Digital file Volume

[Bigandbouncy]

Hi,

I've just got the Netgear NAS that I bought from Seppi set up with my music collection - its all MP3 at the minute until I go through the process of ripping all my CDs as lossless.

I've got LMS running on the NAS and playing through the squeeze box, however some tracks are of a noticably higher volume and come booming out when on random. Is there any way of making all tracks the same volume with this set up in a similar way that you can normalise tracks when burning a CD on itunes?

Dave

[NRG]

The way I've done it in past is use Foobar to analyse all the files and let it update the replay gain tag for each file. Then enable replay gain in LMS... The should all play at the same volume.

[WAD62]

Hi,

I've just got the Netgear NAS that I bought from Seppi set up with my music collection - its all MP3 at the minute until I go through the process of ripping all my CDs as lossless.

I've got LMS running on the NAS and playing through the squeeze box, however some tracks are of a noticably higher volume and come booming out when on random. Is there any way of making all tracks the same volume with this set up in a similar way that you can normalise tracks when burning a CD on itunes?

Dave

If you use dBpoweramp to rip to lossless/FLAC you can also configure it to apply both album and track ReplayGain at the time of ripping, which is nice and convenient...

Alternatively both winamp and foobar (as stated above) can be used to apply ReplayGain to any FLAC or MP3 files retrospectively, as can dBpoweramp.

I'd suggest 'Album' replay gain if you listen to entire albums, or track for a random playlist, which is also excellent for DJing

N.B. Turning ReplayGain on will cause your 16 bit files to be played as 24bit as the higher order bits are used for volume offset.

One further thing LMS doesn't comply completely with full ReplayGain functionality as it doesn't provide a ReplayGain 'pre-amp' dB setting (which winamp does) so everything will be about -6db down approximately, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem...

P.S. for best results process an entire album at a time, otherwise your album replaygain results won't be accurate...

[shevans]

Glad to hear your up and running with the ReadyNAS, the advice to "process" a whole album at the time is best. You will still get volume jumps but not to the level you currently do when playing randomly. I did at one point process all my track individually so everything was the same level but it spoilt listening to Albums where some tracks are supposed to be quieter.

[WAD62]

Just to clarify things you will always get both an Album and Track replay attribute value, if you process the album at once all the tracks will get the same 'Album' replay gain dB offset value, whereas the Track figures will vary a little.

FWIW I find Album replaygain to be a more satisfactory implementation as it respects the relative track volume differences within the album.

I used to use 'album' all the time on my LMS/SBoxes but since getting an MDAC I don't, as the MDAC performs best with native 16bit files, I do however use 'Track' replay gain on my random ambient playlist in the bedroom, but that's just more background, rather than serious listening

[Stratmangler]

Alternatively both winamp and foobar (as stated above) can be used to apply ReplayGain to any FLAC or MP3 files retrospectively, as can dBpoweramp.

dbPoweramp has an option to apply Replaygain - whatever happens DO NOT DO THIS!
It irretrievably alters the file.
What you need to do is scan for Replaygain values - the Replaygain tags you require do not change the file, they are merely tags which are acted upon.
These tags can be added and removed without changing the music file.

[WAD62]

dbPoweramp has an option to apply Replaygain - whatever happens DO NOT DO THIS!
It irretrievably alters the file.
What you need to do is scan for Replaygain values - the Replaygain tags you require do not change the file, they are merely tags which are acted upon.
These tags can be added and removed without changing the music file.

Good knowledge Chris...I use winamp myself, but assumed that dBpoweramp could do it too...wrongly! :doh:

[Bigandbouncy]

Thanks everyone - i'll try and give that a go thisafternoon, though i'm going to have to decide whether I am happy to mess with the integrity of the album set volumes for the sake of the random replay option.
I was just trying to get away with not having to remove all 64Gb of music, reprocess and re-load it to the server!
Dave

[Stratmangler]

Thanks everyone - i'll try and give that a go thisafternoon, though i'm going to have to decide whether I am happy to mess with the integrity of the album set volumes for the sake of the random replay option.
I was just trying to get away with not having to remove all 64Gb of music, reprocess and re-load it to the server!
Dave

If you do a Replaygain scan using Foobar things will be fine - it only adds the tags, and nothing is applied.
If you add folder in Foobar (in your case the root folder - likely to be "My Music") you'll access the entire contents of that folder.
Everything should be highlighted automatically, if not then highlight just one track then do a Ctrl & A and everything will become highlighted.
Right click the highlighted files and Scan selection as albums (by tags) is shown - select this. It does depend on your tags being correct in the first place.

When Foobar has run through the entire contents of the folder a box appears, and you get the option to Update File Tags.
Click on the button and Foobar adds the tags to the files.
Note that adding Replaygain tags does not alter the music files - the tags can just as easily be removed without affecting the integrity of the music files.

Now a word of warning.

If you look down the list when you set up for Replaygain scanning you'll see the word Apply for a couple of options.
Don't click either on them.
Click on either and you'll be changing the data for the worst.

[Bigandbouncy]

Cheers Chris, I've tried that using the server as the root on 1 album and have applied it as you said. Will this now make a difference? Do I not have to have all replay gains as the same and edit them or will the LMS see that the the gain is higher and automatically adjust them when 'Album Gain' is selected?

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/5403/729w.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/729w.jpg/)

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[Stratmangler]

That looks correct.
Update the file tags.
When you load up the main root folder and scan the Replaygain will be different for each album.

When done click on update the file tags - all it does is add some tags. It doesn't change the music files.

What you now need to do is go to Settings/Player/Audio in LMS, and change the Volume Adjustment / Replay Gain setting as required.

[Bigandbouncy]

Brilliant, I take it it applies the files to the root file and not just in Foobar?

Just album artwork to sort out now :scratch:

Dave

[Stratmangler]

Brilliant, I take it it applies the files to the root file and not just in Foobar?

Yep!


Just album artwork to sort out now :scratch:

Dave

LMS like artwork to have the name folder, for some strange reason.
There are various programs out there that can seek out the album covers for you, but the quality of the images is sometimes very poor.
How many albums are in your library?

[Bigandbouncy]

I've quite a few, not sure how to count them but hundreds if not thousands. I picked my favourite 64Gb worth of music to use as at the time I was going to use a 64Gb memory stick I got off the internet directly into the squeezebox, however once I had uploaded them onto the memory stick (which took all night) the Squeezebox did'nt like the memory stick - hence the NAS option.

The thing is some of the albums have artwork, but many don't?

Dave

[WAD62]

dbPoweramp has an option to apply Replaygain - whatever happens DO NOT DO THIS!
It irretrievably alters the file.
What you need to do is scan for Replaygain values - the Replaygain tags you require do not change the file, they are merely tags which are acted upon.
These tags can be added and removed without changing the music file.

Hi Chris, dBpoweramp provides 2 different ReplayGain options...

ReplayGain: calculate Replay Gain volume Adjustment,
ReplayGain (Apply): apply Replay Gain adjustment to converted file

From the documentation it would appear that the first one acts in the same way as winamp or foobar (using the ID tag attributes), whereas the latter operates in the way you describe above...although I've not tried either :)

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper-setup-guide.htm