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Author Topic: Replay Gain  (Read 5718 times)

Nikkispappa

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Replay Gain
« on: February 17, 2012, 02:36:50 am »

Does Replay Gain alter the musicfile in my case wav. permanently or is the value for volume stored in a
sidecar file? I would like to use some tracks for my playlist and make them play at the same level, but when listening to a whole album I want them to ba unaltered.
Have the hard work of ripp and tag 1000 cd,s I want them to be as close to the original Cd as possible.
I,m still on version 16 is there better volume options in 17?

Thanks

Nikkispappa
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mbagge

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2012, 09:14:01 am »

As I understand it, replay gain is only a calculated value in a tag that the player can use later on.

Be sure to perform a secure rip to ensure that the bits is read as precisely as possible. A CD is recorded in Redbook format and that allows data to be read in a 'as good as it can but if it don't it doesn't matter' mode. Secure mode is more like if it was a data CD that was read.

For sure give MC17 a try ! It is where all the new stuff happens and it has officially been upgraded form beta to a stable version.
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Nikkispappa

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2012, 10:49:57 am »

I maybe should explain a little more, I have ripped everything to Wav. and with MC it works wonderful to tag with aiff tags. After 1000 cd's I would like them to remain
unaltered, but sometimes it is nice to listen to an album. So if I choose a song from a particular album and add it to a playlist run replay gain to have the same volume level
is that then "spoiled" and lower/higher than the rest of the album?

Of course I can use a backup (well everything is secured to two other HD's) but I'm thining of the HD I use for playing my files, and what is happening to the files.

Hard to explain as english is not my first languise
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Alex B

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2012, 11:27:58 am »

File tagging never alters the audio content. The Replay Gain analysis simply measures the files and stores the resulting values in the database and in the file tags if file tagging is enabled. In MC16 you must enable WAV tagging manually. In MC17 WAV tagging is enabled by default. (more info: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WAV_%26_AIFF_Tagging)

The stored values can be used for volume leveling during playback. In DSP Studio > Volume Leveling you can select your desired playback correction options.

I have mine usually set to the Album mode. It keeps the played tracks approximately at the correct volume level even if they come from different albums (i.e the quieter album tracks remain quieter and the louder album tracks remain louder even though the overall volume level differences between different albums are fixed).
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wig

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2012, 11:36:48 am »

I have mine usually set to the Album mode. It keeps the played tracks approximately at the correct volume level even if they come from different albums (i.e the quieter album tracks remain quieter and the louder album tracks remain louder even though the overall volume level differences between different albums are fixed).

I've often wondered about the exact differences between track and album based Replay Gain. 

A follow-up question: Do you prefer automatic or fixed adjustment?
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Nikkispappa

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2012, 12:52:26 pm »

If you play the file track based, will the album be played "unaltered" from replay gain? I ask this as when playing an "audiophile" album you just want the pure unaltered signal
to be heard or in other word just the album with nothing added to disturbe.
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Alex B

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2012, 01:01:02 pm »

A follow-up question: Do you prefer automatic or fixed adjustment?

I use Automatic. It keeps the highest peak in the entire Playing Now list at the maximum safe value. However my PN list is rarely near empty. If you often have a single track in the PN list and you replace it with the next track, the automatic adjustment mode will prevent the Replay Gain system from working correctly by effectively changing it to a peak leveling system.
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wig

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2012, 01:10:42 pm »

If you play the file track based, will the album be played "unaltered" from replay gain? I ask this as when playing an "audiophile" album you just want the pure unaltered signal
to be heard or in other word just the album with nothing added to disturbe.

Just turn off Replay Gain if you don't want to use it during a listening session.
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Alex B

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2012, 01:20:31 pm »

If you play the file track based, will the album be played "unaltered" from replay gain? I ask this as when playing an "audiophile" album you just want the pure unaltered signal to be heard or in other word just the album with nothing added to disturbe.

If you want to completely disable all processing for certain listening sessions you can create an additional playback zone. Each zone has its own stored DSP and output options. For quickly switching between the zones you can add the zones button to the top or bottom toolbar. More Info:

- a quick forum search for "Zones button" & "my user name" found several posts:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=64551.msg448873;topicseen#msg448873
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=64096.msg428739;topicseen#msg428739
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=62229.msg417487;topicseen#msg417487
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52248.msg356471;topicseen#msg356471
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51485.msg351582;topicseen#msg351582
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=47848.msg328014;topicseen#msg328014
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=46501.msg318846;topicseen#msg318846
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=43796.msg299762;topicseen#msg299762

However, in my opinion the album Replay Gain mode is fine for all source material. It does not alter the relative volume level between the individual album tracks and it does not reduce the perceived audio quality anyhow.
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Nikkispappa

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2012, 03:49:42 pm »

You are fantastic, if I understand you correct There is no altering to the original file. And I can if I want analyze my whole collection that will make it play with replaygain,
and for "audiophil listening I just create another zone for that purpose, if I have understand everything this is a fantastic option!!
But still one more question I have at least 40 000 tracks is it possible to analyze all those files over night or do I have to do the work to  each and every album?

It is late over here, so I guess I have to play around with this tomorrow and rest of the weekend

And Thanks for you help, so far!! ;D
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Alex B

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2012, 04:31:44 pm »

... There is no altering to the original file.

Correct. The measured Replay Gain values are stored as metadata. MC doesn't even have a feature that could alter the files' audio content directly. (It has Media Editor, but it is a separate program.)

Quote
And I can if I want analyze my whole collection that will make it play with replaygain,
and for "audiophil listening I just create another zone for that purpose, if I have understand everything this is a fantastic option!!

Correct.

Quote
But still one more question I have at least 40 000 tracks is it possible to analyze all those files over night or do I have to do the work to  each and every album?

You can select as many files as you want and analyze them. You can use a view that shows all audio files, select all (shortcut: Ctrl+A), and then do right-click > Library Tools > Analyze Audio. If you need to stop for some reason, you can restart the analyzer later. By default it will skip the already analyzed files.
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Nikkispappa

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Re: Replay Gain
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2012, 02:10:06 am »

Thank You everybody who's helped me out, I think I get the hang of it. Allready tried to analyze two old compilation albums with hugh differences between the tracks.
Of course this creates new questions....
What is the difference in analyzing one file at the time vs two or four files at the time is the analyzing more accurate in one of the choises?

If you have one album analyzed and another not analyzed I can see that there is a way to adjust the level (guess it is the output level) what is the correct value to set,
if there is a correct value that is...

The field in the lower corner for total volume change is constant of, when is this field used as I can't turn it on?

I'm thankful for all help as I'm not in to computers, right now I'm gonna upgrade from 16 to 17 I love both this program and the way I now enjoy my music via computer!!
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