The statement about it switching automatically is incorrect. (it was my post)

Please don't ignore :)

Please explain.
This:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=61666&p=317341#p317308 "MM does that automatically, when playing tracks back to back from the same album it uses album gain, otherwise track gain is used."
does not agree with this:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32761&start=90#p315750 "Tools > Options > Volume Leveling allows you to set the Level Playback to per Track or per Album. Whichever you choose will be applied."

So does MM4 analyse the playlist/now playing/library tree node (which?) and decides which level to apply? Or does it apply whichever is set under Tools > Options > Volume Leveling > Level Playback/Sync volume (per Track or per Album)?

thank you

Thanks for this summary.

Thanks to everyone in the forum - I have learned much about this great tool - which seems to do exactly (well, ALMOST...<g>) what you would want it to do. Now, to give something back...

My interpretation of volume leveling (at least for MP3's):
Single web page that best sums it up: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/WebHelp:Volume_Leveling/4.0

Volume LEVELING on RIP to MP3 will alter the file LOSSLESSLY, but IRREVERSIBLY (it does not change the waveform - rather, it just updates the MP3 file with the adjustment value just like MP3Gain, but does NOT write an 'undo' tag like MP3Gain does - hence it is 'irreversible').

Analyze Volume: This analyzes and then just adds tags to the MP3 file (and MM library) for Track and/or Album (configurable) that tell a player (MMonkey or many modern devices) how to play the track back at the 'correct' volume - and is reversible.

In a perfect world (v 5? lol), MM would write that same undo tag like MP3Gain, so it is reversible - then there would be absolutely NO reason to not do album leveling when ripping.

In the meantime, if one wanted the same effect, one could:
- rip w/o leveling
- then MP3Gain it (album mode to preserve relative volume) - to write the reversible volume tag
- then 'analyze volume' in MM (album & track, although the album value will probably be 0 b/c MP3Gain already adjusted it)

Then, if you truly want track-leveled playback, you set the MM Player->Volume leveling prefs ('Level Playback/Sync volume') to 'Track' - then it will play leveled in MM, or adjust the volume as it syncs - but will *not* alter your library.

Hope this helps someone....

Don't use Tools > Level Track Volume (this still works the same as in MediaMonkey 4).

Ugh! Sorry but MM4 has gotten me spooked again. Regarding my item 2 above, the Tools>Options>Volume Leveling dialog does not have a toggle to enable/disable permanently leveling tracks. It only has "Level ripped tracks" with a value of "Per Track" or "per Album". No checkbox there to turn the feature on or off. What does that mean then? How does one avoid peremantly leveling their tracks?

1) Tools > Options > Volume Leveling allows you to set the Level Playback to per Track or per Album. Whichever you choose will be applied.

2) Only Tools > Level Track Volume will permanently level the tracks.

I read this complete thread but still have some confusion...

1) During playback, how does MM decide between using Track Volume vs. Album Volume values if both exist in the track/file? Does Album Volume take precedence over Track Volume? I can't believe it's studying my playlist beforehand to know if I am playing more than one track from a particular album. :) If Album Volume does take precedence, how do I remove just that value from the track/file? I rarely listen to tracks as albums.

2) The Options dialog, under Volume Leveling, does not discern between just Analyzing tracks and permanently Leveling tracks. There's only a checkbox "Level playback volume". Is the only way to permantently level tracks during ripping or can it be done on existing selected tracks? How do I avoid permantently leveling tracks? I thought I was covered until I read this thread. Now I'm a little freaked out.

Thanks for the help. MM is good stuff.

"Analyze album volume" adds another value into the volume leveling field that sets the proper playback leveling adjustment for the whole album. Not all players support this. Here's an example. The iPod "SoundCheck" feature only reads the track leveling adjustment, so during playback, one album track may change volume leveling from the previous. This is really -- appallingly -- noticeable when playing a full-length, continuous play ambient album -- with SoundCheck on, the mellow tones from T1 (leveling -3.5 db) may suddenly drop in volume at the transition to T2 (leveling -6.0 db). But if you enable album leveling values, the T1 and T2 leveling values may read -3.5; -4 and -6.0; -4. So a playback device like, say, Mediamonkey, will level all the tracks at the [i]album[/i] leveling level of -4.0 db. You'll hear no abrupt changes in leveling as a result.

I usually don't use Soundcheck on the iPod because a problem in the firmware does leveling AFTER applying EQ adjustments, so that almost all of my music has slight distortion with any EQ. But I do track + album leveling because it's non-destructive to the tracks, and adds value to them when I play them on my computer.

Hope that helps some.

- You can only enable automatic analyzing of volume not level volume. Analyzing volume works on FLAC as well and only saves a volume offset in the tags which is used by the player to adjust the volume. You should be able to verify if this was done on your FLAC files by checking the Track Volume column.

- You can disable/enable volume leveling in the rip dialog itself.

- No, it won't change anything other than the Player volume by the value in the Track Volume or Album Volume field (depends on your setting). In the files it's just a tag, the audio isn't changed when using Analyze Volume.

I already found a lot of info on volume leveling, and most of my questions answered, in particular in this post and the first reply by nohitter151: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32761&hilit=volume+levelling

But I still have a few additional questions:

I once set / enabled all options under Tools - Player - Volume Leveling, but only later realized this might also affect the quality. However, from nohitter's reply I understand that volume leveling in MM is not possible on flac files (unless you rip/convert albums and have set "Target Volume Level for Ripping Audio CDs"). I have only downloaded flac albums in my MM library, so can I assume that the original quality of these files will not have been affected despite having all options under Tools - Player - Volume Leveling enabled/set?

Also, if I ever want to rip CD's myself, how do I disable volume leveling? Under Tools - Player - Volume Leveling, you can only set the Target Volume Level for Ripping Audio CDs (in dB). You cannot enable/discable this option with a tick box. Should I set the value in the dB box to zero, or will this still level the volume when ripping CDs (to zero)? How can I then disable this option?

When I only want to play-back in MM at the same level, do I understand correctly that I should enable all options under Tools - Player - Volume Leveling - General, and enable "Target volume level for Playback"? This will not change anything to the audio-files itself?

Finally, what is the exact meaning of the option "When analyzing Track volume, also analyze Album volume"? Why would I want to enable this or not?

Thanks for clarifying!

I followed the suggestions here - I re-imported the music, analyzed it, set the default at 89db, and turned on the "level as you play" option - and it sounds MUCH MUCH MUCH better.

Thanks again for the input!

[quote="Lowlander"]Yes, 95dB seems the maximum for most to prevent artifacts. I'd still go with 89dB, unless you need to increase the volume for some reason.[/quote]


excellent - thanks for the advice. I will go with your suggestion. It didn't occur to me that the leveling might be the source of the issues i've been having until i heard that track fresh last night with no alteration.

Yes, 95dB seems the maximum for most to prevent artifacts. I'd still go with 89dB, unless you need to increase the volume for some reason.