Volume levelling and equalizer

[Anti]

I've read 'the big thread' about volume levelling - thanks to all who posted.
I have a specific query though:

I levelled all tracks/albums at the default 89db. However, with 'level playback volume' enabled, the MM volume is too low.
To get the music up to any kind of good level I have to have MM volume to 100% and Windows volume to 100%.
But for most other things like CDs, films, youtube, flash animations/adverts, games, etc, Windows volume is best at around 50-60%.

In order to get the volumes set where I want them (Windows @ 50% and MM volume @ 80%) yet still achieving a decent volume in MM, I have increased the MM equalizer gain to +9db.

Now ordinarily in an equalizer, if you increase some of the frequencies (as I have), you should lower the gain to compensate.

1) My main question is, by increasing the equalizer gain to get the volume up, am I unwittingly causing clipping/distortion or compression/limiting?

2) It's hard to A/B test fairly, but it seems to me that with 'level playback volume' enabled and the equalizer gain up, the music is losing 'something', compared to when levelling is off and the equalizer gain is set properly. It just seems more crisp, clear and energetic when levelling is off. Or is it just me?

3) It does seem weird that MM levels the music so quietly, when every other sound source coming through my laptop is so much louder by comparison. It seems easy to conclude that MM is levelling to a different standard than everything else?

Thanks.

[nohitter151]

1. Yes, probably.

2. You're probably causing some clipping/distortion with the EQ on.

3. You're equalizing to 89 db, that's a low volume. For most modern tracks, yes, you're going to be losing some volume. But that's needed so that it's got the same volume as older, lower volume tracks.

[Anti]

Thanks for your reply.

After more testing it appears:
· Levelling takes louder albums/tracks down to 89db.
· Quieter albums keep the same volume, so now everything is around 89db.
· I can push all albums back up to 95db using the equalizer gain set at +6db.
· This doesn't seem to cause compression/limiting, or change the energy, tone or space of the sound.
· If I find some individual tracks clip/distort, I can pull the equalizer down a little rather then have to re-level the library.

The above method allows me to get decent loudness with Windows volume at 50% and MM volume at 80%.

Cheers.

[rovingcowboy]

if you leveled your song file with leveler then you changed the volume code in the file to 89 % of what it was.
so now using mediamonkey's playback volume set to 89 % your getting 22% less volume then the song originaly had.
so use playback target volume at 99% or 100% you should get your 89% of the original volume that way.

to keep the volume between older songs and newer songs the same you can use the audacity editor and up the volume in
in the file with its leveler feature. its leveler is only in it 1.3 version.

or you can use a dsp plugin to play all songs at the same volume level you set with the plugin. so it will raise or lower
the volume of the incoming songs to match what you want. i found the old wide and dynimic plug in for winamp will work best on the mmds out put plugin as it seems to not level them on the wav out put.

[Anti]

> so use playback target volume at 99% or 100% you should get your 89% of the original volume that way.

Thanks for that suggestion. I think because I'm using the equalizer and have increased some of the frequencies, I can only increase the playback target volume to 94 without introducing artefacts/clipping/distortion. But it does give me the volume I needed to be able to set the equalizer gain to zero.

A tip for anyone trying to set their levelling and output levels - turn of 'clip prevention' while you set it up.
When you're sure you've got the output level set correctly so that 99.9% of your collection doesn't clip, then you can enable it again.

> to keep the volume between older songs and newer songs the same you can use the audacity editor and
> up the volume in the file with its leveller feature

If I wanted to permanently change the level of the track, I'd probably just use the 'level track volume' feature.
I don't see that Audacity would do it perceptually better?

Cheers.

[rovingcowboy]

audacity has a in that 1.3 version a Eq that you can adjust the different Freqs of 14 or 18 freqs. its not like the 1.2 version of audacity there are tons of improvements in the beta version if it is still a beta version. i've been using it all year.

as for the preamp on the equlizer that is not the equlizer preamp that is the preamp for your system its just located on the
equlizer for easy adjustment with the freq settings.

[Anti]

Follow up:

I found some tracks were clipping if the 'target level for playback' is set to 94 (after levelling tracks at 89).
Enabling 'clip protection' on disguises it, but that means these tracks are being unnecessarily compressed.
I'd rather try to achieve a loud output whilst maintaining the full dynamic range of the tracks.

So I prefer to keep 'target level for playback' at 89, and using the equalizer to boost the output signal.
For some reason, the equalizer gain can boost the output signal far more than the 'target level for playback' setting.
And it doesn't seem to cause any compression/clipping. I've got the tracks really loud, and have left 'clip protection' disabled.

Although it's not ideal having the MM output determined by the equalizer gain, it's achieved the best results.

Cheers.