Loudness Level.

[daleyb]

Hi all.

Recently I had a CD, Which was recorded really low. I Tried experimenting with the DSP SETTINGS (ADVANCED) and tried - 15,- 10, and even -1.To be honest I couldnt really tell much difference via my hi-fi/streamer.However, using foobar via computer could tell.-18 (default) always seems about right for most cds. Is there any other way of Increasing Sound level..?

(Also the Cd came from a box set of 5..Not that should make a difference, I had one track off that CD On a "best of" Comp and it sounded great)

Perhaps its asking too much of DBPA to make the sound of a badly mastered / low level CD too sound good-if its not there to begin with. (you cant make a silk purse out of a...n' all that..)

Ive always thought Cds sound were inconsistent from day one.Some are good, But if the guy/lady had a bad day at the office...The customer got a bad deal sound wise..

[Spoon]

Re: Loudness Level.

Which DSP effect were you using?

[garym]

Re: Loudness Level.

Which DSP effect were you using?

I suspect he was using ReplayGain DSP and setting the RU 128 value to "-15, -10, etc." Can he use POSITIVE numbers there? (+5, +10, +15, etc.)???

[daleyb]

Re: Loudness Level.

I suspect he was using ReplayGain DSP and setting the RU 128 value to "-15, -10, etc." Can he use POSITIVE numbers there? (+5, +10, +15, etc.)???

Correct. I may Incorrect But i always thought "-" Made the sound louder, the lower number you put in.Never tried the"+" option, if there is one, or maybe theres another DSP setting I can use..?

[garym]

Re: Loudness Level.

Correct. I may Incorrect But i always thought "-" Made the sound louder, the lower number you put in.Never tried the"+" option, if there is one, or maybe theres another DSP setting I can use..?

good point. + wouldn't likely work in that DSP to make it louder. not sure what I was thinking??? What you want to do is INCREASE the db of that disk, so I was thinking about the db. so instead of relative to 89db it would be higher (95 db or something). Not sure what to use to do that. I think there may be a setting in the DSP volume normalize.

[schmidj]

Re: Loudness Level.

RU128 numbers are not the amount of change you want, they are the average loudness ("volume") after processing or tagging, referenced to full digital level. Since the loudest sound is produced by 0 dBFS which for a tone would be equivalent to 0 dBLK (or whichever terminology version the plugin uses, I forget), it is physically impossible to have it work with a positive number. First there are two numbers, the peak level and the average loudness. For consumer, non professional use, you can set the peak safely to -1 dBFS, or even -.5 if it will take fractions. For the loudness setting, -18, the default, is a nice, conservative number anything lower, like -23 is going to be pretty quiet in most consumer equipment. Many record producers are using -16, -14 or even -12 to make their music louder, at the expense of dynamic range. Since the Volume Normalize is non destructive and doesn't actually change the file, files with large dynamic range, like classical, may not be able to be normalized to as high a number as others, without them clipping in the playback device. If you read the report generated by the Volume Normalize dsp, it will tell you when it has been unable set the tag to increase the volume as much as you set it to because it would clip when played back.

Be aware of the difference between the replay gain DSP which does not change the audio at all, it only writes a tag which your player may or may not respond to; and the Volume Normalize DSP which actually changes the audio file by making it louder or softer depending on the settings. There are a number of different options for Volume Normalize. The disadvantage of volume normalize is that it actually changes the audio, it is best used on a copy of the ripped file, so if you screw up you have the original to go back to. The advantage is that it doesn't depend on the very inconsistent support of the player to work. There is no tag, just a modified file.

There is also the Replay Gain Applied DSP which takes a file with an existing Replay Gain tag and changes the file to apply the replay gain to the audio file and actually change the volume of the file. Again, best used on, or to create, a duplicate (but modified) copy while keeping the original(s)

There are some limitations: For replay gain, there is only one gain change number for the whole file, you can't change the dynamic range. For Volume Normalize, it also has an "adaptive" option, which does change the dynamic range like a limiter or compressor. I've never tried it, but you have to be careful if you care about sonic quality. Limiting and compression poorly applied can add undesirable artifacts to your audio, pumping and such. When I produce audio recordings, I use limiting and compression "plug-ins" that are much more expensive than dBPoweramp, and still sometimes have to change the processing until I get a track that has the dynamics I want without undesirable side effects.