Make all MP3 audio volume the same?

Zippydsmlee said:

I got a ton of audio files from different formats converted to MP3 over the years but I am having issues with audio levels.Some songs are too loud some too soft, I have tried MP3gain and its not really helped.

I have applied MP3gain and set everything to 89 but a dozen files or so are either to loud or too soft, doing them one by one is driving me insane and frankly I am dealing with a copy of a copy of the archive as so I do not damage anything permanently and its getting annoying to add stuff or change my archive because of this.

Is there a better program than MP3gain that will equalize all the audio volume to be closer together?

Not that I know of.

To some extent, it depends on the source material. A lot of songs recorded in the last 20 years have been altered in the studio with compressors and assorted gizmos to supposedly make the songs more appealing on the radio, but it raises hell with the dynamics of the song---there are few if any relatively quiet passages. All mp3gain can do is react to what it "hears".

Compression can cause a "dense" waveform to sound louder than songs that have equal peak amplitude but more variation within the track.

The “quiet” song probably has wider dynamic range, which can fake out any normalization or amplification attempt. In such a case, the best bet may be to compress the “quiet” song. That would make it “louder”.

You can fiddle around with Audacity and try to adjust levels manually one song at a time. I think Audacity has a compressor plug in. You may be able to find other compression programs online.

You may end up just chasing your tail and have to settle for "good enough". I drove myself crazy with similar issues a few years back when I was burning CDs for car playback and didn't want to have to constantly adjust volume.

I still use mp3 gain--it's the only thing out there that is reversible and I'm very very reluctant to make irreversible changes in volume to any song file.

Mp3gain tries to make all songs within 1.5 dB of your reference 89 dB. A difference of 1.5 dB is probably noticeable, but not easily and shouldn't be an annoying difference---so it's pretty likely you are dealing with a dynamics issue on some songs---those with "dense" waveforms as noted above. Nothing may be over 89, but because the entire song is 89 or crowding 89, your ear says "too loud" due to the lack of variation.

Callender said:

Well in the past I've used MediaMonkey to permanently level volume on all mp3 files on my HD. It worked perfectly.

I've ditched MediaMonkey for an alternative. However you could install it as your non default media player just to make use of the volume levelling feature - then uninstall it.

See "Leveling Track Volume" - Volume Leveling - MediaMonkey Wiki

To losslessly level the volume of MP3 Tracks already in the library:
Configure the 'Target volume level for leveling' to the desired volume via Tools > Options > Player > Volume Leveling.

Select all of the Tracks you wish to level and click Tools > Level Track Volume. This will take some time as each Track will be individually analyzed, and the volume will then be adjusted so that the Track(s) can play back levelled on any player.

Note: Copy your entire mp3 library somewhere first and don't let MediaMonkey index your backup.

Dose it change the files so you get the equivalent effect on an Ipod? I have an Itouch might be moving to a android phone later on but I kinda need to effect the files as so my ears do not fall off when I use the Itouch.

Callender said:

Zippydsmlee said:

Callender said:

Well in the past I've used MediaMonkey to permanently level volume on all mp3 files on my HD. It worked perfectly.

I've ditched MediaMonkey for an alternative. However you could install it as your non default media player just to make use of the volume levelling feature - then uninstall it.

See "Leveling Track Volume" - Volume Leveling - MediaMonkey Wiki

To losslessly level the volume of MP3 Tracks already in the library:
Configure the 'Target volume level for leveling' to the desired volume via Tools > Options > Player > Volume Leveling.

Select all of the Tracks you wish to level and click Tools > Level Track Volume. This will take some time as each Track will be individually analyzed, and the volume will then be adjusted so that the Track(s) can play back levelled on any player.

Note: Copy your entire mp3 library somewhere first and don't let MediaMonkey index your backup.

Dose it change the files so you get the equivalent effect on an Ipod? I have an Itouch might be moving to a android phone later on but I kinda need to effect the files as so my ears do not fall off when I use the Itouch.

Well I don't have an Ipod or Itunes and don't use any sort of portable media player. What it does is levels the volume on any tracks that you have included in the Media Monkey library and permanently makes changes to those files.

Anyway for further reading have a look here:

IPod Synchronization - MediaMonkey Wiki

Okay so if it changes the files then it should copy over to the Ipod. I tend to remove the MP3's from itunes and reload them which forces a full resync ensureing any changes are carried over. I will give it a try.

Callender said:

Be careful when you install MediaMonkey. When it offers the choice to associate file extensions - choose none. It will still work.

Ya I prefer Media player classic to do everything but audio I tend to let VLC handle that.

I have media monkey my only complaint is it can screw with itunes, wish it was a solid replacement for itunes but it is not.