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Author Topic: Loudness equalization for J River MC20  (Read 5722 times)

ivanlyf_2011

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Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« on: October 19, 2014, 10:03:58 am »

Hi everyone,

I'm trying out JRiver MC20 now to see if it can replace XM Play as my ALAC player.

Here are some details of my audio:

Genres: Classical music
Equipment: Adam Audio Artist 5 + Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC
Files played: AIFF, ripped from CDs

My problem:

I listen to classical music where the volume within a single track can vary widely. For example, if I were to set my volume for the softest portion of the track, at other portions, the track becomes too loud. Therefore, I enable loudness equalization under Control Panel in Windows 8.1 to get rid of this problem. with loudness equalization, the soft portions of the track can be easily heard.

Is there a way to do this under JRiver?

I have tried enabling volume leveling and adaptive volume but it does not work.

I have switched the volume to Internal Volume, enabled loudness and set my internal volume reference as 20. It still doesn't work.

What am I Missing??

I really would like to use JRiver as my media player and this absence?? of loudness equalization is the 1 thing that prevents me from fully embracing MC 20.

Thanks for your assistance!
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Hendrik

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2014, 10:06:50 am »

What you want is called Dynamic Range compression, you increase the volume of quiet parts of decrease the volume of the loud parts, in result you change the dynamic range.

You can try Adaptive Volume and set it to Night Mode, that might do what you want.
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ivanlyf_2011

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2014, 10:09:10 am »

What you want is called Dynamic Range compression, you increase the volume of quiet parts of decrease the volume of the loud parts, in result you change the dynamic range.

You can try Adaptive Volume and set it to Night Mode, that might do what you want.

Okay thanks! Sorry, going to zzz now as I'm on GMT +8 here. Will give your advice a shot later!

Is there a way to adjust the dynamic range compression beyond the suggested night mode?
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ivanlyf_2011

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2014, 10:18:50 am »

What you want is called Dynamic Range compression, you increase the volume of quiet parts of decrease the volume of the loud parts, in result you change the dynamic range.

You can try Adaptive Volume and set it to Night Mode, that might do what you want.

Hi Hendrik,

Tried the night mode. The effect is only slightly better but not as good as the loudness equalization on Windows 8.

Are there any ideas?
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Hendrik

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2014, 10:21:15 am »

You can also try to set it to Small Speaker Mode, it should be much stronger.
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stewart_pk

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2014, 07:47:24 pm »

I have switched the volume to Internal Volume, enabled loudness and set my internal volume reference as 20. It still doesn't work.

Why 20? Set it to 100.
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mwillems

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2014, 07:48:57 pm »

Yeah setting it to twenty just guarantees it won't work unless you have your internal volume very low.  The Loudness-checkbox equalization only engages when volume is lower than the reference.
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ivanlyf_2011

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2014, 08:59:36 pm »

Thanks everyone.

Will give your suggestions a shot when I get home tonight.

Set the reference as 100 and turn on the night mode.
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spiggytopes

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2014, 10:09:51 pm »

Night mode made the biggest difference for me ...

ASIO, max output to the dac, volume controlled by the pre amp.
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spiggytopes

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2014, 10:10:39 pm »

Oh, and are you equalising the audio when importing?
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ivanlyf_2011

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2014, 10:54:01 am »

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your suggestions.

I tried these 2 measures today:

- Set as night mode
- Set internal volume reference as 100.

The audio signal is much much improved now. The whole piece sounds uniformly loud now (relatively) with less adjustment of the volume knob needed.

Even did a corrupted AB test: XM Play on Windows shared mode vs J River on WASAPI

Result: J River wins. Piano sounds just about right for the Dvorak's Piano Quartet while in XM Play, the piano seems to be clipping.

Thanks for chipping in everyone!
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ivanlyf_2011

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2014, 10:55:20 am »

Night mode made the biggest difference for me ...

ASIO, max output to the dac, volume controlled by the pre amp.

Max output to the DAC??? Won't that cause clipping?

I'm using the Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC so yeah it does have a pre-amp function (sort of pre-amp that is).

Anyone seconds the suggestion of maximizing output to my DAC???
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mwillems

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2014, 11:08:07 am »

Max output to the DAC??? Won't that cause clipping?

I'm using the Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC so yeah it does have a pre-amp function (sort of pre-amp that is).

Anyone seconds the suggestion of maximizing output to my DAC???

Generally it's a good idea to maximize the output of your DAC and handle volume attenuation in MC or via the amplifier; the exception is when the maximum output of the DAC is hot enough that it would drive the inputs on your power amp into clipping; this is mostly a problem when connecting pro-audio style DACs that output a high line-level to consumer-style amps that are expecting the lower "consumer" line level.  If in doubt consult the spec sheets for your DAC and Amplifier.
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stewart_pk

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2014, 10:53:39 pm »

I tried these 2 measures today:

- Set as night mode
- Set internal volume reference as 100.


Hi, I think you should try without Night Mode as this will be reducing the dynamic range of your music while the LOUDNESS feature will not.
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ivanlyf_2011

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Re: Loudness equalization for J River MC20
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2014, 07:56:47 pm »

Was trying out the recommendations yesterday night.

Have decided to stick with night mode, WASAPI output to my Mytek and not to maximize the volume during playback.

This combination gave the best sound to my classical music.



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