Volume Levelled on 50 MP3 files

[Kennethg]

Hi,

I am looking to get 50 MP3 tracks of a similar volume.
I am creating a new show and need all the tracks to play of the same volume. At present when I play them, some are really quiet and some are really loud.

Some tracks are the original recordings and some are recordings which I have recorded and edited in GarageBand so they are all of different volumes.
I need the quality to stay the same as some people have told me a compressor will alter the quality.
I also don't want to have to do this one by one, I need a quick fix and can then export them all individually.

Obviously I realise they may just take the loudest peak and match all songs up but if anyone has a solution I would be extremely grateful. Thanks

[steve]

The simplest, quickest, and best sound quality solution is to use a player that support ReplayGain or "Sound Check" (iTunes supports Sound Check). Both ReplayGain and Sound Check work in a similar way: You first "scan" the file in the player (usually only takes a few seconds per song and most players that support ReplayGain / Sound Check can batch scan). The scan works out how loud the track is, and writes that information into the file's metadata. Then when you play the file (with ReplayGain / Sound Check enabled) the player automatically adjusts the volume so that all tracks play at about the same volume.

[kozikowski]

Audacity is not a good candidate for this because Audacity makes a new MP3 at the end of the process and the compression distortion goes up.
Koz

[Kennethg]

Thank you for your help so far.

Is the ReplayGain function (new version) good for this?
I have just downloaded it and it seems to be leveling the tracks. (I am just working off 2 tracks, not 50 for the moment).

Can you advise the best setting, dB number to set this to, as I just left it at 0 and it seems to be reducing the waveform quite small.
Also, does this effect the quality of the tracks for when I export them to MP3 again or will quality stay the same?

I am very new to this so need the best solution, quickly, as we work to get the show up and running. All tracks are similar pop tracks with vocals, need the quality and punchyness to stay as close to original. ReplayGain, Compressor, Normalize, Amplify, whats best?? Please help.

[Gale Andrews]

Is the ReplayGain function (new version) good for this?
I have just downloaded it and it seems to be leveling the tracks.

What exactly have you downloaded (please give its web address). Do you mean this http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 42&t=63067 ?

As previously explained you don't want to use Audacity for this. Audacity re-encodes the MP3. The MP3 format is lossy, so this means that exporting as another MP3 will reduce the quality.

Must the destination format be MP3? Must you edit the files themselves instead of adjust their volume in the player?

If you must use MP3 and you must edit the files, then you can change the peak level without losing quality in Audion or Macsome from here http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Lame_ ... tion#lossy .

Note that changing the peak level may or may not affect how loud it sounds.


Gale