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Normalize All Files With Nero Or Simply Use MP3Gain. Which Is Best?
Burn CDs With Nero's "Normalize All Files" Box Checked, Or Simply Use MP3Gain Without Nero's "Normalize All Files" Box Checked. Which Is Best?
Can someone help me with something that’s driving me up the wall?
I’m kinda new to burning CDs with Nero, and, after burning quite a few of them with the “Normalize All Audio Files” box checked, I noticed that the volume levels still had too much variance. So I did I a track analysis of my entire mp3 collection using MP3Gain, and discovered what I thought was the culprit: the decibel levels of all of the songs in my collection ranged anywhere from 75 dB to 99 dB—too much for Nero’s normalizer to handle, I suppose!
So, thinking that once I got all my songs down to a closer dB range, I ran my entire mp3 collection through MP3Gain, using 89.0 as my target setting. What I got (and now have) is a dB range of 88.2 to 89.8, which I thought would produce better results when I re-burned my CDs with these new values and with Nero’s “Normalize All Audio Files” box checked.
My hopes were dashed (I think!) about a week ago when I came across a little blip about this subject in an online forum (a blip on a web page that, sadly, I neglected to bookmark and, for some reason, can no longer seem to find) that mentioned something along the lines of Nero first converting (by default) mp3 files to .wav format BEFORE the burning process begins, thereby undoing any plus or minus gains made with MP3Gain—thereby defeating one’s purpose. If this holds true, then I’m simply wasting my time!
If Nero does in fact convert to .wav format first before the burning process begins, and if conversion simply reverts my mp3s to their original values, then the only alternative I can see (since using Nero’s “Normalize All Audio Files” isn’t giving me the desired results) is to burn my CDs without checking the “Normalize All Audio Files” box. But herein lies another problem: As I’ve stated, the new dB range for my audio collection is between 88.2 dB to 89.8 dB, which is a plus or minus variance of .8 dB on my ideal 89.0 setting. I can deal with this, I suppose, but am still noticing changes in volume, especially when, for example, I’ve just listened to 3 songs at 88.2 dB and the next song that plays has a dB of 89.8 dB—which is a difference of 1.6db!). Add to this the fact that there are a bunch of songs in my collection that MPGain just couldn’t seem to place in the 88.2 dB to 89.8 dB range (some of my mp3s are actually still as low as 83 dB), and it would appear that I’m STILL going to be constantly adjusting the volume while listening to CDs! It’s enough to drive someone nuts—and I certainly can’t be the first and only person to encounter this.
Is there anyone out there who has the answers I need to create a more uniform volume level for my CD-listening experience? At this stage, I just don’t see the point in burning any more CDs until I get my head around this.