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Topic: Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume" (Read 6773 times) previous topic - next topic
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Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Hi

I just realized that iTunes was systematically adjusting volume (even though the option is not checked!)

It wasn't annoying until I decided to use the "comment" tag. As iTunes is writing information into the "comment" tag, it is now a real mess!

Any suggestion?

Thank you!

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #1 –
So to my understanding, iTunes sets up the "comment" tag with a lot of sub-tags that iTunes itself reads as separate tags, but other programs (operating on the id3 standard) simply read as part of the "comment" tag.

If you're not using iTunes SoundCheck capacity, then feel free to clear all of the information written in the comment field.
Of course, you don't want to do this wholesale if there are actually things in the comment field on some tracks, that you'd like to keep.

I'd suggest replacing the garbled iTunes stuff in the comment field only when you want to write something to that field. For files where you don't care to write anything to the comment field, the garbled stuff isn't hurting you.


One curious thing is why iTunes (and WMP, for that matter) insist on using their proprietary standards for volume-leveling. To my understanding, the iTunes SoundCheck standard is worse than replaygain (I know it only functions on a track-by-track level, whereas replaygain has the option of being calculated for an album as well).
What's does Apple or Microsoft stand to gain by inventing their own standard, which probably isn't as good as replaygain anyway, when replaygain already has significant market penetration?

It strikes me as keeping proprietary-for-the-sake-of-proprietary, because
a) it may become useful later for direct financial reasons
b) it keeps users of the product more dependent on that specific product, and therefore an incentive against switching.

But I'd be interested to hear other people's comments about this. If it's too off-topic (or hijacking this thread) I could post this second part as a new thread.
God kills a kitten every time you encode with CBR 320

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #2 –
Thank you for considering my issue.

The problem is that I only use iTunes to burn CD (easy to mix podcasts and drag-drop songs). I use foobar for the rest of it and customized like this:

[a href="http://img341.imageshack.us/i/sanstitreoc.jpg/" target="_blank"] (without even prompting!!! Mind your business Microsoft...  )

Quote from: timcupery on
If it's too off-topic (or hijacking this thread)

I'm OK with that 

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #3 –
hmm. I was under the impression that iTunes could read your collection (useful for how you're using it) without writing any information to the file tags.

when I want to burn cd's, I just assemble my songs in a foobar2000 playlist (easy enough if you have the search function set up in a pane next to your playlist window, although it looks like you have a different setup).
I just convert my playlist to .wav and use burnatonce to burn to an audio cd. Probably a little more work than iTunes but not much.

And yes, WMP is terrible about overwriting things even when you tell it not to in the settings.
God kills a kitten every time you encode with CBR 320

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #4 –
Quote from: timcupery on
hmm. I was under the impression that iTunes could read your collection (useful for how you're using it) without writing any information to the file tags.

No, it can't  (Mind your business Apple  )!

Anyway I think I'll use foobar the way you use it.

Thank you again.

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #5 –
Hmm, I've never seen iTunes do anything to the tags in any of my MP3s, whether I just added them to the library from their original location or had iTunes copy them into the iTunes Music folder...yep, just spot-checked a few in both fb2k and mp3tag and no extra tags of any kind...are you sure you have SoundCheck disabled in the Playback preferences?

edit:  However, iTunes does add SoundCheck info to the Comment fields of any MP3s that it itself *encodes*...how are you encoding your MP3s (actually, I just realized in reading over your posts that you haven't stated what file format(s) you're talking about)?
"Not sure what the question is, but the answer is probably no."

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #6 –
btw Sound Check has been there since, like iTunes 2.0. We're talking late 2001 vintage here, was ReplayGain really that big of a standard back then?

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #7 –
Quote from: loophole on
btw Sound Check has been there since, like iTunes 2.0. We're talking late 2001 vintage here, was ReplayGain really that big of a standard back then?

I didn't realize this. Replaygain standard was proposed by David (2Bdecided) in 2001, but I don't know the history of when it started becoming widespread.
But it's good to know that Apple didn't simply reject an already-existing, well-done standard (as they did in developing their own lossless codec and refusing iTunes support for FLAC).
God kills a kitten every time you encode with CBR 320

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Bodhi on
Quote from: timcupery on
hmm. I was under the impression that iTunes could read your collection (useful for how you're using it) without writing any information to the file tags.

No, it can't  (Mind your business Apple  )!

At least on my system iTunes doesn't do anything to my files, and I have verified this repeatedly by calculating an MD5 hash of those files before adding them to the iTunes library, and verifying the binary data against the previously calculated MD5 hashes after having played those same files from within iTunes.

I am pre-converting ReplayGain tags to SoundCheck values via Mp3tag (and assigning all of my other tags within Mp3tag as well). This may affect my results, since there isn't really anything iTunes would think it needs to do to my files... for what it is worth.

    - M.

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #9 –
Quote from: mixminus1 on
Hmm, I've never seen iTunes do anything to the tags in any of my MP3s,

I have to add that I've just reinstalled iTunes (on a Windows 7 clean install). I've never had that problem before!

Quote from: mixminus1 on
are you sure you have SoundCheck disabled in the Playback preferences?

Yes, I double checked!
It does the SoundCheck on podcasts (I don't mind) but it doesn't leave my MP3 alone

Quote from: mixminus1 on
However, iTunes does add SoundCheck info to the Comment fields of any MP3s that it itself *encodes*...how are you encoding your MP3s (actually, I just realized in reading over your posts that you haven't stated what file format(s) you're talking about)?

MP3 lame 3.98.2 V3 with EAC.

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #10 –
Use mp3tag as it can separately deal with the itunes comment subtags. Load up your files, select them all and right click, choose "extended tags" and you should see "comment itunnorm" as well as a regular "comment" if there is that tag as well. You can select "comment itunnorm" and delete that tag (the large red X). This way, the soundcheck values are gone but your other comment info remains.  As far as I know, fb2k can't separate out these different comment subtags. But it works nicely for editing in mp3tag (which is a great program for lots of reasons).
 

Disabling iTunes "auto-level volume"

Reply #11 –
That's good to know, thank you!