Equalize MP3's

SparrowHawk

Hi,

I have a bunch of MP3's which I've converted from CD's over the years, but have realised that they play at different sound levels, which is kind of annoying. Is there any software which would automatically convert all MP3's to the same sound level?

Any help appreciated.

kaimera

nero will equalize the mp3s when you burn them to a audio cd.

you can always rip them again then

SparrowHawk

Hi,

Can I re-encode them from mp3 to mp3?

Thanks again.

wavin

i remember there was a piece of free software i came across a few months ago that would normalise all the volumes of a folder of mp3's.
ill have a look when i get home, and willl let you know if i find out what its called

SparrowHawk

Thanks wavin, I'd appreciate it

SH

stereo_steve

www.mediamonkey.com

Best music program out there! Does everything in a nice user interface. Supports loads of music types, will convert between them. Normalise. Connect to amazon .com and name albums and get cd covers and thats only touching what it can do.

Give it a go

wavin

SparrowHawk wrote:

Thanks wavin, I'd appreciate it

SH

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ is the bit of software i was talkin about.would suggest testing on a copy of some mp3's first, just in case like
although mediamonkey looks pretty nifty too.

SparrowHawk

Hi stereo_steve & wavin,

I'll give those two a go!

Thanks very nuch for your help

Standard Toaster

MP3Gain is the way forward alrite.
Well, some CD's are really quiet, AND OTHERS ARE REALLY LOUD!
If you MP3Gain your albums they'll pretty much all have the same perceived average loudness so that you don't have to change the volume as much. "Clipping" is when the music hits max volume and gets distorted.
Also, mp3gain can reduce clipping inherent to the mp3 encoding process.

Here's a quote from Hydroaudio forums:

Hydroaudio wrote:

MP3Gain analyzes mp3 files to determine how loud they sound to the human ear. It can then adjust the mp3 files so that they all have the same loudness without any quality loss. This way, you don't have to keep reaching for the volume dial on your mp3 player every time it switches to a new song......

.....Maximizing can be used to make an mp3 as loud as possible without clipping. This can be useful, but keep in mind that this will not make your mp3's the same volume. In fact, if you maximize every track on a CD, some of the original quiet tracks can become louder than the original loud tracks.

What it does:
Well, I'm no expert on MP3Gain but what it does is it either reduces or increases the "loudness" of the Mp3 in 1.5dB steps. It actually makes NO changes to the MP3 eg. it doesn't re-encode it or decrease the quality. The changes are completly lossless. All changes are stored in the ID3 Tag and can be undone at another time.
Eg:


The "undo" feature will revert the Mp3 as it was.

Ok, when you've run it for the first time here's what you do.....easy:

Open MP3Gain and adjust:

Options\Advanced\Enable Maximizing Features (tick)

Now, I'm gonna drag my new MP3 files into MP3Gain...



Notice the "Album Analysis" button.....hit that!
(Make sure it's NOT set to "Track Analysis"!!)
Here's what we'll see after it scans each mp3...



Notice the new entries beside each track?
Also see a 3 tracks in red. These mp3 have clipping, eg they've gone up and over their max volume and and thus are distorted that you'll probably notice during playback.

Also notice track 3, False Prophet, seems fairly low compared to the other tracks (87.2dB). That could be the way it is supposed to be on the cd or it could be a bad encode or caused by many other things. The Gain will be increased to match the rest of the album.

The second line of info is the change in dB that will be made to hit the "Normal Target" specified...in this case 89 (default)

Now for the magic
Click "Modify Gain/Apply Max No-clip Gain for Album"



And we finish up with our tracks with the gain changes made:



Here's the best way I can describe it visually.
A before and after in Winamp of the same track and roughly the same position:





See the equalizer bars maxing out in the first pic?

The best thing you can do is try it yourself and decide of you hear a difference. Also, if you have MP4 files get AACGain, rename it to "mp3gain.exe", and put it in the MP3Gain folder after installation.

wavin

nice one!

jor el

Sweet! I've been meaning to do something about my mp3 collection which can be up and down like the proverbial nickers from a woman of ill repute.

Standard Toaster

Also, it will work in any player as it's not player specific. In fact, the tags could be erased and the gain changes will remain intact. The changes are only tagged if you decide to undo them later.

Mp3 files are a sequence of, let's call them "frames". Each of these have a "gain" associated with. This is a integer number ranging from, say, 0 to 255.
MP3Gain will modify each frame so that the changes take effect no matter what player you use, winamp, your mp3 car stereo, whatever.

You'll be using it on your whole MP3 collection in no time.

radiospan

Great tutorial!

SparrowHawk

Hi Everyone,

Been away for a few days - thanks The Edge, that's just what I needed!

Much appreciation to everyone

SH