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Topic: Equalising volume (Read 2644 times) previous topic - next topic
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Equalising volume

Newbee struggling.

When I burn my tracks onto a CD some are louder than others, is there any way to make them all the same volume so that I don't have to keep changing the volume on the player?

I burn my CD's with iTunes because it's the only way that I can get the song titles to show on my MMI screen (Audi)

I have WavePad sound editor master edition and Switch sound file converter Plus.

Or is there a better burner that will allow me to show titles in the car?

Equalising volume

Reply #1 –
The problem isn't your burning application...

You're making audio CDs, right? 

There are a couple of ways to approach it.  iTunes has a feature called Sound Check that automatically matches the volumes across your music library.    I use it in my iPod, but I have not tried it with burned CDs.  In fact, I've never burned a CD with iTunes.  This article says you can apply Sound Check to burned CDs.

Or,  I assume you have WAV files.  ReplayGain is similar to Sound Check, and there is a variation called WAVgain.  It "permanently" adjusts the volume of the WAV file, so it doesn't matter what burning software you use.

The above applications are quite good (and better than nothing), but they are not "perfect", and they are designed to volume-match your entire music library.  Nothing is perfect... Two two humans might not even agree when two different songs are "equally loud"

The best approach for a handful of songs on a CD is to do it by ear.  I don't know anything about WavePad, but here's the method:

- Normalize (maximize) all of the songs for 0dB peaks.  This will make all of the tracks as loud as they can go without clipping (distorting).  Most commercial music is already normalized, and in general this won't make them "equally loud", but it's the starting point.

- Listen to the songs and if they still need adjustment choose the quietest sounding song as your reference. 

- Adjust the louder songs down (by ear) as necessary to match the reference.


NOTE - Since most commercial songs are already normalized/maximized, including many quiet-sounding songs, you can't always boost the quiet songs and the ONLY way to match volumes is by reducing the loud songs.    Some people are surprised and disappointed that their songs are "too quiet" after using a volume-matching application.  But, that's the way it is.   

The automated tools are a compromise because the target-volume is chosen to work with an entire music library.  So for example, if you use WAVgain or Sound Check to match 10 or 15 songs on a CD, it's possible that none of the tracks will be normalized/maximized.  (You can go through a 2nd step with your audio editor to boost all of the songs by the same dB level, so at least one track will be normalized.)

The other side of this compromise is that some quiet-songs can't be boosted enough to hit the target volume without clipping.  (The default is disallow clipping and make these tracks loud as possible without distortion.)
 

Equalising volume

Reply #2 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
The problem isn't your burning application...

You're making audio CDs, right? 

There are a couple of ways to approach it.  iTunes has a feature called Sound Check that automatically matches the volumes across your music library.    I use it in my iPod, but I have not tried it with burned CDs.  In fact, I've never burned a CD with iTunes.  This article says you can apply Sound Check to burned CDs.

Or,  I assume you have WAV files.  ReplayGain is similar to Sound Check, and there is a variation called WAVgain.  It "permanently" adjusts the volume of the WAV file, so it doesn't matter what burning software you use.

The above applications are quite good (and better than nothing), but they are not "perfect", and they are designed to volume-match your entire music library.  Nothing is perfect... Two two humans might not even agree when two different songs are "equally loud"

The best approach for a handful of songs on a CD is to do it by ear.  I don't know anything about WavePad, but here's the method:

- Normalize (maximize) all of the songs for 0dB peaks.  This will make all of the tracks as loud as they can go without clipping (distorting).  Most commercial music is already normalized, and in general this won't make them "equally loud", but it's the starting point.

- Listen to the songs and if they still need adjustment choose the quietest sounding song as your reference. 

- Adjust the louder songs down (by ear) as necessary to match the reference.


NOTE - Since most commercial songs are already normalized/maximized, including many quiet-sounding songs, you can't always boost the quiet songs and the ONLY way to match volumes is by reducing the loud songs.    Some people are surprised and disappointed that their songs are "too quiet" after using a volume-matching application.  But, that's the way it is.   

The automated tools are a compromise because the target-volume is chosen to work with an entire music library.  So for example, if you use WAVgain or Sound Check to match 10 or 15 songs on a CD, it's possible that none of the tracks will be normalized/maximized.  (You can go through a 2nd step with your audio editor to boost all of the songs by the same dB level, so at least one track will be normalized.)

The other side of this compromise is that some quiet-songs can't be boosted enough to hit the target volume without clipping.  (The default is disallow clipping and make these tracks loud as possible without distortion.)


Thanks to all of you for taking the trouble to help out.

Ticking the 'sound check' square in iTunes worked a treat all of the tracks now play at the same volume in the car.