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Topic: Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks? (Read 4220 times) previous topic - next topic
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Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

I have been using itunes for a little less than a decade now,,, i switched away from winamp, i have finally given up on itunes (on my PC) because it hijacks my system and if itunes is running my computer has pretty much turned into a friggin mp3 player cause i can't do a damn thing else on it.

i have scrubbed the system, itemized the processes, started fresh, and various other measures to help resolve this problem, to no avail so screw itunes...

i switched back to winamp, which was just as speedy and use friendly as i recall except that my tunes changed volume between tracks because apparently the soundcheck data didn't transfer over.

so i was wonderinf if there is a utility that i can run that will normalize the audio without erasing the soundcheck data (i have a iphone and must continue to use itunes to xfer stuff to and from the iphone) but will still allow winamp to play my music without going from a quite song to a blaringly loud song thus annoying me to no end.

i am familiar with replaygain, but i am not clear on what sacrifices or the procedures to create replaygain data are...  is there a way that i can just let "a replaygain analyser" run over night and normalize my 160gb music collection (all mp3 and m4a) so that i can make the switch back to winamp with little hassle?  also, if i analyse my music collection in its current location (where i have it for intues as well) and it updates the data and i then transfer a replaygain updated song to my iphone via itunes, will it scrub the replaygain data or will it remain?  or will itunes even recognize the replaygain data since it uses soundcheck?

i really hope you folks on this forum can help me, cause i am having a difficult time finding definitive answers... 

and before folks say just do it per album... another reason i like itunes is that i can random shuffle through my entire library, i rarely listen to a album from start to finish, nor do i have tailored play lists, i like all 160gb's of my music (with the exception of a couple albums that made it in via various girls in my past) and i like to listen to all my music, not just sections (if that makes sense)
 

Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

Reply #1 –
I see that foobar will allow me "scan per file track gain" - would this do what i want? without erasing any data? or jeopardizing my tunes?

Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

Reply #2 –
This doesn't quite belong here, but I'll answer the question anyways.

Basically, Replaygain scans the file/song, analyzes how loud it is, and writes down how much to turn it down.  Where does it write it down?  Right there in the same area where the song stores artist/album/track stuff.  It is by design intended to be compatible with non-replaygain players.  Foobar is replaygain compatible.  Dunno about iTunes (probably not).  Chances are, your mp3 player is not either.  I doubt that iTunes will "scrub" the RG info, but I wouldn't be too surprised by it either (I have absolutely no love for iTunes).  By not being "compatible," RG will not make a lick of difference on those players.

"Scan per file track gain" will perform RG for you, but the caveat is that it will do this naively.  The guys that came up with Replaygain realized that this could f*** up different songs on the same album, so they came up with a way that analyzes overall volume of the entire album and writes down the correction for that for ALL the songs on that album.  Now, it still writes down the individual correction as well (since its already done the analysis), but now you know why the very next option is "Scan selection as a single album."  It simply writes down more information so that the player can make a better sound choice.

In the Foobar Options, if you go to "Playback," you can set which Replaygain setting to apply when you play songs.

Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

Reply #3 –
So if this is not the correct place then please let me know where is, and i will repost there, also thank you for your input, i am going to back up my entire music collection today and then run replaygain on my whole library... i don't think i can do the album bit for the entire library, but as i find albums that are incorrect i imagine i can go back in and scan just that album with replay gain...

Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

Reply #4 –
Welcome. Please familiarise yourself with the various subfora so that you know where to post; and our Terms of Service, which you agreed to upon registering and which disallow duplicate posts. For the latter reason, reposting is no solution; rather, I'll move your topic to the correct location. You can request moves of or alterations to your own posts from a moderator/administrator via the report button below them.

Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: tjv on
so i was wonderinf if there is a utility that i can run that will normalize the audio without erasing the soundcheck data (i have a iphone and must continue to use itunes to xfer stuff to and from the iphone)
::

... even if you loose your SoundCheck values or there is none you may calculate them from ReplayGain tags using Mp3tag.
Read here, please: Convert replaygain to iTunes/iPod (scroll few posts back to understand ... ).


Greetings ...

::

Left iTunes; how to transfer Soundcheck or otherwise normalize tracks?

Reply #6 –
@tjv, as Surfi mentioned above Mp3tag is your friend in this matter.  I'd suggest you pick a few albums and load them into Mp3tag to see how they are tagged.  Be sure to look at both mp3 and m4a examples.  You'll need to highlight the files and look at "Extended Tags" (ALT+T).  You should find that these files are tagged with a series of specialized "ITUNNORM" COMMENT tags for the Soundcheck values.  There is no harm to these tags and they are only read by Apple ecosystem.

If you install foobar2000 and load these same files you can have foobar2000 analyse them and write ReplayGain tags.  Read up on ReplayGain and you'll see there are two types of RG tags: Album Gain and Track Gain.  foobar2000 will write two tags for each type for a total of four RG tags.  Just highlight all songs to be ReplayGained, right click and select: ReplayGain > "Scan selection as albums (by tags)".

I don't know what iTunes will do to these files once you are done.  To find out you can upload the files above to your iPhone and then reload them into Mp3tag to see if iTunes changed the tags in any way.  If the ITUNNORM and ReplayGain tags are still there then you're probably good to go on the rest of your collection.

BTW, these gain tags and "normalization" are two very different things.  Normalization involves changing the actual music content of the file to permanently adjust the gain level.  Typically this is not the best approach.

P.S. If you prefer you can use Winamp to apply RG tags: http://blog.winamp.com/2009/08/24/automati...th-replay-gain/