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[MikeO]

Hi

I have tried volume levelling several times with little joy.

When I check the box in the DSPS studio , my output drops massively , maybe to 25% (wild guess) of what I was previously getting. Peak Level drops from 77% to 20-23%

If I apply Adaptive Volume as suggested (Peak Level Normalize) I get back to 90% again

My assumption (??) is that I have one or many very loud tracks so the overall volume has to dropped to level all this out.


A couple of questions ...

Am I right in my assumption ?.
If I adjust the input gain on my amp to "boost" this back to match all the other inputs will I see any degradation.
Is there any way of identifying the offending track(s) . I may even consider removing or replacing them if they are just a few?
Will a combination of Volume Levelling & Adaptive Volume cause any signal degradation


Mike

[mwillems]

Volume levelling by itself will always result in some reduction in volume.  That's because 99% of audio is mastered so that its peak is at or near 0 dBFS, but the average volume of tracks varies widely based on a number of factors.  So in order to try and make everything sound similar in terms of volume, everything has to be reduced by some amount (because boost is off the table).  That amount is often significant with modern highly compressed music.  The advantage of volume levelling (by itself) is that everything in your library will play back at about the same volume (i.e. you'll rarely have to touch the volume control).

When you enable Adaptive volume alongside volume leveling (with the settings you describe), it looks at the specific playlist you're playing right now and boosts it as much as it can without any of the tracks in the playlist clipping.  If you're listening to a mixed playlist, volume leveling will try to level each track, and each track will sound around the same volume, but if you switch to a different playlist, the two playlists will not sound similar in volume (because the adaptive volume will recalculate based on the new playlist).  With albums (as opposed to playlists), volume leveling tries to set a single level for the whole album, and then adaptive volume adds back in as much as it can, so turning on adaptive volume in the album context effectively defeats volume leveling.

If all you want is for tracks in an individual playlist to sound about the same volume, volume leveling and adaptive volume together is a good solution.  If you want everything you play in media center to be at around the same volume, volume leveling by itself is the way to achieve that.  

The combination of volume leveling and adaptive volume shouldn't cause any signal degradation; and using volume leveling and turning up the amp shouldn't cause any degradation in most cases.  There's one caveat about both approaches though: digital attenuation (of any kind) may result in the loss of some very quiet audio information, but may not depending on your setup.  The issue is hotly debated, but IMO, given the effective dynamic range of most music it's unlikely (even in the worst case) that you'd lose much information with modest digital attenuation.

The ins and outs are complicated, and I can explain at greater depth if that's a concern.  FWIW I use volume leveling by itself and make up the gain difference on the amp and I'm very happy with that approach (I really like never having to adjust the volume). My only advice is to just make sure that you have a strategy for making sure that windows or other system sounds don't blow through to your turned up amplifier :-)

[6233638]

The target average volume for Volume Leveling is -23 LUFS. (1 Loudness Unit, Full Scale = 1 dB)
This matches the R128 specification to the letter, and there is currently no way to change the target level.
 
-23 LUFS is used as a target as it is a level which means that the vast majority of music (more than 99% of my library) is able to be leveled to the target average volume without either clipping (distortion) or not being able to be fully leveled. (uneven volume on playback)
 
The target volume is always -23 LUFS, and that is independent of what is playing.
 
 
Well mastered tracks with a good dynamic range may already be at or below this level.
There is a strong correlation between highly compressed tracks without much dynamic range (a low Dynamic Range (DR) value) and the most amount of volume reduction. (say -10 LU Volume Level (R128) or lower)
 
 
With a target average of -23 LUFS, you should rarely ever have to touch the volume control, as the vast majority of tracks played should be adequately leveled.
With ReplayGain v1, which had a target level of around -16dB if I remember correctly, I was often reaching for the volume control during playback.
With R128 leveling it's rare that I have to touch the volume control.
 
 
Adding Adaptive Volume in the Peak Level Normalize mode (without disabling Volume Leveling) will look at the current playlist, level it so that the average volume is -23 LUFS, and then push up the volume as loud as it can be while preventing the loudest track in that playlist clipping.
 
So you still have the benefits of Volume Leveling for that playlist, but because the playback volume varies based on what's in that playlist, you have to adjust the volume each time you make changes to it.

So for one playlist, it might be -23 LUFS, another might be -16 LUFS, another might be -12 LUFS, so you're constantly changing the volume control, rather than the average volume being at a fixed level of -23 LUFS.
This mode is absolutely susceptible to a single track making quite a difference in the overall volume level for the playlist, as Media Center will not allow the signal to clip.
 
It does not cause any signal degradation, it simply prevents Volume Leveling from working optimally.
 
 
Unless you simply can't turn up the volume high enough on your amplifier when Volume Leveling is enabled, I would recommend using it on its own instead.

[MikeO]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replies , comprehensive and complicated  (Bear of little brain

I have set up now with Volume Levelling and No Adaptive . I adjusted the amp input by12 dB which is the max I can do , it gives me a "volume balance" with other inputs like my CD player etc so I'll give it a whirl on these settings for a while and see.

I am always a bit concerned to include any signal "modification" I don't need. I have a Denon AV amp that has a Direct function that by passes all tone controls etc which is how I run it.

I'll listen to my "Pet Test Tracks" and see

Thanks Again

Mike

[thediscman]

I'm a big fan of Volume Leveling.

I knew it would be nice to avoid the (sometimes huge) jumps in volume between songs from different albums, but the unexpected benefit was being able to listen to my music without the perceptual advantage that higher volume gives to compressed music.

Older CD masters almost always have higher dynamic range than more modern re-masters and often sound better, once volume is equalized.