Jan 01, 2008 11:05 pm I'm pretty sure that Nero can do this.
Normalizing Volume Levels on an mp3 CD
Posted on Jan 01, 2008 10:59 pm
guitar_jim
Czar of Cheese
Member Since: Jun 09, 2004
So, my wife got a new car (see pic in other thread). The CD player is a six disc changer, and it plays mp3 CDs. That's cool, because I can put 150 songs on one CD and it'll last me all the way to Kansas City. Multiply that times six and I can dang near drive to Europe.
Problem: I get sick and tired of adjusting the volume every time a different song comes on. Some songs are too loud and others are too soft.
Question: Is there a quick and easy way to normalize (if that's the right word) all of the 150 mp3 files in a given folder or directory so that they all have approximately the same volume when played in my wife's car? Sort of a batch kind of process? Obviously, I would do this before putting them on a CD! :-)
This would also solve the other problem of my wife complaining every time I mess with the radio controls! (I'm sure you understand.)
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Jan 01, 2008 11:05 pm I'm pretty sure that Nero can do this.
Jan 01, 2008 11:22 pm Yep, both Tuna and myself burn em that way in Nero. You have to make sure and set it to do it though. But Nero will do it. I think Tuna used to do it in WMP as well but I'm not certain on that one.
Jan 02, 2008 02:45 am Yeah WMP can do it, but I think it needs to be done while it's ripping the CD. Not sure if you can apply to already ripped mp3's, but it may be able to now that I think about while it's writing to the CD.
Dan
Jan 02, 2008 08:32 am Thanks guys...
Of course, I'm on a Mac, but if it's that easy there must be an application that will do it for me too. In fact, I should even dig deeper into iTunes to see if there''s something there!
I'll let you know what I find.
Jan 02, 2008 08:41 am I just went through the preferences in iTunes, and they have this feature called "Sound Check" that evens out the volume levels of the tracks as you burn them. Unfortunately, this only works when burning an Audio CD. The "Sound Check" option is grayed out when burning an MP3 CD.
I'll keep looking...
Jan 02, 2008 09:02 am i mean absolutely no offense to ya jim, BUT...
it is this very issue that is driving the volume wars....i know this is slightly off topic bit let me elaborate.
first, and most importantly, mp3's by their very nature are compressed (data-wise not exactly audio, but it does affect things). unless you actually make the mp3 files themselves, you working with stuff other people made, which means who the heck knows what kind of dynamic processing the mp3 'author' did to it, and then add to that the mastering engineer's work.
then throw in the factor of 'handy' apps that "normalize" audio so everything plays at a relatively consistent level...that's another 'layer' of processing you're adding to your end product that you are listening to.
i'm firmly against such processing by the consumer driven market of such processing because, again, you're altering the final product.
this 'handy' feature can often be found in most tv's these days under the guise of "volume stabilizer" of some sort. all these things are are compressor/limiters, and i refuse to trust any of them...i'd rather hear the 'raw/dry' version than some sort of altered.
i fully understand the demand for 'consistent' audio levels but until everyone adopts a standard for it (ie: Bob Katz's "K" system, or the film industry's standard) music will ALWAYS have this problem....that's exactly classic rock is 'quieter' than modern hard rock....again, it's the loudness wars...
as inconvenient as it is, and trust me i know, i still think it's worth using the good 'ole volume knob instead of finding some sort of algorithm to do it for you.
that's coming from an audiophile POV, and sometimes the convenience factor out weighs it. but i never trust these type of things, and therefore, never use them.
my two cents.
wyd
Jan 02, 2008 07:06 pm Na, I know what he is talking about. Different mp3's from different people are not matched volume wise. So you need to even them out. I think WinAmp can do it as well and should be ported to the Mac now I believe.
Jan 02, 2008 07:49 pm WYD, while I understand and appreciate your audiophile point of view, that'll never fly with the missus. The speakers in the car are just of the regular old stock speaker variety. My ears are 45 years old and so they don't really pick up on the different nuances of which you speak.
Sorry man, but I just don't want to have to keep moving the volume up and down all the time.
Noize...I'm off to seek out WinAmp for the Mac.
Jan 02, 2008 08:06 pm At the risk of further infuriating WYD, I found this little application that seems to do the trick:
homepage.mac.com/beryrinaldo/AudioTron/MacMP3Gain/
Jan 02, 2008 08:35 pm The volume leveling used in this case doesn't use compression any how as I recall, there is a scaling bit or something in mp3's/wma that gets set to adjust the volume. Besides radio has used compression forever, good or bad it sucks to have reach for the volume knob every time a new song starts, so a little additional compression on mp3's isn't going to be any worse than radio.
Dan
Jan 04, 2008 10:53 am I've only created mp3 CDs of the stuff from Overclocked Remixes, which the people there usually keep a pretty consistent volume level. Either that, or my own personal works that I'm getting opinions from friends.
I try to avoid using Nero when I can because I don't like the way it handles certain things. Example: Had a nice celtic piece with flute, violin, bodhran, chimes and tambourine, and Nero took a big steaming **** on it. I usually render my tracks as mp3, so something probably went a little iffy when converting to CDDA for audio CD. However, when I burned the same track from Serpentine in Ubuntu Studio, I didn't have the same issue with the clipping. Straight mp3 data disks probably turn out okay, since I don't think it converts. I still don't think I'd trust the normalization 100% though.
So, in a nutshell...I don't trust nero too much right now.
Jan 05, 2008 08:19 pm After using way too many other burning programs I trust my stuff to Nero far more then the others, and that includes Disc Welder Bronze. Much easier interface and pretty straight forward.
But ya, any program that converts from mp3 to CDA is going to have issues. I absolutely hate reverse burns to CDA from mp3, its a waste of a good disc blank if you ask me. If you have to use mp3 then keep it mp3, don't try to up convert to CDA.
But can't say as I've ever had any issues with Nero since it was released.
Easy Coaster Creator on the other hand. :-)
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