Music Collection/Add Music

[Wolfpacker96]

On the "New Track Preferences" there is an option "Auto Volume Normalize". What exactly does that do? Does it increase and decrease volume inside a single song so that soft passages are louder and loud parts are softer or does it look at the volume of the entire song and try to match the loudest part with the loudest part of other songs so that all songs are about the same volume?

Also, if it's adjusting the volume of the entire song, is that just similar to adjusting the "Volume Boost"? If so, when I've tried to increase the volume of a low volume song, the song becomes unlistenable with a lot cracks and pops. Is this what is going to happen to my Music Collection if I use the "Auto Volume Normalize"?

Final question. If I use the Normalize, is there a way to undo it if it messes up my collection or should I just backup everything prior to reimporting it?

[xoas]

Re: Music Collection/Add Music

The Auto Volume Normalize is the same as an auto-select for the Volume Boost for My Music Collection (MMC). It seeks to equalize the loudness of each track to a kind of standard level. I do not know for sure whether it works primarily only on boosting softer sections and/or softer tracks (which is what I suspect of how it works). I have not run into any distortion of loud sections of all tracks but the pops and cracks you mention may have been inherent in the initial track but fairly soft and indistinguishable until boosted. I would especially suspect this of tracks that were recorded from a phonograph or turntable.

I am not sure that Auto Volume Boost works to soften louder sections and/or louder tracks (I have read that it does not).

I am sure that Auto Volume Normalize (and the Volume Boost feature of MMC as well) are not encoded into the actual audio file so you should not have to worry about re-ripping any tracks to MMC if you are dissatisfied with the results.

The other thing to know about Auto Volume Normalize is that the level of boos, if any, will not be set for a track until that track has fully played one time from start to finish in dBpowerAMP Audio Player after you have requested Auto Volume Normalization to be set for it.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Bill

[xoas]

Re: Music Collection/Add Music

One last thing to mention about the Auto Volume Normalize function in dBpoweramp Audio Player (dAP)/My Music Collection, the changes that are made to playback volume will only be heard in dAP. If you take a track that has been Auto Volume Normalized in dAP and play that track in another player (WinAmp, WMP, Foobar, etc) those programs will play the track just as if Auto Volume Normalization had not been added.

Best wishes,
Bill

[Wolfpacker96]

Re: Music Collection/Add Music

Thanks fellow North Carolinian!

I'm not sure what's up with the volume boost on mine, but if I rip a track from a CD (I actually own! ) to a wma "CD quality" file and, inside of My Music Collection, click the volume boost to anything above 2 or 3 db increase, the track becomes unlistenable with tons of distortion. Not that big of a deal normally, but if I get some music from, let's say, a possibly questionable source according to which lawyer you ask, sometimes the volume is significantly less on it than others, so I have to turn up the volume manually to hear, then the next song starts blasting too loudly. The other track is also wma, CD quality. I tried using the volume boost to get the volume up on the bad tracks, but it gets all distorted. I could, I suppose lower the volume on all the other tracks, but that would take hours! Just trying to find a way to accomplish this easily. I'm sure the compressed "CD quality" is what's causing the error with the distortion, though I haven't tested my theory with a lossless file. I'd just like my collection to play at a somewhat similar volume.

Alan

[xoas]

Re: Music Collection/Add Music

First, it sounds like the distortion you report seems to come from manually adjusting the volume boost of the track in your MMC (My Music Collection). It should go away if you reset the boost to neutral (0).

Second, I do not think that you would get the same distortion using Auto Volume Normalization, unless the distortion is actually in the original audio file but present only below your listening threshold until amplified. I am not sure what the specs (bitrate, frequency) would be for your CD Quality wma, but that could be the source of some of the distortion.

Third, I would recommend that you add Auto Volume Boost to all tracks in MMC (I may be mistaken but I think I recall reading some time ago that Auto Volume Normalization makes some reference to all the files to which it is applied-in that case it might not be as effective if you only apply it to one or 2 soft tracks since the program would not be able to compare the output level to the other tracks in MMC).

A tip, if your MMC is large and you have many files that you want to run Auto Volume Normalization for, is to request Auto Volume Normalization for the files and then select those files for playing through dAP with the player volume set to 0 (or I believe you can mute the volume, or you can just turn off your speakers) and let the tracks play through in dAP while you do whatever. This is the best strategy I have found for setting Auto Volume Normalization since it does require that tracks be played once all the way through.

It is also possible that Auto Volume Normalization may fail to provide enough boost for a very soft track. I have a track or so that always seems too soft. Eventually, dAP may support ReplayGain which I have heard is a more robust approach to the same issue. But ReplayGain only works with those players that support it. dAP currently does not.

If you have dBpoweramp Music Converter with the Power Pack, you could copy your wma adding the Volume Normalization DSP to your copy. I would recommend using Simple Normalization set to 100%. This volume normalization will be written into the audio file and will be apparent regardless of what player you use to listen to the track. It is also irreversible, so hold on to your original until and unless you have a copy you know you want to keep and that you are certain you don't want to hold onto the original. If the result of simple normalization at 100% is still too weak, try increasing the Max. Multiply amount.

Best wishes,
Bill