More > JRiver Media Center 19 for Windows
NEW: Improved audio analysis and volume leveling (R128)
Matt:
MC19 makes several important improvements to audio analysis and volume leveling:
[*]Adoption of the R128 industry standard to analyze the loudness and dynamic range of content
[*]Ability to analyze audio for video files, including surround sound
[*]Smarter Volume Leveling that automatically respects intentional between track levels when playing from an album
[*]Volume Leveling works together with Adaptive Volume's peak level normalization
[*]Peak level is reported in decibels, measured as an R128 compliant True Peak, and reported per channel
This is a big topic, so I'll try to revisit it and post more details about the changes and the motivation at a later date.
6233638:
If you are using the oversampling method of calculating peak level as specified by the EBU, it might be worth changing this to "True Peak Level" (measured in dBTP) - you don't want to sell yourself short. :)
rjm:
Will backward compatibility be maintained so we can use the previous audio analysis method for old files and the new method for new files?
If not I will likely turn this feature off because I do not want to reanalyze my entire library.
6233638:
I think the problem is that mixing R128 and ReplayGain is not going to give good results.
ReplayGain is not nearly as good as R128 at leveling volume to the point that you don't have to touch the volume control any more.
6233638:
While I will have to re-analyze my files once true peak level analysis has been added, I am wondering about how downmixing factors into this.
I have analyzed a number of videos now, from downloaded content (e.g. made for YouTube or other sites) to television shows and films.
I haven't had a proper look over all the data, but there seems to be a number of items where volume leveling indicates that a positive correction is required, but peak level is already -1dB or higher. (and that's likely to increase once true peak measurements are implemented)
For example, I have an episode of The Wire which has a volume level of 4.7 LU, but a peak level of -1.3 dB, so volume leveling plays it back at +1.3 dB.
Even if I use Internal Volume or Parametric EQ set to -6dB as a test, Audio Path still indicates that Volume Leveling is only making a +1.3 dB correction. (P.S. when using the default Noire theme, Audio Path is not accessible during video playback in fullscreen mode for some reason)
The EBU R128 papers mention that separate analysis should be performed after downmixing, but you seemed to think that it wouldn't matter.
Would analysis after downmixing change things, or would the end result be the same?
It's still going to be very useful to have volume leveling active for downloaded videos, because they are often poorly mastered and the files I have analyzed so far range from -15.9 LU all the way to +22.0 LU, but it seems that it may not be very effective for commercially produced content - at least not if the target is -23 LUFS and peak level should not exceed -1 dBTP.
I seem to recall something being mentioned about possibly using -31 LUFS for some content in one of the EBU papers, but at some point I do wonder if we're just throwing away too much dynamic range in order to level things out though. (and when talking about losing 5-bits, it makes me wish my DAC accepted a 32-bit input…)
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