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Topic ClosedBoosting the volume of an MP3 file
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Bob Greece View Drop Down
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Points: 1823 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Boosting the volume of an MP3 file
    Posted: March 12 2007 at 06:42
I like to rip my CDs in to MP3 and listen to them in random order either on my MP3 player or using Windows Media Player.
 
One problem I have is that some CDs have a lower volume than others. So for one particular CD, I have to turn up the volume, when a track from that CD comes on, and turn down the volume when it finishes.
 
Does anyone know of a way of boosting the signal volume inside an MP3 file so that I won't have to keep adjusting the volume for those tracks?


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toolis View Drop Down
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Points: 1678 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 06:54

i think nobody's posting replies cause you can't do anything...

at least i can't think of anything...
i hope someone who does, see it and reply...
-music is like pornography...

sometimes amateurs turn us on, even more...



-sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes you are the statue...
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Points: 21150 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 06:57
Use Winamp instead of the WMP ... then calculate Replay Gain for the mp3s (media library -> right-click album -> send to -> Calculate Replay Gain, when done choose "save as album"). Then all you have to do is to configure Winamp to use replace gain (preferences -> General -> Playback), and all the files will have a constant volume.

The other option is to re-rip the files using a ripping software (like CDex) which allows to normalize the audio during extraction. But this can mean a loss of quality ... I prefer the approach of Replay Gain, which essentially just determines the peak level of the files and then stores that info in the file, so that the volume can be adjusted  automatically during playback.

Of course Replay Gain doesn't have an effect on playback on a portable player (at least I don't know any which support it) ... but my Creative Zen has volume normalization, maybe your player also has such a feature.
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andu View Drop Down
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Points: 3089 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:03
The player I use for audio files, foobar2000, has a very interesting option called "replay-gain". It allows you to scan your whole database of audio files (of any kind) and then it brings the volume of all the tracks to the same level. Or, you can pick a selection of audio files and to the operation. However I don't often use it because it doesn't work by boosting the volume for the low-volume files (I wouldn't want that anyway), but by bringing down the volume for the louder audio files. That affects my listening experience in a bad way because my speakers and earphones are weak and don't allow me to avoid feeling the volume has decreased.
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andu View Drop Down
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Points: 3089 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:05
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

Use Winamp instead of the WMP ... then calculate Replay Gain for the mp3s (media library -> right-click album -> send to -> Calculate Replay Gain, when done choose "save as album"). Then all you have to do is to configure Winamp to use replace gain (preferences -> General -> Playback), and all the files will have a constant volume.

The other option is to re-rip the files using a ripping software (like CDex) which allows to normalize the audio during extraction. But this can mean a loss of quality ... I prefer the approach of Replay Gain, which essentially just determines the peak level of the files and then stores that info in the file, so that the volume can be adjusted  automatically during playback.

Of course Replay Gain doesn't have an effect on playback on a portable player (at least I don't know any which support it) ... but my Creative Zen has volume normalization, maybe your player also has such a feature.
 
A good thing to know is that applying Replay-Gain is reversible, in case some might be reluctant to using it because of the fear of losing quality.


Edited by andu - March 12 2007 at 07:06
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toolis View Drop Down
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Points: 1678 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:06
Originally posted by toolis toolis wrote:


i think nobody's posting replies cause you can't do anything...

at least i can't think of anything...
i hope someone who does, see it and reply...
-music is like pornography...

sometimes amateurs turn us on, even more...



-sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes you are the statue...
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Man Erg View Drop Down
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Points: 7456 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:11
Originally posted by andu andu wrote:

The player I use for audio files, foobar2000, has a very interesting option called "replay-gain". It allows you to scan your whole database of audio files (of any kind) and then it brings the volume of all the tracks to the same level. Or, you can pick a selection of audio files and to the operation. However I don't often use it because it doesn't work by boosting the volume for the low-volume files (I wouldn't want that anyway), but by bringing down the volume for the louder audio files. That affects my listening experience in a bad way because my speakers and earphones are weak and don't allow me to avoid feeling the volume has decreased.


You beat me to it. Ive been recommending Foobar 2000 on these pages recently. I've had Foobar 2000 for a while now. Excellent playback etc. Also good for file transfer/transcoding e.g. Flac --> mp3

Edited by Man Erg - March 12 2007 at 07:11

Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb.
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Tony R View Drop Down
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Points: 11979 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:13

^^^^

 

That's why I love this part of the forum - somebody always knows how!

 

..usually MikeEnR..Thumbs%20Up
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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21150 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:18
^ LOL of course, I'm the digital audio geek!

Originally posted by andu andu wrote:

A good thing to know is that applying Replay-Gain is reversible, in case some might be reluctant to using it because of the fear of losing quality.


Yes it is ... it doesn't change the audio at all, just adds two headers.

BTW: The only thing to keep in mind when using Replay Gain is to not calculate it for single tracks ... always select the entire album. Otherwise you might boost silent tracks too much in relation to the other tracks of the album.Smile
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Points: 32995 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:20
Another method is to adjust volume in a Wave editor.
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Points: 21150 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:24
^ the problem is that there is no way to change volume (or alter the signal in any other way) without decompressing it first ... and after the change it needs to be compressed again, resulting in a dramatic loss of quality.
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Snow Dog View Drop Down
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Points: 32995 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:29
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

^ the problem is that there is no way to change volume (or alter the signal in any other way) without decompressing it first ... and after the change it needs to be compressed again, resulting in a dramatic loss of quality.
 
Does it? Why so?
 
If you convert 192 to wav and back again to 192 you lose quality?
 
 
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andu View Drop Down
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Points: 3089 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:33
Originally posted by Man Erg Man Erg wrote:

You beat me to it. Ive been recommending Foobar 2000 on these pages recently. I've had Foobar 2000 for a while now. Excellent playback etc. Also good for file transfer/transcoding e.g. Flac --> mp3
 
Nice, are you one of the initiated? Smile Myself I'm not a geek, I have an IT guru who teaches me everything. He posts on HydrogenAudio. He taught me to use foobar, which is a great programme: it's free, it takes very little of the computer's resources (memory and cpu usage), it's extremely customisable and it's development is boosted by fans who desing extremely usefull tools. It has a nice, minimalistic skin; it supports by default a lot of the unsual formats like FLAC, APE, AAC, MP4, OGG, etc.; it rips audio cds, it converts from any format to any format (given the proper encoders), it has Replaygain, it manages tags - you can edit tags, get tags for full cds from freedb.com, change tag types (idv3, idv2, ape), it has album art display, it has Cover Search, an engine that looks for album covers on the web, it has timer options (I can leave it playing when I go to bed and after the tracklist is finished, he shuts down the computer), etc., etc... I'm a fan!
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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21150 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:43
Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

^ the problem is that there is no way to change volume (or alter the signal in any other way) without decompressing it first ... and after the change it needs to be compressed again, resulting in a dramatic loss of quality.
 
Does it? Why so?
 
If you convert 192 to wav and back again to 192 you lose quality?
 
 


Absolutely ... even if you convert 320 -> wav -> 320 there is a significant quality loss.
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Snow Dog View Drop Down
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Points: 32995 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:47
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

^ the problem is that there is no way to change volume (or alter the signal in any other way) without decompressing it first ... and after the change it needs to be compressed again, resulting in a dramatic loss of quality.
 
Does it? Why so?
 
If you convert 192 to wav and back again to 192 you lose quality?
 
 


Absolutely ... even if you convert 320 -> wav -> 320 there is a significant quality loss.
 
But no why?Confused
 
Anyway, i have not noticed a "dramatic loss of quality" or even any loss.


Edited by Snow Dog - March 12 2007 at 07:52
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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21150 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 08:09
The reason is simple: mp3 compression is lossy, much like jpg compression for images, or mpeg compression for video. Each time you compress something, little errors are introduced ... and the errors multiply. If you don't hear a quality loss ... simply repeat the procedure ... at some point you will hear a difference. And if you play the file on a big stereo, one decompress/compress cycle should do at 192kbps.
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Bob Greece View Drop Down
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Points: 1823 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 08:52
Thanks everyone. Smile


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Bob Greece View Drop Down
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Points: 1823 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 09:14
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

^ the problem is that there is no way to change volume (or alter the signal in any other way) without decompressing it first ... and after the change it needs to be compressed again, resulting in a dramatic loss of quality.
 
What you can do is to rip the CD in lossless format, then edit it and finally compress it to 192kb/s or whatever compression rate you like.


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Bob Greece View Drop Down
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Points: 1823 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 09:30
I had a look on www.download.com and found a couple of good free software programs for MP3 editing: Media Monkey and Audacity.


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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21150 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2007 at 09:57
I use Winamp for tag editing also ... and I never touch the audio content of the ripped files. IMO it either sounds good as it is, or it doesn't ...
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