How can I apply ReplayGain after ripping songs?

[Masmic]

I'm trying out dBpoweramp. Since 2006 I have used MediaMonkey to rip and manage my music. I had been ripping to MP3 (192 kbps) for storage reasons, but now I decided to re-rip all my CDs to M4A (ALAC). I had been using MP3Gain as well. I playback my music using MediaMonkey, MyMedia for Alexa and also, I transfer my songs to my iPhone for playback on the go. After close to 200 CDs, I realized that MP3Gain doesn't apply gains to M4A files. Can I select all the songs I've ripped and apply TrackGain to all of them?

[Spoon]

PerfectTUNES - try that one, it has whole replaygain program which makes it super easy.

[Masmic]

Isn't replaygain a feature that is built-in to dBpoweramp Music converter?

[Masmic]

I see there is a way to add replay gain with dBpoweramp Batch Converter, but it doesn't seem as easy as MP3Gain.

[Spoon]

It is also, not as easy. In dBpoweramp you would run Batch Converter and convert all the tracks to [ReplayGain] as the encoder.

[garym]

I see there is a way to add replay gain with dBpoweramp Batch Converter, but it doesn't seem as easy as MP3Gain.

Never used MP3Gain, but using dbpa batch converter, select all files in single batch, click "convert to", then choose [Replay Gain] as the encoder and let it run. A couple of mouse clicks, so seems very easy to me.

[garym]

Never used MP3Gain, but using dbpa batch converter, select all files in single batch, click "convert to", then choose [Replay Gain] as the encoder and let it run. A couple of mouse clicks, so seems very easy to me.

More specifically:

1. start dbpa batch converter
2. select the top directory containing all your music files (or any subdirectories/folders)
3. Click "Convert To"
4. Choose [REPLAY GAIN] in "encoding" box
5. On popup, Select WRITE "Track and Album" gain
6. Click on "Advanced Options" and select:
a. Albums Identified by Album ID Tag
b. Gain calculation: EBU R128
c. -18 LUFS
d. maximum gain 25db
e. do NOT tick "disable clipping protection"
f. tick or don't tick file modification date depending on what you prefer
g. true peak I use 4x oversample

That all sounds like a lot but most of those things are default and just a few mouse clicks.

[Masmic]

Thank you for the detailed instructions. That helps a lot! A few more questions that I hope you can answer:

What is the difference between "Track Gain" and Track And Album Gain"?

What does the True Peak setting do?

With mp3gain I would use the 89.0 db Target "Normal" volume setting With dbpa batch converter there are several more Gain settings. How do they relate to the mp3gain settings? (Gain calculation, LUFS and maximum gain)?

Thank you!

[Spoon]

Album takes the biggest volume adjustment and applies to every track in the album together. Track is just individual tracks.

true peak oversamples to discover the true peaks, which are likely expressed by an oversampling dac

89db is not a good reference because it is a fixed amount, for 24 bit audio 96db is different than for 16 bit.

LUFS is a better expression which is based on a reduction from maximum. You are best to use the default lufs and do all tracks to the same.

[garym]

I find that my tracks/albums with the old ReplayGain reference of 89db is basically the same as the newer ReplayGain that uses LUFS -18.

I Album Gain maintains "within album" volume differences while Track Gain does not. These are just tags. All my players allow me to select to use either track gain, album gain, or some sort of "smart gain" (automatically uses Album Gain when playing tracks from same album or Track Gain when playing a mixture of tracks from *different* albums.

[Floyd]

While on this Replay Gain Topic-
For more than 10 years I have been using DBP to rip my CD's. I have been mainly using two DSP effects on my large library.
There seems to be quite a lot of questions regarding this.
ie Folder.jpg and
Replay gain (with settings as per attached)..which I though were default..hopefully.
So after getting a little frustrated with my compilation ablums volume inconsistency when playing I have been looking for what the best options is
for compilation albums of which I have many.
So I guess my main questions here are:
1. Have I been using the right DSP's?
2. Are the settings I've been using considered recommended? ie -18 LUFS or should I have used -14 or ?
3. Any advice as the how improve would be appreciated, especially on how to deal with compilation ablums for volume.
4. Is is possible to check my library as to whether I have ever mistakenly used Replay Gain (Apply) on any of my rips?
Thanks
Cheers

[garym]

Everything you are doing looks good to me. Exactly what I do. -18 LUFS. I've ripped ~5000 CDS. Only DSPs I use are ReplayGain. Not sure why you need a DSP for folder.jpg. I also add a folder.jpg in album folders for artwork, but this is a setting done in ID tag settings not within a DSP.

ps Not sure why it is not working ok for compilation albums. perhaps some of your compilation albums are vastly different across track volumes (shouldn't be, but could be in a badly mastered CD I suppose). And not sure how you can test whether you used RG (apply). If you have PerfectTunes, you could check your library with the AccurateRip function of PerfectTunes and if you don't get a match, then one possibility is that you modified the underlying audio with RG (apply). I assume you have ripped to LOSSLESS.

[garym]

And note a normal compilation album should be just like any other album (non compilation) in terms of VOLUME. Of course some CDs are mastered loud and some soft, but this is typically consistent across the entire CD (a relatively LOUD CD is loud on every track, not just some tracks). So there is nothing magical about compilation albums (in general). What player do you use. Are you sure your player even recognizes ReplayGain tags?

[Floyd]

Gary, Many Thanks (And I did do Lossless)
Appreciated.