Replay Gain not Working (Sansa Clip Zip)

[Blk02]

I just purchased a Sansa Clip Zip yesterday to playback my new FLAC files and the track info displayed on the Clip Zip does not show the Replay Gain value. The Clip Zip manual says it should be present in track info on the player if the Replay Gain value was embedded in the file and able to be used by the player. I am wondering what standard or version of Replay Gain dbpoweramp uses in DSP effects?

DSP effect I have setup in dbpoweramp:
1) Replay Gain (Calculate Track Gain, Calculate Album Gain, Album Identified with Album ID Tag)
2) HDCD
3) Move Destination File if Error

[Spoon]

Re: Replay Gain not Working (Sansa Clip Zip)

It might only be able to read replaygain from mp3 files, not from FLAC.

[falconsoars]

Re: Replay Gain not Working (Sansa Clip Zip)

I know this is way after this post, but I just wanted to confirm Spoon's response for the record, from someone who has a Sansa Clip and has also been using dbpa for years. Spoon is right - to the best of my knowledge, the Sansa clip can only read mp3 RG data, not FLAC or ogg (the Sansa also plays .ogg files).

My solution to that is to convert all my FLAC or ogg audio files to mp3 files that I use for portable play, while I still have the FLAC (+ a few ogg) files for home play and as an archival copy. You win double by doing this - your portable audio will now have RG plus you'll be able to fit a LOT more mp3 tracks on the Clip than in FLAC format. Plus you won't notice any degradation of sound quality if you convert at a decent bit rate. I use vbr extreme, which would probably be overkill since beyond about 160 kbps you probably can't hear the difference on a small portable player over portable headphones or ear buds. Some say you can't tell the diff beyond 128 but I sure can. I convert to vbr extreme (which averages out to around 240 kbps) because I rarely listen to the Sansa via headphones. I use it in my car. I have a car audio system that rivals my home stereo so I opt for the highest quality mp3 vbr rate. That's another Sansa benefit - it supports vbr very well. I plug the Sansa into the aux port of my car receiver and have access to 16G (about 15G usable space) of high quality audio while driving. That comes out to about 2000 mp3 tracks - offering me great variety while driving around and more important, on long, dull plane flights.

Of course, the fastest way to do this without the extra step of converting your FLAC files to mp3 is to use the multi-encoder function of the CD ripper and rip both the FLAC and mp3 240vbr files at the same time. That's what I do so there's no extra work involved creating my portable version of my CD rips. They're all ready to load into the Clip right after the rip, if you want.

One more thought: I'm not sure you can do this with FLAC files on dbpa, but Replay Gain (apply) adjusts the volume of the track itself rather than setting the RG tag. If you're really set on uploading FLAC files to your Clip and have RG work with them, you could apply the RG directly to the audio files using this dbpa feature. But that pretty much defeats the whole purpose of lossless files because you've just degraded their quality back to some level of lossyness (not sure how much??).