such discs (= 700 MB in data use).

EDIT

Attached a screenshot.   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=65180.0;attach=3576;image

Log in to the forum if you can't see the attachment.

For others doing this, don't forget to do his first step which is to 'Analyze' the tracks.

Rod