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[BadDog]

I have a hard drive based MP3 player for use in a boat.  The Neo Jukebox for those of you familiar with them.  When I copy my music directory to the player and play tracks some of them have much less volume.  What steps should I take to volume level (normalization?) the library and will it effect the files when they are transferred to the MP3 player?  I read the help on it but got a little lost in the details.  What about sound quality after normalization?  I have another jukebox program called MusicMatch.  This is what I used before MC.  It has a volume leveling function.  I could use that, not sure what it does to the files though.

Tim T.

[BadDog]

Looks like this will do the trick?  Any comments on this utility?

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/index.php

Tim T.

[zeltak]

does the volume level really not affect the Quality? and what are the best progs out there to do it with? does mc does it   .... ??

thx zeltak

[BadDog]

See the FAQ and discussionon headers.  It appears to change the way the player treats the file.  Basically just tells it to use a different gain.

[lee269]

My understanding is that mp3gain physically alters the file to change the volume info so that volume is levelled. This makes it player independent. It was recommended to me when I asked a similar question about volume levelling CDs burned for use in my car.

MCs volume levelling (as I understand it) is based upon the replay gain tags stored in the library which MC uses to adjust volume. It has no effect on the actual music files. Dont know how MusicMatch or others do it.

I never used mp3gain because I was paranoid about changing my files and I could live with volume changes in the car. I dont know that simply amending the files to change volume info is going to lose you any actual music data or quality - Id have thought not, except that you might have to turn it up. So I think my paranoia was probably misplaced. In any case, if you are keeping originals, theres no problem in trying mp3gain on files in your player.

[phelt]

Questions regarding quality or data loss are addressed by the MP3Gain FAQ at the aforementioned SourceForge site. Basically the answer is 'No, it doesn't mod the audio just the playback level.'

It does mod the MP3 file, so the gain changes are evident on portables, CDs that you burn, etc.

The latest beta version writes the original analyzed gain value into the file, along with any gain changes that you apply. This makes your gain changes undo-able, so you can always get back to the original gain if you desire.

Many folks are rightfully wary of any software that is in beta. In the case of the latest MP3Gain, I have not experienced any issues. None. That's more than I can say for many supposedly stable and shipping applications.

So there are my comments. YMMV, etc. though I consider it unlikely.

[modelmaker]

MC and MusicMatch both store the changes in the programs' database not the files.

[rocketsauce]

The latest beta version writes the original analyzed gain value into the file, along with any gain changes that you apply. This makes your gain changes undo-able, so you can always get back to the original gain if you desire.

As I recall, though, it writes the undo data to an APEv2 tag. APEv2 tags on mp3s are non-standard (except for foobar2000) and some devices may have problems playing the files. Make sure you practice on copies of your files before running mp3gain on the originals.

Rob

[phelt]

The latest beta version writes the original analyzed gain value into the file, along with any gain changes that you apply. This makes your gain changes undo-able, so you can always get back to the original gain if you desire.

As I recall, though, it writes the undo data to an APEv2 tag. APEv2 tags on mp3s are non-standard (except for foobar2000) and some devices may have problems playing the files. Make sure you practice on copies of your files before running mp3gain on the originals.

Rob

This is a good point - I've not run into problems with portables, but it's certainly possible. BTW, you can strip the MP3Gain tags with MP3Gain itself by using the unfortunately-named 'Remove tags from files' in Options > Tags. It only removes the gain tags despite the naming.