[xcodeguy]

I have been using mp3 gain on an "as needed" basis just to attempt to trim a little of the rolloff I sometimes hear with some of my music.

As I understand it, mp3gain is lossless. So after "gaining" some of my music to say 89% - can I "gain" the same music back to 100% or do I need to start with a completely new source?

Is there any benefit of using such a utility on music files? Should I just go hell bent and gain my entire music collection just so everything "matches"?

 

[laxx]

yes, you can remove the added gain from mp3gain.

what mp3gain does is add a ltitle "gain info" into your id3 tag. if you want to bring the file back to it's original gain, load the mp3 into mp3gain and "undo" the gain.

 

[kramer5150]

I level match all my tunes. Just so they all are remotely close.

 

[Bob_McBob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xcodeguy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Should I just go hell bent and gain my entire music collection just so everything "matches"?

That's my main motivation for doing it. I don't have to constantly adjust the volume when I'm listening to shuffled tracks. In general I find mp3gain (replaygain) very useful, and it is just a tag in the file so completely reversible. I have found that it occasionally does bizarre things to classical CDs that are already mastered fairly quiet -- I recall one Chopin disc that produced very audible distortion after being run through mp3gain, because it actually INCREASED the gain.

 

[xcodeguy]

Thanks for all the info guys. With a 10,000+ song collection I think I'll gain on an 'as needed' basis.

 

[pedxing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob_McBob /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's my main motivation for doing it. I don't have to constantly adjust the volume when I'm listening to shuffled tracks. In general I find mp3gain (replaygain) very useful, and it is just a tag in the file so completely reversible. I have found that it occasionally does bizarre things to classical CDs that are already mastered fairly quiet -- I recall one Chopin disc that produced very audible distortion after being run through mp3gain, because it actually INCREASED the gain.

I am not surprise you have found audible distortion. Like you said, replaygain makes everything have about the same amount of loudness. I don't think there is a solution around this problem, especially while using shuffling. I have similar problems with my music collection. My portable gear is so crappy, I gave up in the end and decided it wasn't worth the effort of remixing everything with a more optimal replaygain setting.

BE CAREFUL WITH REPLAYGAIN UTILTIES. I found a few utilities that can apply replaygain during transcoding, making it permanent. Please consult the documentation of your utility before applying replaygain. You want the replaygain feature to modify the tags only. Because the tag specs are ambiguous, some utilities are not compatible with certain players. For example, mp3gain does not work well with foobar under certain circumstances.