Music Volume Levelling

[Brew Swayne]

The bulk of my music is ripped from my CD collection and the loudness varies from album to album. Not an issue if I'm listening to an entire album, but since I generally listen to my music with the shuffle turned on, this has become quite problematic as some tracks are loud, so I have to turn the volume down. Then a quiet track will play next and I turn up the volume, and then have my eardrums shattered when the next track comes on.

I'm a Mac user and iTunes has this feature built in, but it doesn't carry over when I transfer music to my phone. Is there a setting within the stock music player that will automatically level the volume of each track? If not, is there an app with that feature?

 

[SpookDroid]

Not in the stock music player, you'll need a player that supports audio leveling/normalization, so that your music sounds at the same level (for the most part). I believe PowerAMP supports that (but it's been so long since I've used an MP3 that I wouldn't know for sure). I know Spotify supports it, but that, of course, would only work for streaming (or if you have Premium and download a copy of your files to Spotify on your device).

 

[Neal Smith]

I second the PowerAmp

 

[Brew Swayne]

I have poweramp (paid version) but didn't see anything for that in settings. Will have to look again. Thanks.

 

[Brew Swayne]

I've scoured through poweramp settings and can't find anything that will level the playback volume. Can anyone provide the specific setting?

 

[SpookDroid]

If it's not easily visible it's probably not an option then. Have you tried doubleTwist? It's always been deemed the iTunes of Android (since it was made to make transitioning iTunes libraries into Android easier in a time when syncs weren't as good), and their player does have a lot of the iTunes features, maybe normalization is one of them?

 

[chanchan05]

Samsung Music Player (not preinstalled, you have to download it). Go to settings then turn on Smart Volume

 

[jsigmo]

Most people do not realize that there is a field in the metadata of every MP3 file to set the "replay gain". And setting this correctly is important not only to make MP3s play back at similar levels, but also to prevent clipping (nasty-sounding hard limiting) from occurring within the digital domain as the file is being played.

After you rip your CD to MP3, run a program called "MP3Gain" on your PC to set the values within the MP3 files. This will let you correct the clipping and also have the option to set an overall "album gain" which keeps the individual tunes within an album at their relative loudnesses as the artist intended, or set each individual track so that they all play at an perceived loudness that is about the same.

I adjust every album so it plays at the same perceived loudness as all other albums, but I want the individual songs to play at their proper "relative" loudness with respect to the rest of that album, so the album sounds the way the artist/producer intended. It is surprising how many MP3s, even bought from the usual sources, are set wrong, and have severe clipping "built in" because their replay gain is incorrectly set. Getting rid of that makes them sound so much better!

I use CDEX, with the LAME encoder to create my MP3s, and then always run MP3gain, ver 1.2.5 to correct their replay gain metadata so they play back without clipping, and with all albums at approximately the same relative loudness.

When the MP3s are properly set, you shouldn't experience any loudness issues no matter what player you use.

With them not set right, the clipping can make them sound awful regardless of the player you use.

For more information, visit the hydrogenaudio.org forums. You can get MP3Gain from sourceforge.net.

 

[stewarta13wsb]

I use the Samsung Player and have that option switched on but still get huge differences in some tracks

 

[Brew Swayne]

I use the Samsung Player and have that option switched on but still get huge differences in some tracks

Yeah, I went and double checked my settings and noticed that I also have it enabled already, it just doesn't work very well.

 

[Brew Swayne]

If it's not easily visible it's probably not an option then. Have you tried doubleTwist? It's always been deemed the iTunes of Android (since it was made to make transitioning iTunes libraries into Android easier in a time when syncs weren't as good), and their player does have a lot of the iTunes features, maybe normalization is one of them?

I tried doubletwist several years ago with my Galaxy S5. I did not have a very good experience with it....and I tried using it for months because of how people raved about its Mac compatibility, but I just had issue after issue with it.

That said, I'll give it another go and see if I have better luck with it.

 

[Brew Swayne]

Doubletwist definitely solved the volume issue. All tracks are being played at pretty much the same db level. There's still some tracks that are noticeably louder or quieter, but it's not so much that I feel the need to adjust the volume.

I haven't tried the Mac app again for syncing music, but my primary issue is fixed. Thanks spookdroid.

2nd question - Will the Doubletwist Mac app maintain my individual song settings? For example: Say a track has like 30 seconds of the artist talking before the song actually starts. In iTunes I can set the start time for that track to be at the 30 sec mark so that I don't have to listen to it every time...it just starts playing the song itself. Will DT retain those types of settings?

 

[SpookDroid]

That I'm not sure, I don't really use iTunes or DTwist (or MP3 files for years, for that matter :S) but it seems that it tries to retain as many features/options as you'd have from your iTunes library so I don't see why it wouldn't support timeline markers. And if it doesn't, I'm sure an e-mail to the devs would put it on their radar or give you an answer on IF it can even be implemented.

 

[wms3]

use the combination of mp3gain and the Samsung Music Player. This works fine for me

 

[Madam ImAdam]

I second the PowerAmp

I have the paid power amp, def. love the sound quality, hate the integration with the phone (and bixby and akp eat buds) especially and lack of ability to connect to my one drive.