Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

[sorenb]

Hi

Anyone know how I can Normalize a bunch of tracks (might be one disc or several discs) from the one track containing the overall max peak ... and then use the required gain to Normalize the lot?

e.g.

Track01: max -12db
Track02: max -16db
Track03: max -3db ...max peak of the lot
Track04: max -14db

Track01: max -12db + 3db = -9 db
Track02: max -16db + 3db = -13db
Track03: max -3db + 3 db = 0 db
Track04: max -14db +3 db = -11 db

I find it cumbersome to rip the disc as one file, normalize it and cut it up according to the cue .... :-(


/S

[Spoon]

Re: Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

Use Album gain of ReplayGain, it was designed to do this.

[sorenb]

Re: Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

Problem solved, thnx a bunch ;o)

[sorenb]

Re: Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

Hi Spoon

Did a little testing with ReplayGain (Album Gain) followed by Volume Normalization. I did the test on one track only with a peak level of 96%.

The file ends up having 34% peak level! not quite what I have expected.

Now, I have tried Calculate Track Gain and Album Gain (both options)
and configured Volume Normalization to ReplayGain TrackGain.

As far as I read from your manual the ReplayGain does a loudness analysis on the material and based on that calculates a gain, right?
But I am interested in a less sofisticated method; I just what the max peak of a bacth to become 100% after doing normalization.
As far as I can see, that is what Volume Normalisation does when configured to peak-to-peak; the problem here is that this is, as far as I understand based on the single track and not the tracks in the batch as a hole.

Can you please give me some advice here?

/Thnx a bunch S

[Spoon]

Re: Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

For overly compressed audio, replay gain will reduce the volume, normally a conversion to 24 bit is done (atleast on playback) to maintain the resolution.

[sorenb]

Re: Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

I am not sure wheter I am explaining myself clear enough :o
I'll try be a very simple example:

Track 01: peak -6 db
Track 02: peak -3 db

I want the result to be:

Track 01: peak -6 db + 3db = -3 db
Track 02: peak -3 db + 3db = 0 db

I don't know how the ReplayGain works, but I suspect that it works on individual files in a sequential way going forward only.
Well, if the above result should be achieved I guess it needs to be a two step proces:

1) Analyse the track (can be done while ripping) put the audio peak value into a ID3Tag for futur reference.
2) Running the actual normalization where each file will get a gain applied according to the ID3Tag value. Lets call it AudioNorm the ID3Tag that holds the needed value.

If my assumption is right I think we need a enhanced version of ReplayGain?

As far as I understand ReplayGain (Track and Album) the above suggesten Normalization proces will not spoil anything although I guess that it needs to take into account whether the track has been audio normalized after being analysed for ReplayGain (Track or Album). I suggest that the ID Tag it self will be able to hold that info; if the value is different from zero it hasn't been audio normalized if it is zero on the other hand nothing has been done assuming that the proces of doing the normalization re-writes the Tag value to zero.

Another suggestion could be an option to normalize only in 6 db steps; equal to a right bit-shift.
I have seen somewhere on this forum or Hydrogen that there are reports from people claiming that there is a audioable difference between applying a 16-24 bit DSP before doing a 100% normalization that might be caused be quantization errors introduced doing 16bit math and not significant when doing 24bit math.

I hope you will take some time to consider the above Spoon ;o)
I have only used your program for a couple of weeks but I am very excited; I have seen it reference as being a 'Swiss knife', I couldn't agree more. Thnx.

/S

[Spoon]

Re: Normalizing tracks relative to the hole album peak

Replaygain is not peak based as peak is not a measurement of how loud a track is.