Increase Volume

[Unregistered]

Hello,
I just wanna know how I can increase the volume by converting music from a cd to my hd. I tried "Volume Normalize" ( from ActiveDSP Effects ) and used "simple normalization" and everything as default but its not really louder then before.

Thx for the help.

regards...

[Unregistered]

Re: Increase Volume

sorry for the double posting but now I found out how by myself but not how to do it without making the songs sound crkkk and krrr....you know what I mean?

For example if i choose desired volume 200% the song sound very bad. Whats the best way to prevent disabling the song and by the way make it louder?

thx.

[xoas]

Re: Increase Volume

If your tracks already have a few loud sections then Simple Normalize may not amplify the quiet sections. For that you would want to apply Adaptive Normalization.
If there are only a few tracks you want to correct the volume on, and if you use dB Audio Player, you can also use the Volume Boost feature in My Music Collection (MMC) to adjust the volume to where you want it.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Unregistered]

Re: Increase Volume

hey,
I wish to increase the volume of all my songs, because after doing this i would like to transfer them to my iriver ihp-140 jukeboxs. If I use the "adaptive normalization" there is still theseoder sounds like "crrrr".

thx.

[JahSun]

Re: Increase Volume

In order to get the best results with normalization, it is best to first use a compressor to get rid of the peaks. Then running a standard or non-aggressive adaptive normalization routine will increase the volume to the maximum point before distortion. It takes a little practice to get the settings right on the compressor and normalize without creating the horible sound of digital distortion.

If you can get a pro audio piece of software like Cool Edit Pro, Cakewalk, Cubase, Nuendo or any of a dozen others, this is a piece of cake. Many plugins actually do all the work for you. They usually come in the form of Finalizers or Advanced Normalizers, but names can be deceiving. There are plenty of Sonic Maximizers, Expanders and Enhancers that do nothing in the way of Normalization. If you look at your audio file with an Audio Editor (there is one built in to Nero) You will see a visual representation of the Audio over time. The upper & lower limits of the graph represent 0db. (the loudest a digital file can be without peaking and distorting) You will notice that a single spike from a pop, click, or snare hit can limit the amount that a "simple normalization" routine can increase the volume. These only find the loudest point in the song and raise the overall volume until this point hits 0db (or 100% in some software). Using a compressor to squash the peaks down to a more consistent level will allow you to raise the overall volume of the track to a much higher level. Just be carefull not to squash too hard, as it can dramatically change the sound of the song.

Nearly every song has 3 or 4 seperate compression effects on it. Voices are nearly always compressed, bass instruments and kick drums also, and the final mix is always gently compressed too. Any CD since the mid nineties will have been compressed and normalized and finalized to the max so there is no need to run another normalization on them. In fact, many of the latest Hip Hop tracks actually lose volume when normalized to 0db. This is due to the extremely fancy Finalizing & Compressing they do to deliver the heaviest bottom.

Hope that helps....

[JahSun]

Re: Increase Volume

BTW as the above mentioned methodolgy is a bit time consuming to do for an entire Mp3 collection or whatever, the optimal solution is not to normalize any file that isn't to be burned to an Audio CD directly, but to simply add a Normalizer or Finalizer plugin to the output of whatever player you are using.

[Clete]

Re: Increase Volume

Something I use to set the volumn on all mp3's is MP3Gain. Located here

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

I use this so when I burn a CD I don't have to turn the volumn up and down for different songs.

[JahSun]

Re: Increase Volume

Wow Clete, that Mp3gain stuff was really interesting. I followed their link to the replay gain standard which the program uses. Does DAP support this replay gain standard? What about other players and CD burning software like Nero?

You mentioned that you use this program before burning CD's, so it must work for you. I only ask, because it seems that what this program does is add an 8 byte header to the Meta Data which contains two different replay gain statistics. A "radio" level where everything sounds equally loud, and an "audiophile" level where the dynamics of an album are retained while still compensating for overall CD loudness. The actual music is not affected, and there is no re-encoding (thus no sound deterioration no matter how many times the level is set). However, as cool as this is, if the player and/ or burning software doesn't read this header, then the file will simply play as normal.

It is fascinating stuff though. I've always known that simple "peak" normalization doesn't make every song play at the same volume. In pop music, heavy compression and gain boosting to the max before peaking makes everything sound pretty close to equal. But what this "replay gain" technique is doing is based on the fact that different frequencies sound louder at the same db to the human ear. (i.e. a 500Hz signal at 55 db is perceived to be as loud as a 1khz signal at 60db) The very low frequencies and the very high frequencies are even more extreme. So the program analyzes the song in 50ms slices, filters for the human ear's perceived loudness, finds the RMS energy level for each slice, compiles a list of these slices, and then choses a setting at 95% of the peak. In addition, this whole thing is calibrated at 83db SPL.

I like the idea of filtering of the music based on the Fletcher & Munson curves (the human ear's perceived loudness of different frequencies), but it seems to me that this particular method would leave you with files that are significantly quieter than normal "current" cd's. I think the average replay gain using this method would be -10 or -12 db. Meaning that most Mp3's would be played quieter after running this process. This isn't bad if everything is the same, you just turn up the volume. Another cool feature is that you can do your whole collection at once and be done with it. (Unlike the current DAP style which requires you to play the song all the way through before setting the boost) I believe the DAP system is a simple peak normalizer.

Perhaps 83db and 95% of peak aren't the ideal settings, but this program has the right idea...

[donny]

Re: Increase Volume

I know that Nero has the option to normalize tracks before burning an audio CD... Just have to set it up a bit...