| Visit Our Catalog at SteelGuitarShopper.com |

Post new topic Establish Consistent Volume Levels on MP3 Recordings
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  Establish Consistent Volume Levels on MP3 Recordings
Alden Speirs


From:
Hanoverton,Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 24 Apr 2009 12:55 am    
Reply with quote

I have found a very good software program for adjusting volume levels to a consistent value on MP3 files to be "MP3 Gain". It is a free program available at

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net

This program eliminates clipping and when you burn a cd the levels are the same for all tracks. It will do a quantity of files at one time, and you save the leveled value to the file.

EXCELLENT PROGRAM! (At least I think so)

Alden Speirs
_________________
Sierra Crown U-12 8+5, Hilton Pedal, Nashville 112 Amp.,Peavey Sessions 400 amp., Walker Seat, Samick Greg Bennett Royale RL4 Electric, Gretsch "Chet Atkins Country Gentlemen" G6122II, Peavey Power Slide,Yamaha D'Effect Processors Models EMP100 and FX500, Yamaha PSR-6700 Keyboard, Mackie 16 channel mixer, Hammond Organ Concorde 2307
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Chip Fossa

 

From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 24 Apr 2009 11:37 am    
Reply with quote

Alden,

SourceForge are the folks responsible for the open shareware Audacity. It makes sense they would make MP3Gain.

I have Nero as my primary CD burner, which includes 'normalize volume for all CD files'. Another feature in Nero is 'burn with no space between files'.

I like that one. One song right after another. About one second of lull - that's it.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Chip Fossa

 

From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 24 Apr 2009 11:40 am    
Reply with quote

Alden,

SourceForge are the folks responsible for the open shareware Audacity. It makes sense they would make MP3Gain.

I have Nero as my primary CD burner, which includes 'normalize volume for all CD files'. Another feature in Nero is 'burn with no space between files'.

I like that one. One song right after another. About one second of lull - that's it.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Robert Tripp


From:
Mesa, Arizona, USA
Post  Posted 27 Apr 2009 8:54 pm    
Reply with quote

I also use Nero for those same reasons, plus some of the other options like stereo widening etc.
_________________
http://www.reverbnation.com/roberttrippmusic

http://www.reverbnation.com/roberttrippgospel

I might be a beginner now, but someday I'm gonna steel the show.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Chip Fossa

 

From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 28 Apr 2009 7:27 am    
Reply with quote

Robert,

Could you expound a bit more on stereo widening?

I'm not sure if I've run across that option, but it sounds like a good enhancement. Smile
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Richard Sinkler


From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
Post  Posted 28 Apr 2009 2:11 pm    
Reply with quote

I used this recently to do my folder of like 800 songs. Some I had were recorded way too low, almost half the volume of the others. It did bring the volume up to the level of the others but the sound was so distorted, they were unintelligible. Good thing I copied the 800 songs to another folder and tried it on those so my originals are still good. It works real good if the volume levels are reasonably close to each other already.

I did not use it to level out songs for CD burning. I use these songs on my MP3 player, and the differences in volume sometimes is a problem like if I am using my Mp3 player as break music at a gig, or in my car stereo, where the difference could blow out my speakers if I raise the low songs to a listenable level and forget to turn the stereo back down after the song.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Alden Speirs


From:
Hanoverton,Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 5 May 2009 11:09 pm     Mp3 Gain Program
Reply with quote

Richard,
The problems I was having was that the files were recorded too loud, very often with clipping and distortion. This program eliminated these problems for me. You are correct in saving all files when doing any modifications in case of something going wrong. I have had no experience with too low of recordings as you described and appreciate the warning of not using mp3 gain to try and improve.
_________________
Sierra Crown U-12 8+5, Hilton Pedal, Nashville 112 Amp.,Peavey Sessions 400 amp., Walker Seat, Samick Greg Bennett Royale RL4 Electric, Gretsch "Chet Atkins Country Gentlemen" G6122II, Peavey Power Slide,Yamaha D'Effect Processors Models EMP100 and FX500, Yamaha PSR-6700 Keyboard, Mackie 16 channel mixer, Hammond Organ Concorde 2307
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Robert Tripp


From:
Mesa, Arizona, USA
Post  Posted 6 May 2009 7:22 am    
Reply with quote

Chip...

There are filter options available for things like stereo widening. The normalize function is just one of them that has a checkbox at the start of the process.

Once you have added a track to be burned, right click on the track and go to properties, open the filter tab, and play with your options. You can even set the RMS level of normailization that you want on that track.

Good Luck
_________________
http://www.reverbnation.com/roberttrippmusic

http://www.reverbnation.com/roberttrippgospel

I might be a beginner now, but someday I'm gonna steel the show.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Chip Fossa

 

From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 6 May 2009 10:41 am    
Reply with quote

Thanks Robert,

I'll definitely give it a shot. Smile
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Richard Sinkler


From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
Post  Posted 7 May 2009 4:05 pm    
Reply with quote

The songs I had problems with were songs that I had to take off a DVD using my DVD player into a stand alone CD recorder in my stereo (my crappy Dell computer won't play a DVD - with XP Media Center - Go figger). Then I had to rip the files onto my computer. Somewhere the volume level got screwed up although the level meters at every step off the process where high, right below the red section.

I'll re-do those (or just delete them), but it did work great on the rest of the songs.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Mitch Drumm

 

From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
Post  Posted 10 May 2009 2:24 pm    
Reply with quote

I have used mp3 gain for about 5 years, with no complaints.

It is lossless and does not encode or decode the file. I think it just sets some info within the file's tag regarding proper playback volume. That info is then communicated to your playback software when listening.


Here is a good tutorial:


http://tinyurl.com/pzwwg5

The tutorial explains how to get rid of clipping.

It sets the volume to within .5 db of your chosen level. The default level is 89.0 db, so any given song may be set at 88.5 db, 89.0 db, or 89.5 db. It can't control in anything finer than .5 db increments, but that is plenty good enough for human hearing.

I left the default at 89.0. The result is that I cannot get quite enough volume out of my playback system for those times when I want to listen at high volumes. So I may go back and move the chosen level to maybe 94.0. Whether you would need to do that depends on the gain characteristics of your playback system.

In my experience, probably 98% of mp3 files that I run across must be reduced in volume, rather than boosted.
View user's profile Send private message
Chip Fossa

 

From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 10 May 2009 6:24 pm    
Reply with quote

This thread is getting better all the time.

Robert, I've been messing with 'stereo widening' in Nero, and I'm getting to like it a lot.

Problem is though, when I have 30-32 songs lined up in Nero to burn, I have to go through every single song to check off the 'stereo widening' feature.

I've been looking around in Nero for some way to 'stereo widen' all 30 or so songs in one fell swoop. Haven't found anything yet. Sure would save a lot of time.

Maybe you know where the magic wand is located to make this happen?

Thanks for your help, and anyone else's, as well.

Rolling Eyes Confused Rolling Eyes
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  
Please review our Forum Rules and Policies
Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction, and steel guitar accessories
www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

The Steel Guitar Forum
148 S. Cloverdale Blvd.
Cloverdale, CA 95425 USA

Click Here to Send a Donation

Email SteelGuitarForum@gmail.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for Band-in-a-Box
by Jim Baron