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[rinoatomy]

What makes volume leveling attenuate -14 from a song and -9 from another? Both songs have close DR values, 7 and 6 respectively.


Anyone care to explain?

[Matt]

We analyze the volume of the files.  It's sort of a complicated algorithm.  You could read about R128 (Google) for more details.

[6233638]

Dynamic Range (R128) is a measure of the difference between the loudest and quietest parts of a track.
Dynamic Range (DR) is a measure of the difference between the peaks in the track and the average level, which is a good indicator of how "dynamic" a track sounds.
 
Volume Leveling uses the average "loudness" (volume) of a track.
Dynamic Range has no effect on this - nor should it.
 
Dynamic Range Compression is often used in modern mastering, which reduces the Dynamic Range (DR) of a track in order to make it play louder. Volume Leveling is specifically designed to prevent that from happening.

[mwillems]

There's also some detailed explanation of how volume leveling works, it's relationship to DR, and the differences between the two DR measurements in JRiver in this thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=84489

A sample:

DR compares the average and peak loudness, and R128 [dynamic range] compares the loudest and quietest parts of the track, but with specific parameters.  R128 Dynamic range is the distance between the 95th percentile for loudness and the 10th percentile for loudness.  This is the case so that track lead ins, momentary silences, or fade outs don't set the bottom of the "dynamic range" and so that one or two very loud noises don't set the top of the range.  That's why R128 DR can actually be lower than the crest-factor DR: if R128 really measured the difference between the absolute quietest part and the absolute loudest part of the track, it would have to (necessarily) be a larger number than the crest factor DR, every time.

Check out the R128 spec for more http://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3342.pdf

But there's lots more in the thread including some charts, and a very useful video illustration of some issues with DR measurements of vinyl rips that 623368 posted.