Topic: Volume Leveling (Read 2450 times)

Patrick C Dalton · « **on:** April 22, 2002, 07:02:34 am »

I used to use MusicMatch.
One of the features that made the experience great was "Volume Leveling."
I would like to do the same with Media JukeBox.
I am having trouble understanding how to get this accomplished.
Some songs are so much louder than others.
In MusicMatch It didn't mess up the digital audio quality
of the tracks to volume level the whole library. The volume
leveling could be turned off and on as well.

Gatobrit · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2002, 07:08:26 am »

Patrick - you need "Replay Gain".

Select the songs in your library, right click and the choose Properties. In the Tools menu select "Analyse Replay Gain". (This will examine all of your files and work out the optimum volume change to make on each file to make them all sound around the same level.) Depending upon how many files you have this analysis may take some time - maybe run this overnight?

When the analysis has completed simply save the changes.

To enable this for playback select the Player menu item and then DSP studio. In the studio window enable Replay Gain and set a gain - I use 6.0.

This should work well for you. Hope this helps.

marty3d · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2002, 12:24:33 pm »

Then I have another question regarding Replay Gain: How do I know which files that has been analyzed and which hasn't? I tried the Replay gain at work, just to see how it worked...but only on a few files... It seems cumbersome to re-analyze the whole library...or am I missing how it works? By the way, I got somewhat confused by the RG since after analyzing 15-20 songs, the values changed for all tracks...why is that? (hm...sounds like the whole concept is somewhat confusing to me...it's probably just me Next Page

)

Gatobrit · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2002, 02:18:44 pm »

Marty3d - The anaysis of all the library goes the way I've described and you seem to have worked out. Cumbersome? I don't know. It works for me and once you've done it it's done for the files you complete.

The request to see the replay gain value in the library view has been made and may be implemented - I don't know. In the meantime select all your library and do as you did. MJ will not reanalyze / recalculate the replay gain of the files it has already calculated.

The value calculated is based on the contents of the file. One MP3 may be intrinsically louder than another - hence the different values. MJ uses the calculated value to adjust the volume from one track to another so that each track in the playlist sounds approximately the same.

That's about all I know. Someone else (Doof? Matt? Anyone??!?!?!) I'm sure can give you a better explanation.

marty3d · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2002, 10:36:35 pm »

Thanks for the explanation Gatobrit!
I tried to analyze files already done, and realized that they're not analyzed again (thank god!). So that's one down, only one to go then Next Page

How come the Replay Gain adds values to tracks not analyzed? What's that value based on? Hm...perhaps I'm the one analyzing my *** away Next Page

Gatobrit · « **Reply #5 on:** April 23, 2002, 05:21:27 am »

Marty3d - try /http://www.replaygain.org. It's an interesting web site from, as I understand it, a dude who has done a lot of work on the whole process.

As to why MJ adds values to the tracks that haven't been analysed I don't know. However, I think it's assumed that if you use replay gain then you would use it on all tracks. Someone from the development team would need to comment.

MerlinWerks · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2002, 11:01:27 am »

Although I learned a great deal about using Replay Gain just from this thread, it would be extremely helpful if someone with the knowlege and time could put together a "Background/How to" on Replay Gain and how it relates to MJ. I think it is a pretty significant feature that needs more explanation.

Thanks

Gatobrit · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2002, 11:10:41 am »

MerlinWerks - can you outline what you think might be missing from the thread? What you're "hazy" about?

Patrick C Dalton · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2002, 12:09:45 pm »

Thanks for all the info boyz......
I am going to implement a volume leveling session on 24,000|PLS|
songs tonight. I hope it works well. TY Next Page

Gatobrit · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2002, 12:26:45 pm »

Patrick - good luck!

marty3d · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2002, 02:52:17 pm »

Gatorbrit,
been there, done that...long time ago (in computer junkie time, that is...last week) Next Page

I understand the concept of Replay gain, but not fully the implementation in MJ. But at least I know now that it's not a normalization process, nor necessary to re-analyze files... Any more info for me to chew on?

Gatobrit · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2002, 03:04:54 pm »

marty3d - I don't think so. It takes a while to analyse all the files in the library (depending upon how many you have) but it is definitely worth it. My library here is full of a rag-bag of MP3s from different sources and the volume used to jump up and down to the annoyance of colleages.

Sentryl · « **Reply #12 on:** April 24, 2002, 09:24:04 am »

This is for Patrick C Dalton

How did your volume leveling on the 115,000 mp3's go last nigh?
I am thing about doing the same thing.
What Gain Level number did you use? Someone said 6.0 is good???
You can respond here or to my email at Sentryl@hotmail.com

ama_mmmc · « **Reply #13 on:** April 24, 2002, 09:49:54 am »

I was wondering, can someone tell me if this RG Value is permanently stored in one of the tags, or is it just in the MJ database?

Gatobrit · « **Reply #14 on:** April 24, 2002, 02:00:23 pm »

ama_mmmc - it is stored in both places. If you don't enable Replay Gain on playback you get the original file.

MerlinWerks · « **Reply #15 on:** April 24, 2002, 08:05:50 pm »

MerlinWerks - can you outline what you think might be missing from the thread? What you're "hazy" about?

Namaste,
John

Hi,

I took some time to learn more about RPG (www.replaygain.org) and to actually use RPG in MJ. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then actually doing something is worth a thousand pictures

Anyway, I'd like to confirm a few points about RPG as I understand it. Let me know if I'm on target.

1. MediaJukebox implements the "RADIO" mode of RPG - All tracks will be heard at the same volume i.e. a soft ballad will sound more or less as loud as a rock track.

2. The peak levels displayed in DSP Studio are after the "Global" gain adjustment (as well as the EQ and Effects processing, if enabled). With clip protection enabled, a value of 100% means that the signal has most likely been limited/compressed to prevent clipping. Unless of course the peak happened to be exactly 100%

3. Normally, RPG will not affect the dynamic range of a track, unless you have set the "global" gain too high. It seems as you increase this setting the "range" of peak levels shifts upward until you start getting some peaks at 100%, at which time the clip protection would kick in effectively limiting the track's dynamic range.

Finally, will RPG work correctly with .APE, .APL, and .MPC files?

Thanks!

Todd · « **Reply #16 on:** April 25, 2002, 09:17:17 am »

I take it that this is only available in MJ version 8, correct?

Todd

Badger · « **Reply #17 on:** April 25, 2002, 09:34:53 am »

Correct

LCtheDJ · « **Reply #18 on:** April 25, 2002, 09:59:34 am »

If you want to have the effect of ReplayGain but don't have or can't use MJv8, you can use MP3 Gain to do the same analysis. The main difference is that MP3 Gain will modify the gain setting of the mp3 files so any mp3 player will instead of just putting a value in the tag or database. Check here for details and download; it is freeware:
http://www.geocities.com/mp3gain/

Another method of leveling out the volume would be to use a dsp that adjusts output on-the-fly without altering the files in any way. Examples would be
DFX
http://www.fxsound.com/download/index.html

and OctiMax
http://www.octiv.com/
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml?componentId=95237

With the new DSP Studio, you can use multiple dsp's at the same time.

LCtheDJ · « **Reply #19 on:** April 25, 2002, 10:05:13 am »

P.S.

I forgot to mention, the above dsp's will change the dynamic range of the music; they will make the quiet parts louder and limit the loud parts.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Volume Leveling (Read 2450 times)

Patrick C Dalton

marty3d

marty3d

Patrick C Dalton

marty3d

Sentryl

Todd

Badger

LCtheDJ

LCtheDJ