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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 29 for Windows => Topic started by: ianhudson on June 06, 2022, 03:52:20 pm

Title: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 06, 2022, 03:52:20 pm
Hi there - I had Volume Leveling on as well as Adaptive Volume set to peak level Normalize and was enjoying it. Then I started ripping my vinyl. I noticed that when I play a vinyl rip and there's a pop on the album playback, the volume for the track is instantly and very noticeably reduced. So, I turned it all off and figured, oh well, so much for that.

But now I really miss it. I love to play the smartlist of 100 random songs and I really loved how they were all the same volume. But now my library has many vinyl rips in it, so when they play, and if there is a snap crackle or pop, down goes the volume  :'(

Is there anything I can do? Should this even happen?
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: dtc on June 06, 2022, 04:38:59 pm
I would suggest getting Vinyl Studio and using it to remove the pops and clicks. It really does improve the enjoyment of those ripped vinyls.  There is a free trial version available.

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/download_win.aspx

Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 06, 2022, 05:41:58 pm
That is actually what I used to rip about 200 albums! It was quite a chore, but I took it slow, and it was a nice “covid activity”. AND, what a fabulous piece of software! Massive time saver and excellent features.
Yes, it removes a lot of pops and clicks, but not the bad ones. At least I didn’t bother to be that picky. I just ran the default settings. I also ran default normalizing settings.
So, it’s not like I’m talking about all my records/songs here with big pops, but there’s enough of them for this volume dropping to make turn the feature off. Also, all it takes is one little pop and the volume drops right away.

I wonder if just having volume levelling will work for me and I just have to turn er up! I think it’s the adaptive volume that is messing with volume on the fly.
We’ll see. I’ll try that and report back.
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 06, 2022, 05:59:20 pm
That seems to do it!
(I shoulda tried that…..I’m a dummy…..Posting this made me think of it though!)

Now I’ll be all paranoid about if it’s affecting the sound quality  ;D
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: dtc on June 06, 2022, 06:11:42 pm
Vinyl Studio will let you select a specific glitch and if the declicker does not work, then there are various filter options to try to fix them.  I could not believe some of the things I fixed, but some did take some time to do.  Agreed, great software.  I did a similar number of vinyls during a New England winter, which is not much different than Covid lockdowns :)
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 06, 2022, 06:22:59 pm
 ;D I did it all during Covid AND a Canadian winter!

I did a-lot via the batch processing. I work from home, so I’d work away and get up to flip the album. Record about 10 or so a day, then split up the tracks quickly (I got good at it) and then run batch processing on them all at once. Remove clicks, normalize, save tracks. Batching was super helpful.

I now have all my CDs (560) and 200 of my albums and have started buying downloads (20 so far) in my own personal, lossless library that I can access anywhere and I LOVE it!!!!!

Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: blgentry on June 07, 2022, 09:21:21 am
What you are describing sounds like dynamic range compression.  That doesn't make sense for the peak level normalize setting.  That absolutely should not happen.  If it was set to night mode maybe, but not peak level normalize.  If that was true, every drum hit, every dynamic in every song would "turn down" the rest of the song.

Peak level normalize does not do dynamic range compression, as far as I am aware.

My best guess is that you were using Night Mode, but only you can be sure.

Brian.
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 07, 2022, 04:32:02 pm
Thanks for the reply Blgentry and I totally agree. I don't get why it happens either, but it does. I turn on Volume Leveling and Adaptive Volume set to peak level normalize and I get a very audible drop in volume on specific parts on songs and the trigger seems to be a POP on the record. I can recreate it easily now.....I know exactly where it happens on a couple tunes. When I take off the adaptive volume, it's fine, I just have to turn everything up though.

I'll scour my other settings......
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 07, 2022, 04:49:55 pm
Actually, the more I listen, I find a lot of songs start out loud, and then the volume is attenuated. Especially if the song start quiet....say vox and acoustic, then the band comes in and it's instantly quieter........and this is only if I turn on Adaptive Volume. This may have nothing to do with pops or vinyl......
Does that make sense to anyone.

Last night I was streaming from my bluessound powernode 2i and I saw it had reply gain (which I believe is the same thing) so I turned it on and it was fine.....it sounded great actually. Nice and loud, and everything at the same volume and no attenuation on the same parts that JRiver is attenuating.

I get what you mean about compression or something as I am very familair with limiters and compressors, but it sounds more to me like at about a minute in, something decides to drop it a few DBs......
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: Matt on June 07, 2022, 07:03:44 pm
You might check audio path before and after an apparent volume drop.  It might offer a clue
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 07, 2022, 09:07:12 pm
Good suggestion!
Starting to wonder if this is a sonos or DNLA thing b/c it doesn’t happen on my linux machine when I play the same songs with Those settings on.
It only happens when I enable those settings on DNLA for my sonos stuff.
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: JimH on June 08, 2022, 01:01:38 am
I believe that Sonos is not fully DLNA compatible.  Try running AndrewFG's program:
https://www.whitebear.ch/dmra.htm

It's also in his signature here on the forum.
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: dtc on June 08, 2022, 06:12:04 am
Does it happen if you play to speakers connected directly to the PC?
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 08, 2022, 09:21:45 pm
Does it happen if you play to speakers connected directly to the PC?

It does not. Going to look into the Sonos Check program that JimH recommended
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: dtc on June 09, 2022, 06:45:43 am
Sonos does its own volume leveling, although it is pretty spotty.

Do you have the same problems when you play those same files through the Sonos app?

Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 09, 2022, 08:18:24 am
Sonos does its own volume leveling, although it is pretty spotty.

Do you have the same problems when you play those same files through the Sonos app?

Ahhhh, now there’s something to try as well. I will and report back. Thanks.
(Sonos app is so bad compared the JREMOTE)
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: blgentry on June 10, 2022, 08:59:50 am
If Sonos "night mode" is on that does dynamic ranger reduction (compression).

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1948?language=en_US

Brian.
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 10, 2022, 03:07:39 pm
Ahhhh, now there’s something to try as well. I will and report back. Thanks.
(Sonos app is so bad compared the JREMOTE)

It does not happen if I play from (crappy) Sonos app.
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 10, 2022, 03:10:55 pm
If Sonos "night mode" is on that does dynamic ranger reduction (compression).

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1948?language=en_US

Brian.

Thanks. I checked and Night Mode is not on.
I am playing through two Sonos 5’s in stereo and a Sonos connect. I think Night Mode is for TV. I any event, it’s not showing on anywhere

It’s ok. I can live with just having volume levelling on and not adaptive volume but if I ever figure this out, I’ll be back  :)
Title: Re: volume leveling and adaptive volume turns down the volume during the track
Post by: ianhudson on June 10, 2022, 04:02:11 pm
I believe that Sonos is not fully DLNA compatible.  Try running AndrewFG's program:
https://www.whitebear.ch/dmra.htm

It's also in his signature here on the forum.

I downloaded and ran this - very cool program (once I got my head around it)
I set the DNLA setting to the suggested settings, which were different than what I had, but it still happens. When I have adaptive volume on, it will noticeable change the volume of a song during playback......oh well, I'll just turn it off .......maybe one day I'll figure it out......something is doing it - not sure if it's Sonos or JRiver......I will say this, if I try to display the audio path, I get this.....
and below it is the suggested setting from whitebear