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Best MP3Gain Setting - Page 2

post #16 of 25
1/4/08 at 3:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by moriez View Post
I was aiming for replies that specifically mention the quality of the mp3 before and after the use of MP3gain. Hope I am more clear now. In some time I will rip some cds and compare the quality myself. I wonder if they are more noisy, not as clear or whatever. I just want the best quality as possible for my mp3s and not further degrade by using some tool.
I doubt if changing the gain with mp3gain will affect the SQ, unless you set it high enough to get clipping. The mp3 files are not re-encoded by mp3gain, as it only applies an offset adjustment across the board. The adjustment is lossless and completely reversible.

If you set the gain so high that you get clipping, you might hear the distortion in the loudest passages. I suppose that the SQ could be negatively affected by setting the gain extremely low, too, as you'd be turning the volume control up higher on the player and perhaps getting more amplifier noise or distortion, but that's only a guess.
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post #17 of 25
1/4/08 at 9:35pm
Quote:
I just want the best quality as possible for my mp3s and not further degrade by using some tool.
There will be no quality degradation at all when using MP3Gain (unless you go to some weird extreme, as was just mentioned.)

MP3Gain does not re-encode the file, it simply resets the volume flag on each frame to the desired setting (and is 100% reversible if desired.)
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post #18 of 25
1/5/08 at 9:19am
is there a way to sort out the songs that have had their volumes leveled, from songs that have not? i recently leveled the volume of a bulk of my songs, but a good half remains unchanged. i faced some problems with my dap, playing too softly/loudly etc. the songs play fine on my computer but the affected songs don't do so well on the dap.

now i want to change all my songs back to the originals. i have backups, but i'd hate to have to go through 3000 songs to identify which ones i have to change.

(by the way i used volume leveling on mediamonkey)
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post #19 of 25
1/5/08 at 11:34am
Quote:
is there a way to sort out the songs that have had their volumes leveled, from songs that have not?
Just drag the tracks over to the MP3Gain window. Any that have been leveled by MP3Gain will show up as such. And tracks that are already near your selected value won't be acted on by MP3Gain if it's not necessary. It's all pretty much automatic one you select your options.
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post #20 of 25
1/5/08 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ILikeMusic View Post
Just drag the tracks over to the MP3Gain window. Any that have been leveled by MP3Gain will show up as such. And tracks that are already near your selected value won't be acted on by MP3Gain if it's not necessary. It's all pretty much automatic one you select your options.
This is certainly true IF the gain adjustments were made by MP3Gain AND the Undo feature (that puts the amount of adjustment as a flag in the file tag) is not disabled.

I don't know if Media Monkey's gain leveling feature notes in the files that they have been changed. I use Media Monkey to manage my player, but I use MP3Gain for gain adjustments because it has more features.

If the gain adjustments were done on a recognizable date/time, it might be possible to figure it out just by the last modification date in Windows.
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post #21 of 25
1/5/08 at 11:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by grommal View Post
This is certainly true IF the gain adjustments were made by MP3Gain AND the Undo feature (that puts the amount of adjustment as a flag in the file tag) is not disabled.

I don't know if Media Monkey's gain leveling feature notes in the files that they have been changed. I use Media Monkey to manage my player, but I use MP3Gain for gain adjustments because it has more features.

If the gain adjustments were done on a recognizable date/time, it might be possible to figure it out just by the last modification date in Windows.
i was just going to say all that =) i'm a little lost right now. didn't manage to get any information even on the mediamonkey help forum. mediamonkey doesn't seem to have a tag which says the tracks have been levelled, which is what i'm looking for.

yes i considered looking at date/time before. but there seems to have been changes on quite a few dates, presumably from the addition of tracks, and probably the transfer of files. so it's not too practical as well.
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post #22 of 25
3/19/09 at 12:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by grommal View Post
...I suppose that the SQ could be negatively affected by setting the gain extremely low, too, as you'd be turning the volume control up higher on the player and perhaps getting more amplifier noise or distortion, but that's only a guess.
This is what I'm wondering about, too.

I just mp3gained my entire music library at the suggested 89 db and I'm finding that to really play Metallica, AC/DC, etc, as it should be played (ie LOUD), I now have to completely crank my system nearly to max (both home stereo and iPod/headphone-amp setup).

Having the stereo receiver, or iPod/headphone amp, so close to being maxed-out seems to bring a shrillness to the overall tone, in both setups.

I don't know a lot about how far you can push a stereo reciever and still maintain ideal tone, warmth, etc. Or a headphone amp, for that matter.

My receiver is a Harmon Kardon 3390, my headphone amp is a PA2V2. Can these operate at near max level and consistently maintain their sound quality?

Any info or guidance in this area would be greatly appreciated!
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post #23 of 25
3/19/09 at 10:56am
I use 92db Trackgain on everything, works very well, not too soft and still low enough to never get clipping problems.
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post #24 of 25
3/19/09 at 2:12pm
I had my uses with MP3Gain all the way back at jan 06 when I found that my mp3 player a 256mb coby model was not loud enough with my 2$ stereo headphones, this was my first ever mp3 player before I knew about bitrates, Lossless, quality headphones, amps...etc and was suprised that it wasn't as loud as the cd player I used before it

so when I found MP3Gain I just increase increase all my mp3s to the MAX of 106.9db and was happy with the boost, it wasn't until around the time i owned my first Iaudio7 that I had kinda figure that it was distorting the sound and remove the gain from all my music
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post #25 of 25
2/4/10 at 11:00pm
I use 93db.
I find that works fine.
The main reason i didnt go to 89db is i share my songs with my brothers and sisters who are not audiophiles and i didnt want to give them something that was too quiet compared to what they already may be using (which is probably around the 98 to 100db mark)
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