Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

[Bespin1138]

My questions are out of curiosity. I use dBpoweramp for the CD ripping and audio conversion processes, but I use Media Monkey Version 4 to burn CDs, create playlists, and transfer my songs to my mp3 player. I have finished ripping my entire CD collection to FLAC with CD Ripper and created converted copies of them to M4A with Batch Converter. I applied Replaygain in both the rip and conversion processes. Now, if I burned my songs that have Replaygain to a CD into regular audio CD format so that I can play it in a normal CD player in a stereo, DVD player, or car stereo, would the ReplayGain properties be automatically applied to the CD during the burning process and be used if the player has ReplayGain capability?

Also, if I had a playlist with songs that did not have Replaygain, but applied ReplayGain with dBpoweramp, would the songs in the playlist on my Media Monkey player or any other music library media player in general be updated with ReplayGain after I do an add/rescan computer for songs process or other applicable music library refresh function or would I have to create a new playlist or manually import the updated song to the existing playlist?

Thanks in advance.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

Did you apply ReplayGain to your ripped files or did you tag your files with ReplayGain?

Dat Ei

[Bespin1138]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

I applied ReplayGain during the ripping process when ripping my CDs to FLAC and applied ReplayGain to the conversion settings menu when creating M4A copies of my FLAC songs.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

From my point of view: once you have applied ReplayGain to your source files, there is no need to add or apply it to files which are created by conversion of those source files. The adjustment of the volume is in the source files already. Furthermore playlists have no volume at all. Playlists reference audio files. If ReplayGain has been applied to those audio files or their source of conversion, the playlists will reference adjusted audio files.

Dat Ei

[simbun]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

Which DSP did you apply during the rip?

'ReplayGain (Apply)' is a destructive process, in that it modifies the audio itself so it's no longer a bit perfect copy of the original CD. If you try and verify your rip with PerfectTunes/CUETools it won't verify. You do this typically if you want to use the resulting files in a player that doesn't support the ReplayGain tags, and not for your master copy.

'ReplayGain' calculates the average loudness and creates tags in your files (based on the settings you made) for use in players that support it. Because they're just tags you can write values for both Track and Album gain.

I'm hoping you applied the 'ReplayGain' DSP, but at the moment it's not clear.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

I applied ReplayGain during the ripping process...

I would think that the TO has used 'ReplayGain (Apply)'. I've have answered under this assumption.

Dat Ei

[simbun]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

I would think that the TO has used 'ReplayGain (Apply)'. I've have answered under this assumption.

Dat Ei

I would say at the very least it's ambiguous, and technically he said he applied 'ReplayGain' and not 'ReplayGain (Apply)' ;-) Personally I don't even like having that option available during the ripping process.

The clarification is needed to be able to give the correct advice.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

Personally I don't even like having that option available during the ripping process.

The clarification is needed to be able to give the correct advice.

I second that...

Dat Ei

[Bespin1138]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

On my CD Ripper, the FLAC rip mode only has "ReplayGain" listed in DSP. I hope this clears up the confusion.

So based on the replies so far, am I correct in understanding that if a song in my playlist did not have ReplayGain, but I applied ReplayGain to it at a later time, the ReplayGain property would be applied to that song on the playlist after I either refreshed or re-imported the playlist in my music library media player on my PC?

And if I burned songs or albums that already have ReplayGain to a CD, with the CD being burned into regular audio CD format to be playable on devices such as older CD players, portable CD players, DVD players, and car stereo CD players, will ReplayGain be applied to those CDs and be used if the CD player has ReplayGain capability?

[simbun]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

On my CD Ripper, the FLAC rip mode only has "ReplayGain" listed in DSP. I hope this clears up the confusion.

The 'ReplayGain' DSP is the correct one to use if you're ripping your master copy so that's good to hear.

So based on the replies so far, am I correct in understanding that if a song in my playlist did not have ReplayGain, but I applied ReplayGain to it at a later time, the ReplayGain property would be applied to that song on the playlist after I either refreshed or re-imported the playlist in my music library media player on my PC?

Correct. If a playlist references a song that didn't have ReplayGain (we're talking tags here), and you added the ReplayGain tags then the next time you play that song it will have ReplayGain, whether it be through a playlist or directly, no need to refresh/re-import the playlist.

And if I burned songs or albums that already have ReplayGain to a CD, with the CD being burned into regular audio CD format to be playable on devices such as older CD players, portable CD players, DVD players, and car stereo CD players, will ReplayGain be applied to those CDs and be used if the CD player has ReplayGain capability?

Technically, CD burner software could apply ReplayGain to the files before writing it to the CD, but I doubt any do that, so you'll want to create another copy of your album using Music Converter applying the DSP 'ReplayGain (Apply)' - which will change the audio itself (adjust its volume) - then burn the resulting files to a CD, after which you should delete those modified files.

[Bespin1138]

Re: Questions about Replaygain in CD Burning Process and Playlists

Thanks for the information and advice guys.