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Topic: How to fill in WaveGain numbers (Read 1477 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Firstly new to this
I have a library of wav files, all from CDs I own
Recording levels are very variable and I eventually decided to start doing something about it
After reading a number of posts and replies on this site I have downloaded and installed Foobar2000 and WaveGain
> A point on WaveGain I had to get a copy of MSCOMCTL.OSX > place it in C:\windows\sysWOW64 > register it
> registering it > run CMD as sysadmin > $CD C:\Windows\SysWOW64 > $Regsvr32 MSCOMCTL.OCX
Then everything running
Used Foobar2000 > scan files > update file tags
Used WaveGain > selected folder > Calculate and apply
And then what had been very loud WAVs were all much quieter

So that's all good
The only thing is they are a bit quieter than I had hoped (not an serious issue cos I kept copies)
But I was trying to work out if I should enter values in WaveGain ?

in Foobar2000
My intention was to reduce the volume to roughly match the quietest CD
Album gain +2.97 dB > Track gain (approx average) +4.00 dB >
Album peak 1.002270 > Track peak (approx average) 0.75~~~

The tracks I was test reducing were (before reduction)
Album gain -12.48 dB > Track gain (approx average) -12.00 dB >
Album peak 1.082357 > Track peak (approx average) 1.05~~~

And after reduction became
Album gain -0.79 dB > Track gain (approx average) -1.30 dB >
Album peak 0.525921 > Track peak (approx average) 0.35~~~

Any advice would be gratefully accepted although I will keep fiddling anyway

Re: How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Reply #1 –
Hello Tirias!

You don't want to use WAV. WAV is waste of space and tagging is not really good.
You need to use FLAC. FLAC is the most popular lossless format and has proper tagging support.

Then you will need to scan your files with foobar2000 and update file tags.
This will update tags only, so your original files are not going to be modified in any way!

Now you can adjust volume/loudness (preamp) in foobar's preferences.

Keep in mind that there are some players without ReplayGain support.
If that's the case then you will need to make "hard" adjustments to the files.
If you run into this issue, post here and we will explain to you how to solve this problem.


gold plated toslink fan

Re: How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Tirias on
...> A point on WaveGain I had to get a copy of MSCOMCTL.OSX > place it in C:\windows\sysWOW64 > register it
> registering it > run CMD as sysadmin > $CD C:\Windows\SysWOW64 > $Regsvr32 MSCOMCTL.OCX
Then everything running...
As the author of Wavegain, I am a little puzzled by this. I use the program on a number of Windows 10 Pro x64 systems, none of which have MSCOMCTL.OCX installed and there is no dependency on this ActiveX control. The only dependency is kernel32.dll.

Re: How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Reply #3 –
Quote
The only thing is they are a bit quieter than I had hoped
That's a common complaint.    And it's normal because usually there are some quiet-sounding files with 0dB peaks and those can't be boosted (without clipping) so the only way to match loudness is by making the loud files quieter (or to allow clipping). 

If you have enough analog gain you can just turn-up the playback volume and everything is cool!  

WaveGain (and ReplayGain, etc.) use a default target loudness that allows most songs to be volume matched, but some tracks may still end-up quieter than the target. 

If you increase the target volume there will be more quiet-songs that don't reach the target.    If you lower the target loudness more tracks can be volume-matched but then all of your tracks are quieter.   It's a compromise.

Quote
My intention was to reduce the volume to roughly match the quietest CD
What happens when you get a new quieter CD?   Are you going to reduce everything again?



If you have a limited number of tracks (if you are making a CD, etc.) there is a manual procedure for matching and maximizing the volume:

 - 0dB normalize (maximize) all of your tracks (or albums).    Now they are all as loud as they can go without clipping.

 - Find the quietest-sounding track after normalizing.     This is your loudness reference.

 - Reduce the other tracks to match the reference.

Re: How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Reply #4 –
Hello Markuze97 - thank you for the response
I have already seen a number of posts here agreeing with your statement
Thing is I've already got around 8000 tracks (my current CD library) all WAVs (and certainly space isn't an issue).
Secondly my music player does not use ReplayGain. It is one I wrote myself, originally in Pascal in 1992 but has been ported a couple of times and is now a Lazarus application and a bit of a leviathan (and in some need of some TLC).

Hello John33 - thank you for the response
Firstly congratulations on creating and then gifting WaveGain
I think I have been unintentionally misleading - I also downloaded and installed WaveGain front end, I think that was the executable that necessitated the MSCOMCTL library - I will update my original post accordingly.
>>> QuickEdit > currently can't work out how to edit original post?

Hello DVDDoug - thank you for the response
Thank you, OK it's a compromise and there will be an amount of trial and error, With hindsight starting with what I believe are the quietest and loudest CDs in my collection was always likely to highlight exactly these sort of issues (and not really the brightest thing to do).
Regarding if I ever get a quieter CD I would hope it's peaks are such that increasing the volume would avoid most clipping issues.
So I need to maximize the quiestest CD and use that. Will give that a go (in a small test area with half a dozen others).

Thanks to all of you for responding.

Re: How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Tirias on
>>> QuickEdit > currently can't work out how to edit original post?
There is a short period after posting when glaring errors or omissions can be edited, but after that period posts are locked.
It's your privilege to disagree, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

Re: How to fill in WaveGain numbers

Reply #6 –
@Tirias. I had completely forgotten that the frontend is included in the download - I didn't write it and don't use it. Perhaps it's time time remove it from the download if it can cause confusion.