mp3 Audio OUTPUT volume normalizer? Any such thing?

[bassclarinetl2]

You may also use a dps plugin in winamp.

For years I have used Compressor and Wider available at the following URL

http://www.winamp.co...ugins/details/104516

Unlike normalizers, such as the gain options listed above, the compressor will adjust the volume throughout each individual song so the music is always at approximately the same volume.

-the3seashells (March 29, 2008, 07:04 AM)

Winamp itself will handle replaygain.

FYI: ReplayGain is just another component of the ID3 Tag.  So it doesn't modify the actual sound data.

[phillfri]

I've used the TomSteady plugin with Winamp for years and it works like a charm. It levels the volume on the fly and doesn't require any pre-processing on the files themselves. It hasn't been updated for quite awhile, but there's no need as long as it continues working with new release of Winamp. There's even a volume boost option on it for those low powered laptops that often push out a low signal.

[mikiem]

If it helps at all -- adds anything to the discussion...

While there is no way to alter a music file itself without re-writing that file, re-encoding mp3s isn't as lossy as one might expect -- as with video, compressing the data to fit in a smaller file usually discards data, but once that weeding out of data has been done, it normally won't be done a second time during re-encoding. Yes, there will be some loss, but nothing comparable to the initial loss encoding to mp3 in the first place.

RE: Normalization... It can be a bit more than just turning up the volume, which is what a lot of plugins do. Soundforge has a decent example in their RMS Normalization effect. Whether it's worth even the effort of investigating is of course up to you -- as with TVs or PC monitors, everyone has their own levels of tolerance. 

[GHammer]

mp3gain itself does not write tags, the Windows GUI for it does that.
You can and should turn that 'feature' off as it uses an non-standard tag (APE) to hold the info. Those tags cause problems with some players both hardware and software.

I use mp3gain on every album I rip as part of my workflow.

Your friend may also want to look at Adapt-X Direct-X Plugin for WinAmp
Then he can find a pro level plugin that will process the sound to his liking.
I use iZotope Ozone 3 myself and it has nearly any option for mastering that you can think of.
They have a less featured version available as well.

Finally, have your friend get a backup of his data. If the material is that valuable to him, seems silly to trust it to whirring things in a box.

[tomos]

mp3gain itself does not write tags, the Windows GUI for it does that.
You can and should turn that 'feature' off as it uses an non-standard tag (APE) to hold the info. Those tags cause problems with some players both hardware and software.

I use mp3gain on every album I rip as part of my workflow.

-GHammer (April 24, 2008, 06:14 PM)

anyone know what is meant by the bit in bold
I presume
Menu > Options > Tags > Ignore (do not read or write tags)

does that not stop it from completing it's main purpose ?

mp3gain writes both a track gain and album gain tag to the file. It does NOT change the audio in anyway.

-Ampa (April 07, 2008, 08:07 AM)

[Hirudin]

There's a few different types of tags that can be in MP3 files. The most common type is "ID3" (and now-a-days ID3v2). Another type is "APE". For some reason APE tags are less supported than ID3, and it would appear that sometimes they actually cause problems.

For instance the music software "J River Media Center" does not currently support APE tags (I think I heard it's coming in version 13), so anything written within an APE tag cannot be read or written using Media Center.

Some programs write the ReplayGain settings into APE tags (why I wonder) I guess others use the standard ID3 tag for ReplayGain (I suspect this is what Media Center uses).

...
You can and should turn that 'feature' off as it uses an non-standard tag (APE) to hold the info
...

-GHammer (April 24, 2008, 06:14 PM)

anyone know what is meant by the bit in bold

-tomos (December 21, 2008, 05:34 AM)

I'm not sure what program GHammer is referring to, but it must place the ReplayGain info into APE tags. Perhaps he's talking about dbPoweramp, which for some reason seems to have started using APE tags in version 13 (while version 12 didn't).

...
does that not stop it from completing it's main purpose ?
...

-tomos (December 21, 2008, 05:34 AM)

Yeah, sounds like it to me. I would guess GHammer is suggesting that a different ReplayGain (which is the same as mp3gain I think) implementation is a better way to go. Media Center has an "Analyze Audio" option that will scan your whole collection. You can set it to skip songs that have already been scanned. It also has a very cool option that lets you choose how many processes you want to do at once. So if you have a multi-core CPU you can get your collection scanned much more quickly.

[tomos]

thanks hirudin
I should have clarified - the programme they are both (I think both, Ampa at any rate) talking about is called mp3gain
from their FAQ
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/faq.php

My tags ("Artist", "Title", etc.) are not working after using MP3Gain
MP3Gain stores "Analysis" and "Undo" information in special tags inside the mp3 file itself. These tags are in the APEv2 format. APEv2 tags are carefully designed to not interfere with other tag formats, such as the popular ID3v1 format.

Unfortunately, some mp3 players do not strictly adhere to the ID3v1 standard when reading tags. As a result, when MP3Gain writes its APEv2 tags, these mp3 players might get confused and try to read the MP3Gain tags instead of the regular ID3v1 tags such as "Artist", "Title", etc. As a result, the player will show random garbage in these fields.

(To be fair, the mp3 players that have this problem are actually probably trying to compensate for data corruption that can occur in mp3s due to bad encoders, incomplete downloads, etc.)

If you use MP3Gain and discover that your mp3 player has this problem, then here's what you need to do:

    * Select "Options - Tags - Ignore (do not read or write tags)" from the MP3Gain menu. This will prevent MP3Gain from writing any more tags to your files.
    * To remove tags that MP3Gain has already written, simply load the affected mp3s into MP3Gain and do "Options - Tags - Remove Tags from files"

IMPORTANT
If you choose the "Options - Tags - Ignore" option, then you will not be able to automatically undo changes made by MP3Gain. You will still be able to undo any changes, but you will have to manually keep track of what changes you make to your files.

I did use the mp3gain prog. on a bunch of files and then played the results in media jukebox (free version of J River player) and it was seems to work (I had one "quiet" mp3 - must compare it and the adjusted copy to see if I'm just imagining it!)
I see the "analyse audio" in media jukebox too & will try it out on another batch - gotta go wrap christmas pressies now though