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Author Topic: Volume leveling - what it does for handheld sync?  (Read 2425 times)

StaryKaszub

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Volume leveling - what it does for handheld sync?
« on: November 30, 2014, 02:03:06 pm »

Hi,

I've tried to sync my handheld using MC 19 and MC20. I always check the checkbox in Conversions> Apply DSP. In DSP settings I check the Volume Leveling and Adaptive Volume. I perform the sync operation and cannot figure out what that DSP processing does during sync, especially that the sync operation is very short (I'm syncing a play list and converting FLAC to MP3). When I play MP3s from my handheld (actually USB stick) the loud tracks remain loud and low volume track remain low volume tracks.

Is the DSP volume leveling changing the track volume or is it just adding a replay gain marker to the track and if my player doesn't understand those reply gain markers the whole exercise is pointless?

Thanks,
StaryKaszub
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ferday

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Re: Volume leveling - what it does for handheld sync?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2014, 02:35:50 pm »

I sync with volume levelling (converting flac to MP3) the volume levelling works great, the DSP applies volume levelling and headphone spatialization to the MP3 files and it all works great

Not a solution to your problem, sorry...but it does work here and is supposed to apply the DSP during conversion
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mwillems

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Re: Volume leveling - what it does for handheld sync?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2014, 02:56:19 pm »

My guess is that it's adaptive volume that is the problem, you should try it with just volume levelling enabled.  

Volume levelling normally works by attenuating tracks so that they're all around the same level.  Adaptive volume in peak normalize mode adds back in as much volume as can be added without driving any track in the playlist into clipping.  So if you were playing a mixed playlist of three files with peaks of 0dBFS and volume levelling targets of -10dB, -15dB, and -20dB, volume levelling would subtract those amounts from each file and adaptive volume would add back in 10dB or so because that's the most that can be added to every file without driving any file into clipping.  Add a fourth file with 0dB peak and a -5dB volume levelling adjustment to the playlist, and adaptive volume will only add 5dB to the new playlist (because it's adaptive).  It works a little differently with albums than mixed playlsits, but the basic operation of adaptive volume is similar.  

The bottom line is that when used as DSP options at runtime, adaptive volume and volume levelling work together dynamically on a playlist, but they will work a little differently on any given playlist.  I have no idea how the logic works during a sync because there's no "playlist" to use as a reference for adaptive volume.  I'm guessing that adaptive volume just looks at each track individually and adds back in the boost that volume levelling removes which effectively breaks volume levelling in mixed playlists entirely;  If you want consistent volume levels in the synced files, try just using volume levelling and see if that works better (it has always worked fine for me).
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gvanbrunt

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Re:
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2014, 03:57:34 pm »

My guess is you may have turned on the dsp option after files were already on the handheld. So they are not re syncing. You may have to delete them all from there first. You may also have to remove them from the cache as well.
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StaryKaszub

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Re: Volume leveling - what it does for handheld sync?
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2014, 02:05:56 am »

Hi,

Thank you for all responces! I've solved my problem by clearing the conversion cache used by MC (see Tools>Options). After that and after deleting all files from my handheld device the sync took much longer and now all the tracks have the same volume level during the playback.
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