Different Sound Levels On Songs

[christiffa]

How do we all manage the various sound levels of different songs/albums. Currently have a large amount of music in my library but find a large amount coming out quieter or louder than previous songs. Bit of a pain having to keep adjusting volume.

Bob kindly pointed me in the direction of mp3 Gain but not sure that is going to be realistically possible which such a large library.

Any one got any tips / recommendations of how they keep thier music volume normalized in touch jams. Thanks.

[tonyneen]

I looked into this and there was no way i could do it on the fly, MP3 Gain was the only option i came across, i didn't implement it, i just live with the different levels.
I would try 1 Album in MP3 Gain and see how long it takes to process,and check the results. You can also do all your tracks at once, see this article.

www.lifewire.com/how-to-normalize-mp3-files-2438861

[TouchJams Support]

There's a couple different school's of thought on normalization:
1) Analyze the file upon adding to the library (whichever program it may be) and then modify the file data to achieve some preset volume level
2) Analyze the file upon adding to the library (whichever program it may be) and then store the stats somewhere (tag, db, associated txt file, etc.), and then upon playing, adjust the volume accordingly to a volume level that can be changed whenever.
3) Use something like MP3Tag, which is basically 1) above.
4) Analyze the file as it's being played and adjust volume on the fly - I don't think anyone would like this method
5) Obtain all your songs from a common vendor, and not even sure this would work. For instance, not sure if MP3s off Amazon are normalized. Hell, they don't even have the year or genre filled out in the tag. So, probably a no go.

No matter what you do, the file has to be analyzed, and that's where the performance hit comes into play (most likely due to the storage media being used).

For me, I decided to take the 1 time hit and went with 3) above. MP3Gain ran for, let's just say, a long time. But it was worth it as it's a 1 time deal.

If you are going to batch normalize, I suggestion some experimentation on copies of you song files.

- Bob Matura

[christiffa]

Thanks for the feedback bob
What db did you set ?
Thanks

[christiffa]

And again sorry to be a pain....can this be done with mp3tag or are you just saying this is a source to see current volume levels.

I suppose what I’m asking really is .......
I have a large collection of music. How could I easily .....
1: Add all to mp3gain in one go (iff poss)
2: select a volume level that would work well for all

I’m sure it’s not as simple as I’m staying above. Lol

[TouchJams Support]

Not sure what you mean by "What db did you set". When I normalized my song collection, I used the default settings with MP3Gain and let it run until complete. As I stated above, it's a one time deal to let it run.

- Bob Matura

[lzrfire]

Definetly recommend Mp3gain.  I hated jumping up to turn a volume level up or down when particular songs played.  And in some cases it was a huge difference in level.  So I did bite the bullet also and normalized all my mp3's.  I set my db at 93.0.  This gave me a few more files with "clipping" but I don't notice it.  Biggest problem I have is remembering to run my new mp3 files thru mp3gain before adding them to the jukebox drive.  But that's just an age thing I guess. 

[christiffa]

Thanks Bob ,
Think I was over complicating it in my head before trying. Have done it now through mp3gain. Like you say takes a long while, but so worth it as now all music is as good as equal volume with each other.

Definitely recommend mp3gain to anyone with similar problem.