[Music Alchemist]

  why would I with dBpoweramp avoid Replay Gain?

 
I stated the advantage of dBpoweramp: much faster ripping with equal accuracy.
 
As for ReplayGain, I just don't believe it has any real benefit unless you're too lazy to use a volume knob and want everything at the same constant volume.

 

[Neccros]

 
As for ReplayGain, I just don't believe it has any real benefit unless you're too lazy to use a volume knob and want everything at the same constant volume.

Nothing wrong with wanting a consistent volume but I prefer to do it on the file level and not during playback, but that's just my opinion

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Nothing wrong with wanting a consistent volume but I prefer to do it on the file level and not during playback, but that's just my opinion

 
I want to hear the actual recording in all its dynamic glory, not the same volume for everything. And anyway, I'd want different loudness for different songs, moods, etc.

 

[Giogio]

   
I want to hear the actual recording in all its dynamic glory, not the same volume for everything. And anyway, I'd want different loudness for different songs, moods, etc.

With Replay Gain you can apply Album Gain and it will respect the Dynamics of the Album.
I personally apply Track Gain because I very rarely listen to (and I actually almost never keep) whole Albums. I generally select the best songs.
And I tend to use a lot of "Shuffle", generally selecting a Folder (I organize my Music for genres or moods in folders, and then in subfolders for Author).
For me there is no doubt, it is either Replay Gain or Normalization. Because otherwise the Shuffle is a nightmare with so different songs.
And the Dynamics have zero importance in a Shuffle of different things. They only (imo) are meaningful within the same Album.
 
Cheers

 

[Music Alchemist]

  With Replay Gain you can apply Album Gain and it will respect the Dynamics of the Album.
I personally apply Track Gain because I very rarely listen to (and I actually almost never keep) whole Albums. I generally select the best songs.
And I tend to use a lot of "Shuffle", generally selecting a Folder (I organize my Music for genres or moods in folders, and then in subfolders for Author).
For me there is no doubt, it is either Replay Gain or Normalization. Because otherwise the Shuffle is a nightmare with so different songs.
And the Dynamics have zero importance in a Shuffle of different things. They only (imo) are meaningful within the same Album.
 
Cheers

 
Whatever floats your boat. Personally, I want to get the exact volume I'm in the mood for, which varies by the moment, hence controlling everything myself with the volume knob of an amp. Playing all music at the same loudness is incomprehensible to me. Music is too diverse for that.

 

[Giogio]

Well, you can still do that. Replay Gain makes just the tracks have an overall similar loudness, but does not prevent you from changing the volume as much as you want with the know.
It just gives you the chance to have a balanced starting point.
It is much of a "what do you need more often". If you more often needs the different dynamics of songs within an album because you always listen to full albums in a row, then it is better not to use anything.
But if you use shuffle or whatever else, then Replay Gain is cool.
Anyway. It is very much like you say. Your boat, your call.

 

[Neccros]

   
Whatever floats your boat. Personally, I want to get the exact volume I'm in the mood for, which varies by the moment, hence controlling everything myself with the volume knob of an amp. Playing all music at the same loudness is incomprehensible to me. Music is too diverse for that.

When I first ripped my CDs into digital, I got sick of hearing one track/album then the next one blaring loud due to the levels of the album itself and I would be running over to turn my stereo down. So I normalized everything at 90dB w/o any clipping and it allowed me to listen to all my music as loud or as quiet as I wanted. 
 
Sure this isn't the most popular method but it worked for me in the past. 

 

[Music Alchemist]

  When I first ripped my CDs into digital, I got sick of hearing one track/album then the next one blaring loud due to the levels of the album itself and I would be running over to turn my stereo down. So I normalized everything at 90dB w/o any clipping and it allowed me to listen to all my music as loud or as quiet as I wanted. 
 
Sure this isn't the most popular method but it worked for me in the past. 

 
Yes, I'm not contesting the fact that it works for others; it's just not for me. Plus I use nearly all of my current amp's volume knob anyway.

 

[Giogio]

You were right, dBpoweramp is much faster. Less than half the time.
Bye bye EAC.

 

[tjl5709]

I am curious about the EAC vs DB poweramp thing. I have always used EAC as that was the defacto "best" for accurate rips when I started converting my library quite some time ago. During the setup phase of EAC, they have settings for your drive to compensate for how your drive reads the disc.
 
Does this feature matter anymore? Is it a setting in DB as well?
 
Just asking.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  You were right, dBpoweramp is much faster. Less than half the time.
Bye bye EAC.

 

 
Just be sure to rip everything before the free trial reverts to a more basic version.
 

  I am curious about the EAC vs DB poweramp thing. I have always used EAC as that was the defacto "best" for accurate rips when I started converting my library quite some time ago. During the setup phase of EAC, they have settings for your drive to compensate for how your drive reads the disc.
 
Does this feature matter anymore? Is it a setting in DB as well?
 
Just asking.

 
dBpoweramp automatically determines your drive offset. Doesn't matter much, though, because that just involves placing a few empty bits before or after the audio in the file.

 

[Giogio]

   

 
Just be sure to rip everything before the free trial reverts to a more basic version

That will be a challenge.
But anyway I see that the ripping with secure mode (I do not use ultra secure) is still there after the trial expires.
 
I have a question for you or anybody who is familiar with the Replay Gain feature in dBpoweramp (you are not, I know).
They suggest the EBU R128 method with -18lufs as setting (in the help guide, at least. When I have opened the setting it was -24lufs as default).
 
Now, I am not familiar with these numbers. In Mp3Gain and Foobar there is the 89 (of course it is meant -89) db as default.
How can I know how many lufs are needed to get the volume of 89 in Mp3Gain/Foobar?
 
Edit: I have just found this article. It confirms that 1 lufs is 1 db.
This confuses me, because they also say that the suggested value is -24 or -23lufs, and this would be like a -76 in Mp3Gain/Foobar, which is very quiet.
Did I understand something wrong? Or it is just normal now, doing things quieter? I suppose that people with wired speakers/headphones have no problems, but we users of Bluetooth devices are stuck with the digital 0db limit... No amp. So, reducing the loudness so much is a problem for us. Which I do not know how to solve.

 

[bgentry]

Just for some clarity: Volume leveling does NOT affect track dynamics. It's a fixed volume adjustment, made per track, at play time. This is a feature of whatever player you are using. It's not something that alters the FLAC file itself. It's just a tag.

In fact, as was just mentioned, "Replay Gain" isn't a very sophisticated algorithm and some other software uses different analysis to find the R128 levels of tracks instead. I do this with JRiver Media Center. It automatically analyzes every file I import and writes R128 tags into it's library. Then at playback time, it can (optionally) adjust the volume of each track so that each song has a similar average volume level. Again this does not affect track dynamics in any way.

As was also mentioned, JRiver MC is smart enough to not apply different volume adjustments to songs on the same album. So volume differences between songs on the same album are preserved. This can be important for albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall (for example).

The key here is really figuring out what your player of choice does with the tags (information) you give it. Replay Gain is just the start. I don't even use those tags at all any more, since MC uses R128 tags instead.

Brian.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Just for some clarity: Volume leveling does NOT affect track dynamics. It's a fixed volume adjustment, made per track, at play time. This is a feature of whatever player you are using. It's not something that alters the FLAC file itself. It's just a tag.

 
Yup. I didn't mean to imply that it messes with the dynamics in the music itself. It's just that I always adjust the volume level myself anyway, varying by the track and sometimes multiple times in one track, so I have no use for it, personally. However...I did encounter something strange once. I downloaded an album with ReplayGain tags. Something felt off, even at high volume. I removed the tags and whaddaya know...the music became much more dynamic! (At all SPL levels.) No idea what was going on there. Perhaps certain ReplayGain settings do mess things up?

 

[Giogio]

I suggest you both this reading: http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Replay_Gain
 
There are different implementation of RG. Not all of them just write tags. Some also alter the file itself.
 
For flac anyway it is only the Tag method.
 
If you feel the music is less alive you may want to apply a higher gain value. As far as you select the option to avoid clipping, even if you RG at 99db the program will decrease that to the highest possible non clipping value.
The fact is, depending on which material you are listen to, 89db (the default) is not enough.
Besides, it must be also understood which kind of RG tags do your files have. If the classic or the EBU version (the latter being quieter although better. You can just rescan with Foobar. You cannot choose a different value with Foobar though, it applies the standard -18).
 
There is no way that RG can mess up with the dynamics. But you should ask around, here and/or in Hydrogen or Computer Audiophile, for more info.