Does Volume Levelling use album gain or track gain?

[DaledeSilva]

Hi,
I have all my tracks analysed for volume level. Media monkey does a great job of normalizing everything.
However, my other devices do a shit job.
So I want to permanently level the volumes ofall the mp3's, however, I does anyone know if that operation will use the album gain value or the track gain value?

If it doesn't use the album gain value it seams like a pretty useless (and dangerous) operation as it will create volume difference between almost every track on every album.

Which is why I'm scared.. does anyone know?
Thanks

[malachisecretspy]

im pretty sure it would use the track volume, as like you say, album volume would be useless.would be a pretty useless feature.

[nohitter151]

According to: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=3839

Album gain is already applied.

[Dreadlau]

It's not clear. I don't see any option to control how leveling is applied (track or Album)





Any info?

[Lowlander]

I'm not clear either. The suggestion in 3839 is really great as it allows the user to choose. I don't want to use Album Level and want Track Level instead. I don't play Albums and thus Track Level is preferred. This clearly should be a user defined option, but I'm not clear what has been done.

[DaledeSilva]

im pretty sure it would use the track volume, as like you say, album volume would be useless.would be a pretty useless feature.

actually, I said the exact opposite.
If it were to use the track volume, then you would find it would make quiet songs on an album louder and louder songs on the same album quieter - causing discrepancies.

Dale.

[DaledeSilva]

According to: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=3839

Album gain is already applied.

I just copied a test album in and tried it.. it definitely comes up with no option to choose. And it applies TRACK volume changes, not album.

I can see this because while looking at the track volume and album volume columns.. album volume should all be zero after applying is the album volume is used, but it's not.

funny thing is though, track volume doesn't zero either, it ends up around 0.2 but varies.

[DaledeSilva]

Actually.. no, I'm wrong.. apparently it uses the ALBUM volume to level the tracks.

strangely, once you apply the levelling, it changes the values in the track volume or album volume fields but NEITHER of them become zero consistently - which they should. Which is odd.

However, I then re-analyzed the volumes of all the tracks and album is all zero now.

I'm happy about this, however, still uneasy about using it seeing as the instructions around it are unclear and the values don't change properly upon initially applying.

[DaledeSilva]

According to: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=3839

Album gain is already applied.

I just copied a test album in and tried it.. it definitely doesn't come up with an option to choose. And it applies TRACK volume changes, not album (This is not true, see my post below)
I can see this because while looking at the track volume and album volume columns.. album volume should all be zero after applying is the album volume is used, but it's not.
funny thing is though, track volume doesn't zero either, it ends up around 0.2 but varies.

[Dreadlau]

I don't understand how it works.

Could you clarify?

If you level volume what is applied? track gain or album gain?

Is there any way to choose between the two?

Thank you.

btw: How did you get "zero" as offset values?
I always get little variations and I always thought it was to be expected since mp3gain works with 1.5dB steps.

[DaledeSilva]

it applies album gain (based on my deductions).
I got zero after analysing the tracks again after applying it

[Lowlander]

it applies album gain (based on my deductions).

That's really bad news, this might be fine for those who play Albums, but as someone who doesn't it's really disturbing to have to still use the volume myself to have consistent playback from track to track. Although I wonder if the Level Playback/Sync setting in MM4 controls this?

[malachisecretspy]

well how is it normalising volume then?i thought it just modifies the file's overall volume to the setting in the volume leveling preferences.if i have mine set to 89db (which it is), and normalise a file, the track and album volume should both reflect the change to the normalised volume.??????89db is 89db dont matter what track it is or what album it came from.if it doesn't happen like this, then i don't see how it is normalising anything at all.The album volume and track volume shouldn't make any difference.But hey, i'm probably wrong lol!!!!!!!

[Lowlander]

Track Volume: It makes sure the track is at 89dB
Album Volume: It makes sure the whole Album is at 89dB, this means that a soft track on an Album will still be soft and thus at a lower volume than when using Track Volume.

Album Volume is good when you play Albums and you care to preserve the volume differences between the tracks on the Album. Track Volume is good when you play tracks from different albums. This is why this should be optional as different users will have different needs.

[Eyal]

Here is an excerpt from mp3Gain Help Overview: