Replay Gain and Volume Normalization

[sredmyer]

Hello,

I hope some of the more informed members of this forum can help me to understand how to use these two features. I have a client who wants his CD collection converted to two separate libraries. A lossless library for archieve and possible eventual use in a future home audio system. And a lossy library for use on portable media players (ie. iPod). He wants to embed volume normalization information in both of his libraries.

My first thought is to suggest to him that for his lossless library he choose FLAC and then add the Replay Gain tags to these files. For his lossy library I would suggest mp3 @ 192 kbps and apply volume normalization to the raw data. This suggestion is based on my experience with the program mp3Gain and assumes that the dmc volume normalization is done in a similar fashion.

So I guess my questions are
1) Is my first suggestion for his lossless library a valid way to allow for normilization on some future (brand as of yet unkonown) audio system.
2) Is my understanding of how the dmc volume normalization is done correct?

Thanks,
Steve

[Porcus]

Re: Replay Gain and Volume Normalization

A lossless library for archieve and possible eventual use in a future home audio system. And a lossy library for use on portable media players (ie. iPod). He wants to embed volume normalization information in both of his libraries.

Has (s)he considered to keep only one, and transcode on-the-fly for portables?

Your question #1 seems to be whether FLAC + ReplayGain is supported, right? For example Squeezebox seems to do so.

[sredmyer]

Re: Replay Gain and Volume Normalization

Has (s)he considered to keep only one, and transcode on-the-fly for portables?

What do you mean by transcode on the fly?

Your question #1 seems to be whether FLAC + ReplayGain is supported, right? For example Squeezebox seems to do so.

Well yes that is part of the question. The other part is, once encoded like this (FLAC + ReplayGain) will he be able to convert to a different format (say mp3) and maintain the ReplayGain tagging. If infact this can be accomplished then the FLAC + ReplayGain will give the required results. That being volume normalization in the future no matter what equipment path he takes.

Thanks,
Steve

[Spoon]

Re: Replay Gain and Volume Normalization

Replaygain should be recalculated each encoding, as the encoding method (mp3 in this instance) can change the amplitude.

[Porcus]

Re: Replay Gain and Volume Normalization

What do you mean by transcode on the fly?

Rather than keeping mp3s and copying them to the portable device, convert to mp3s when you need them (without removing the original of course). Big advantage: there's only one library to keep track of -- user won't have to add new files to more than the FLAC library. With your solution, user will have to make sure that every new piece of music ends up both places.

Then, rather than moving mp3 to a portable device, simply encode mp3s with the portable device set as target. Without removing the original, of course. If you do some Windows programming, I guess you could even put that on a right-click menu: "Encode file to mp3 using most-recent settings".