Increasing volume of a track?

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terrypin
Posts: 945
Joined: Mon May 10, 2004 7:48 am

Increasing volume of a track?

Post by terrypin »

Could someone straighten me out on the steps I need to take to make a tracks sound equally loud please? I've read the Help, and my Vol Leveling options are all set as I found them, i.e. 83dB. But I'm confused about what the 'baseline' or refernce loudness is supposed to be.

For example, I have a couple of MP3 files, fresh from download. Track A plays at the voume level I like, i.e. it is 'loud enough'. Track B is too quiet. How exactly should I proceed to get it both to same volume level as Track A?

I tried using Analyze Volume on Track B. It reported +3.3dB. How should I interpret that? But it didn't sound any different. I then used Level Track Volume. The figure is now -0.4dB. What should that tell me? But it still doesn't sound any different.

However, Analyze Volume on Track A gave me -11.5dB, and this was then significantly quieter, the reverse of the effect I wanted.

What do other users do to get a batch of tracks to a 'similar' volume level please?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Post by Lowlander »

All you have to do is analyze volume on all tracks.

Now MM will calculate the volume level for all tracks. This results in you case track to have a negative value (ie its too loud) and track b to have a positive value (ie its too soft).

So far so good. Now make sure you have Level Playback Level selected (can be done in play menu). This will result in MM adjusting the volume automatically for all tracks that have the level calculated. And that results in all tracks sounding at the same volume.

When you use Level Track Volume MM actually adjusts the song (Analyze volume just changes the DB field leveling) so the song will sound the same on any device you use (this procedure could mess up the song itself, I advise to only use it when you really need, like using songs on portable device or CD). After it changed the volume of the song itself it recalculates the volume level which it stores in the DB (this is why song n now shows -0.4).


Some notes. Volume leveling is an approximation so that is why you see values around 0 in the leveling field (for songs ripped with volume leveling or songs you did Level Track Volume for.
On playback some songs will still sound louder or softer. This has to do with average volume of a song. MM calculates an average so songs with a lot of silence will sound louder.

I hope this explained it. To sumarize I advice you to Analyze Volume for all your tracks and select Level Playback Volume in the player, that should give the effect what you are looking for.
webrider
Posts: 85
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 12:37 pm
Location: Ulm - Germany

Hello Lowlander

Post by webrider »

Hi Lowlander, I have the same problem and the most of your advise I unterstood. But not to do something wrong, because my MM is in german. Now my planned precedure, is it right?

First I select the song-titles I want to equilize the loudness, then I select in EXTRAS "Lautstärke analysieren" (could that be also for all my songtitles, ie more than 6000) After this check, I select "Lautstärke anpassen" (is that right?) But here I am now not sure what to do, because it appears a popup window, which is saying, that this "Lautstärkeanpassung" is changing the musicfiles defintily, are you sure the you want to equilize this songtitles?" What happens if some titles are still ok, will they be changed once more and loosing quality? Or is that generally not the right way? And if I'm adding new music-files, and after a certain time I don't know which titles I already changed, can I also repeat this procedere without loosing quality?

webrider
Guest

Post by Guest »

Lowlander: Many thanks, understood. I'll experiment along those lines. I do need to change the volumes, partly because they vary very widely but also because I want to copy a selection onto the CF card of my iPAQ 2210, where it's even more inconvenient to keep changing volume.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Guest

Post by Guest »

webrider: Pending Lowlander's reply to you, this is my understanding:
First I select the song-titles I want to equilize the loudness, then I select in EXTRAS "Lautstärke analysieren" (could that be also for all my songtitles, ie more than 6000)
I don't think there is any risk of that! It will operate only on the tracks you have selected (selektiert?), i.e. highlghted.
But here I am now not sure what to do, because it appears a popup window, which is saying, that this "Lautstärkeanpassung" is changing the music files definitely, are you sure the you want to equalize these song titles?" What happens if some titles are still ok, will they be changed once more and loosing quality?
My understanding is that, yes, all tracks will be changed. This is the reason for the warning. When I try this I intend first to make a copy
of the target files. Then I will listen to the results - it will be a long job! If I am happy enough, then I will delete the copies.
Or is that generally not the right way? And if I'm adding new music-files, and after a certain time I don't know which titles I already changed, can I also repeat this procedere without loosing quality?


I would expect that, yes, each 'leveling' would lose a little quality. And that would be cumulative. Only trial and error (or feedback from other users?) will provide good information on this. And, of course, 'quality' is a very subjective term - sometimes even controversial! I am not an 'audiophile', but I respect those who are, with much higher listening standards than mine. And at the moment I don't have a lot of HD space. Also I play music on my Pocket PC, where space is even scarcer (noch knapper?). So I'm generally quite happy to convert anything at 128 MBps or higher to 64 MBps WMA. But I expect may here would find that unacceptable!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Post by Lowlander »

Level Track Volume (Lautstärke anpasssen) will change the files themselves. It will adjust the volume of the file. This could result in bad sounding files. So my advise is not to use it unless you really need it.
If you want to do this you don't have to first analyze (Lautstärke analysieren) the tracks.

If you analyze the tracks (Lautstärke analysieren) you might want to do it in sets instead of your whole library. (I experienced some stability issues when large sets were done).

@Webrider: Only do Lautstärkeanpassung if you really need it, in other words if you want to use the songs on a portable player or so. Otherwise I don't advice it.

@Terry: You might want to make a copy of a couple of files and try the level track volume. Listen to them and if it sounds allright to you, you could decide to do more.
webrider
Posts: 85
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 12:37 pm
Location: Ulm - Germany

Loudness correction

Post by webrider »

Hi thanks to all your replies. I found out of the lot of advices, that this is not so easy as I thought. So I will study all your help and then try it if I need the loudness correction. And also at first only with some tracks.

Till the next time

webrider.
terrypin
Posts: 945
Joined: Mon May 10, 2004 7:48 am

Post by terrypin »

Most of my files have already been converted to WMA already. Just discovered that Level Volume can only be applied to MP3!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Post by Lowlander »

Sorry, should have inquired about filetype.

I don't remember what the status is on volume leveling for WMA files. You might want to look around on the forum.
terrypin
Posts: 945
Joined: Mon May 10, 2004 7:48 am

Post by terrypin »

Thanks. It's easy enough to use my GoldWave editor, which allows operations on WMA too. Its range of presets under the Efffects>Volume menu includes 'Max dynamic range', which gives a good result.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
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