Volume Levelling

[sg60]

I'm trying to clear up a little confusion regarding volume levelling. I have a fairly large collection of about 45,000 tracks encoded in FLAC and MP3 (so about 90,000 tracks in total). The FLAC files are played through a home stereo and I don't want to apply volume levelling to these tracks because it seems to impact the quality. However the MP3 files are generally played on an iPod in my car so I'm not as concerned about quality and would like to apply volume levelling to these tracks. The problem is that volume levelling is an all or nothing proposition in MM so I have elected to not apply the levelling. I have analyzed all of the tracks but do not apply levelling for playback.

In the device syncing configuration there is an option to level volume for tracks synced to the device. If I do not select this option will the iPod automatically recognize the value in the volume levelling tag in the track even though I haven't applied it in MM?

[Lowlander]

Yes Apple devices will work with Analyze Volume in MediaMonkey if you use MediaMonkey to sync to them. I believe on Apple devices it's called sound check.

[nohitter151]

BUT, if you use auto-convert, the "volume analysis" for FLAC files does not work when the files are converted to mp3. It's for that reason I wish they would add an option "Volume analyzation on the fly" or something like that, for iPods and other devices that can recognize the soundcheck/replaygain data.

[sg60]

Thank you all for your feedback.

[mozman75]

Analyzing the track does nothing to it's playback, regardless of where you play it (iTunes, stereo, etc). Soundcheck in iTunes is akin to Levelling in MM. Both of these features compress the highs and lows to make the perceived volume sound the same. You can adjust the volume of a MP3 track using an after-market program, i.e. MP3Gain. (I'm not sure what exists for FLAC.) This will allow you to set the level so again, where ever you play it, you won't have to adjust the volume. This process does not compress the outer ranges of the file.

[nohitter151]

Analyzing the track does nothing to it's playback, regardless of where you play it (iTunes, stereo, etc). Soundcheck in iTunes is akin to Levelling in MM. Both of these features compress the highs and lows to make the perceived volume sound the same. You can adjust the volume of a MP3 track using an after-market program, i.e. MP3Gain. (I'm not sure what exists for FLAC.) This will allow you to set the level so again, where ever you play it, you won't have to adjust the volume. This process does not compress the outer ranges of the file.

Not sure where you got this info, but it's wrong. Analyzing the track does alter the playback, specifically in MediaMonkey, iPod, and any other player that can recognize replaygain tags.

Oh, and it doesn't change the highs/lows in side the track. What it does is raise/lower the overall volume of tracks so that the volume doesn't range too much when switching from track to track.

[mozman75]

Well, obviously I was wrong. Thanks for setting me straight.

So exactly what's the difference between Levelling and Analyzing? Doesn't Levelling alter the track upon playback and Analyze tell you how loud it is?

[Lowlander]

Leveling will modify the track itself, this means any hardware/software is able to play it at that volume as the audio has been modified. Analyzing will add a volume value to the tags which certain software/hardware uses to modify the player volume when the track is played.

[nohitter151]

Basically the difference is in support.

Leveling: works for all devices, but permanently modifies the file (you cannot 'undo' the volume leveling)
Analyzing: works only for some devices, but can be undone