Am I volume leveling correctly?

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ssawyer
Posts: 38
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:28 am

Am I volume leveling correctly?

Post by ssawyer »

I find myself having to constantly adjust the playback volume of the music being played from my iPhone and Android devices, and when played from MMW. I rip all my audio to FLAC format. Looking to fix this problem.

So...I've spent the last hour or so going through all the help info and perusing various threads on volume leveling. I think I have most of the issues sorted out but would appreciate a dope-slap if I have anything wrong. If I have all this right, I do have one outstanding question:

Once I've gone through the process enumerated below, how do I incorporate additional tracks added to my library? Do I need to re-analyze all of the tracks again, or can I simply analyze just the new tracks using this process, and be good to go?

Here is what I think I know.

1) What I want to implement is "Replay gain". My understanding is that this will add a tag to the files to indicate a +/-db value to read when the file is played back to keep the tracks all playing at a similar volume. The advantage as I understand it is that the file itself is not modified other than the addition of the tag. Note that I seldom play entire albums, so leveling the tracks within each album doesn't make sense, so I don't volume-level when ripping.

2) "Replay gain" tags are read by MMA, and when synchronizing files to iOS devices (like my iPhone XR) this Replay gain tag value is implemented in the synchronization/conversion process to Apple's "Soundcheck" tag.

3) To accomplish this, I first go to Tools|Options|Player|Volume leveling and ensure the Level playback/sync volume is set to "per Track". Leave the playback volume at the default 89db.

4) I select all of the files in my library, right-click and select "Analyze Volume", OR select Tools|Analyze volume from the menu.

5) Wait for MMW to go through, analyze all the files, and set the Replay gain tag. I'm expecting this will take quite a while for the 8,000 tracks I have in the library.

6) When syncing to the devices - both iOS and Android - ensure the "Level track volume" checkbox (in Device|iPhone|Sync profile|Tagging) is NOT checked.

I think I have this right. Let me know of any errors, and if I'm correct that the answer to my question above is to simply repeat this process on any new files added to the library, as I'm guessing that the 89db playback volume in the options is the "reference", not the other files in the library.

Thanks!