ReplayGain Utility Codec - A couple of questions

[a.wright]

I now have about 75% of my CDs all ripped to FLAC and despite some earlier conversion issues, everything has gone extremely well. I am learning more and more about dbpoweramp and it really is an excellent tool :thumbup:

I want to run the ReplayGain utility codec on all the FLAC files but when I did a dummy run, the dialogue box says:

Converting File x of x to [ReplayGain] RG DSP:RG
"Encoding" (filename)

I assume it does not really mean that it is re-encoding everything again and is just analysing and adding the tags?

Also I seem to able to tick both "Album" & "Track" gain whereas I thought you needed to pick one or the other? Can software/hardware players choose to use either or is ticking both at the same time asking for trouble?

Lastly, what level is RG working to? When doing MP3 files with MP3Gain I always use 92db and very rarely get any clipping. Judging by the gain adjustments in the tags written with the Utility Codec, I would guess that the target level is around 88db. Are we able to change the target?

It's been a bit of a journey so far, but the end is in sight (i.e. when I can start enjoying all my music again!)

[LtData]

Correct, the file is not re-encoded, just analyzed and the tags added.

No, you are not able to change the RG target, the default value that RG has is used, which is believe is 88-89 or so.

[a.wright]

Fair enough... I am sure I can live with 88db!

What about checking Album and Track gain though or should I just pick one or the other?

[garym]

Choose both! The values are in two different tags. Most players (I suspect all) that read the replaygain tags can read either and give you options as to which you want to use. Foobar2000 can read either, I think winamp can, and I know that SqueezeCenter's system works in a really nifty way ("smartgain" automatically uses the album gain value when playing an entire album, but uses the track gain value when doing mixes of tracks from different albums).

What you may be thinking is of "applying" the replaygain values to the files (which permanently changes the file). In this case you have to use one or the other. But in my opinion, you don't want to do this anyhow. you want the replaygain tags (so players can read), but leave the underlying audio untouched.

Fair enough... I am sure I can live with 88db!

What about checking Album and Track gain though or should I just pick one or the other?

[a.wright]

Ok, so I chose both and let dMC work through about 3,500 files in total. I used the Utility Codec and yet on checking the files, some only have Track Gain applied.

Why would this happen when every single file was processed in a huge batch with both Album & Track Gain ticked? It's obviously worked on some of the files because both Album Gain & Track Gain tags are there. So far it looks like a 50/50 split of files that have Album Gain and those that are missing. I told it to use Album Tag as the identifier for Albums.

Any ideas?

[LtData]

Did the albums missing album gain have album tags and other files with the same album tag in the batch?

[a.wright]

Did the albums missing album gain have album tags and other files with the same album tag in the batch?
Yes, every single album has unique album tags, written originally with CD Ripper, tweaked with with Tag & Rename and double checked with MP3Tag & Foobar. I have been very meticulous about my tagging!

dMC has clearly worked through every file. I picked one of the albums that it didn't write Album Gain to and ran it through again (using Album Tag as the identifier) and it added the correct tags. Very odd.

If I run the process again on files that already have Track Gain applied am I right in assuming that it will just overwrite that tag with the same information and won't try to recalculate things based on the tags that have been already been written? Or should I remove any Replay Gain tag first before re-running it?

[moley6knipe]

I had the same problem a while ago with my Apple Lossless collection...

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=17732

[a.wright]

And unfortunately it seems there was never any real resolution to the problem which means to be sure I'll have to run every folder individually :( So match for batch processing them all and I thought I had just about finished all my ripping & tagging.. ready for my new Squeezebox which should be arriving in the next couple of days.

My issue seems even more random with the files that have/have not been tagged. It does not appear to have stopped at any one point and re-running a single folder (with Album Tag as identifier) works. It's mad!

I think in future I'll set ReplayGain when I rip and then remove those tags when converting to MP3 as I use MP3Gain to do the business for compatability will all devices but it would be good to know why this issue is happening.

[a.wright]

If I run the process again on files that already have Track Gain applied am I right in assuming that it will just overwrite that tag with the same information and won't try to recalculate things based on the tags that have been already been written? Or should I remove any Replay Gain tag first before re-running it?
Sorry, it might be a daft question but before re-doing all the "missed" ones, can someone confirm my assumption above? I did test one album and it seemed to end up with the same Track Gain so presumably I can just add Album Gain and leave Track Gain unticked?

Thanks

[moley6knipe]

Yes, if it's got one or other of the gain tags it leaves them anyway, but yes just leave track gain unticked.

It is a pain to do them manually, but you can right click folders and select Batch Convert, or do them from the batch convertor's file select window.

On the plus side, it's a job you just do once, and the SqueezeBox handles these gain tags so well you'll be glad you did!

BTW, adding RG tags as a DSP at time of rip doesn't work that well - you'll probably find that you need to do it manually after every rip anyway. eg for me RG running as a DSP when I dual rip to mp3 and alac missed the album gain tags.

But try it, you may be lucky!

[Teknojnky]

I haven't encountered any issues with the replay gain dsp, either when used when ripping or via batch converted.

But I am only ever doing it on small batches of new/ripped files, not huge batches.

As far as I can tell, it ignores any existing RG tags and always calculates new values and updates any existing tags.

[a.wright]

Well I redid the lot tonight! I was doing batches of circa 200-300 at a time and no problems.... until I did a batch of 398 when only the first 80 or so tracks had Album Gain added. I redid them again (about 320) and no problems.

Anyway, all done now :smile2:

[jbraveman]

What is the easiest way to check if it did everything? I'm running it right now on a whole drive of flacs (25K).

I'm also not sure I'm doing it correctly. I used batch converter to select flac. In the conversion screen I selected test conversion and applied the RG dsp.

[Teknojnky]

You don't need to use the test conversion, you can just convert directly to the replay gain dsp. It won't modify your files other than adding the RG tags.

As far as seeing what it did, to my knowledge dbpoweramp does not have any way to view or check a mass quantity of files like that.

You might have luck with some various music manager programs, I use mediamonkey and you can add the columns for track and album gain to the view and easily see if any tracks are missing them. And many other things.

[LtData]

Note that to just apply ReplayGain tags, you can use the [ReplayGain] utility codec.

[jbraveman]

I found it. Once installed it appears in the <convering to:> box in the converter.

Anyone have any tips about configuring mp3tag or tag&rename to display the field?

Thanks

[garym]

go into mp3tag, right click on column headings, select customize columns and add:

%REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN%

as value for a new field you name album gain. Do the same thing replacing _ALBUM_ with _TRACK_ for track gain column.

I found it. Once installed it appears in the <convering to:> box in the converter.

Anyone have any tips about configuring mp3tag or tag&rename to display the field?

Thanks

[jbraveman]

go into mp3tag, right click on column headings, select customize columns and add:

%REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN%

as value for a new field you name album gain. Do the same thing replacing _ALBUM_ with _TRACK_ for track gain column.

thank you kindly.

[jbraveman]

Album gain does not seem to be applied when using the batch converter on a large batch of files (10-20K). All the track gain tags look good.

[garym]

I've had this issue as well. I've seen other posts on same subject, but don't recall ever seeing an answer other than running the replaygain on smaller batches of files. One thing, it doesn't seem to do the album calc until the very end, so be sure and wait until the notification says everything is completely done. I think I've accidentally prematurely ended the process because it appears to be done at first glance, but not really....

[Teknojnky]

Yea, album gain is calculated after the entire list is processed.

If you try to RG a huge number of files, it will take a long time after the track gain is calculated.

You have to wait for the finished button to ungrey.

[Spoon]

Anyone who is having troubles with Album gain not being calculated on some files, install the beta 4 DSP effects here (leave the [Replay Gain] utility codec as is):

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=17638

Let me know if this one fixes the issue please.

[moley6knipe]

Double post, but DSP 4's RG update has fices this problem for mr.

[Nonreality]

Anyone who is having troubles with Album gain not being calculated on some files, install the beta 4 DSP effects here (leave the [Replay Gain] utility codec as is):

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=17638

Let me know if this one fixes the issue please.I've also had missing album gain when doing large amounts of albums in the past. My problem now is that it will not apply album gain during rips. It only will do track gain. Will it apply album gain during a rip or do I have a problem? I'm using dsp 4 and everything else is up to date. I've never been able to get album gain to work during the rip.

[moley6knipe]

You're not alone, me neither. Can't find the post now but Spoon's said it's best dne post-rip via Music Convertor.

Shame, as it's another few clicks and I'm lazy :-)

[Nonreality]

You're not alone, me neither. Can't find the post now but Spoon's said it's best dne post-rip via Music Convertor.

Shame, as it's another few clicks and I'm lazy :-)

I did find a post finally that stated that it won't at this time do album gain with the multi encoder, so that's our problem. So I'll keep doing the replay gain after. It would be nice to do in just one step though. :(

[djs777]

dsp V4 does not fix the issue of the Replaygain utility codec of running for hours on thousands of files and failing to consistently write album gains. Which means if I spend endless hours running batches of about 300 files or less, only then are album gains are created.

I monitored the %tmp% directory as suggested in another thread. Clearly no issue on ability to write to a tmp file or directory or disk space. Looks like Replaygain utility codec creates two or three temp files at the %tmp% level, and also creates a subdirectory that creates a temp file for each album selected for the utility code run plus one more temp file called "RPGainFNAlbummatch.tmp." Each album tmp file is about 47k in size.

Really want this issue resolved.

[Spoon]

As far as our testing, all issues are fixed with DSP v4.