Equalizing volume across mp3s

corblimey

I moved a large selection of my mp3s to my Zen player last week and have been enjoying them while on the move (using a cassette adapter). I've noticed though that I have to mess a little with the volume control in between songs. I can barely hear Peter Gabriel, but then Outkast are shouting at me in the very next song. (I have tragic taste in music, I know)

I don't know why they're different volumes, seeing as how they were all done with the same machine. I may have used different apps for them. I used to use MusicMatch, but I'm using a free utility at the moment that I can remember the name of at the moment.

Is there any utility I can get that will allow me to regulate and equalize the "volume" within the mp3s themselves? Probably not, but no harm in asking

beaker

mp3Gain

Excellent.

mp3guy

this happens becuase, most cd's released before '89 were recorded on tape/lp/analogue making them a lower volume. Unless they were remastered, chances are they weren't ampiflied.

JackKelly

second MP3Gain. Will take a while to do the whole collection though

corblimey

Yeah, mp3gain. Not the fastest piece of software ever. 2000 songs in a little over an hour. But it seems to work. Thanks all.

Orion

hmmm - scary - I was going to ask the same question today. Thanks for the tip guys - mp3gain looks like exactly what I'm looking for.

hostyle

Cool. I was looking for something like this aswell, but never got around to googling. What exactly does it do? The FAQ doesnt seem too helpful.

Does normalizing the mp3 degrade its quality?
No. MP3Gain does not decode and re-encode the mp3 to change its volume. You can change the volume as many times as you want, and the mp3 will sound just as good (or just as bad!) as it did before you started."

If it doesnt re-encode them how does it work? Is there a "volume" setting internally in every mp3? Also does it have to scan every mp3 when it starts to compare them all? If so say I add more mp3s in a few weeks, will it have to scan them all again?

Inspector Gadget

AFAIK it changes some gain/volume bits in the file's header, which is why it can only adjust the volume in discrete intervals (I think it's steps of +/-1.5dB). It doesn't actually change the encoded audio data at all...

Gadget

Dtap

Hi all, hope I am in the right forum but need info on isolating a voice and enhancing it on a voice recording, the file is created in a WAV format, can this be extracted and improved to make the voice clearer?

SmartinMartin

Welcome to 2005

degsie

Ah here...

ItHurtsWhenIP

ZENER

Back when this thread was created 11 years ago you would have been limited in your options but now there are a few ways you can do it though none will completely eliminate the background sounds without seriously affecting the vocal.

Are you willing to pay for the software or are you looking for free options ? Adobe Audition (known as CoolEdit back in 2005) is a paid option or Audacity is a free option.

I guess first steps are to filter out frequencies above and below the vocal range, so everything below about 200Hz and above 3.5KHz. After that there are various filters and plugins you can apply but that depends on how good a result you want and what you're prepared to pay if anything.

I'm guessing your post will be moved to a new thread of its own soon by the Mods.

Ken

yoyo

Zombie thread closed!