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Topic: ReplayGain question with radio broadcast... (Read 2090 times) previous topic - next topic
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ReplayGain question with radio broadcast...

Hey all,

I use the latest version of foobar (v1.2.2) as a music player to broadcast audio in a real radio station studio (i plug in the jack cable to the headphones port of my netbook).

I play various types of music from different authors and sources, some are flacs, some are 320 kpb MP3, some 128 MP3, some low quality youtube rips, some professional studio WAV etc..

At first i had a problem with the different songs playing at different volumes, then i found out on the wiki that i could use the ReplayGain to even the perceived volume level.

1) So in my setup, is it better to set the "preference > playback > replaygain "source mode" to TRACK or ALBUM ?
2) Whatever i choose, when i turn on ReplayGain, i automatically loose volume (a couple of db), even with the volume maxed out on foobar and on my windows mixer, which forces me to put the volume up on the mixing table in the studio to like +5db (usualy when playing music the volume knob on the mixing table is at 0db), which is bad cause it should always be at 0db. How can i prevent this?
When i use replaygain i LOSE a bit a volume (like 5 or 6 db). So how do i compensate the volume lose ? I tried using the replaygain PREAMP and set it to +6db "with RG info", but is that safe? or i lose quality, or risk clipping?

thanks a lot

ReplayGain question with radio broadcast...

Reply #1 –
Quote from: jackda on
1) So in my setup, is it better to set the "preference > playback > replaygain "source mode" to TRACK or ALBUM ?
Track, since you specifically stated that you are playing tracks from disparate sources, not a single unified album.

Quote
So how do i compensate the volume lose ? I tried using the replaygain PREAMP and set it to +6db "with RG info", but is that safe? or i lose quality, or risk clipping?
Check what the reduction in gain is; if it outweighs (e.g. –9 dB) the amount of gain you want to add (e.g. +6 dB), then there can be no possibility of distortion.

ReplayGain question with radio broadcast...

Reply #2 –
Quote from: db1989 on
Track, since you specifically stated that you are playing tracks from disparate sources, not a single unified album.

No, you should not be choosing based on whether you're listening to tracks from different albums. Rather, it's about whether you really want all the tracks, even the ones that are supposed to be quiet, to be truly the same volume. In fact, when playing music from different albums, album gain probably is what you want, unless you have particularly bad listening conditions. The current spec agrees, as does the old one, in more detail. I was going to explain further, but the specs actually do a pretty good job of it.

There really is no right answer. There are pros and cons to each option. Sometimes the solution involves manually adjusting ReplayGain tags to get the effect you want.

ReplayGain question with radio broadcast...

Reply #3 –
Thanks for your replies, which are contradicting! I still don't know what to choose !
And about the pre-amp, is it a good idea to pre amp or not ? it seems RG lowers volume anyways even if it only changes a couple of db...

last question: i stumbled upon kone54's "foo_r128norm", is it better than RG ? how is it different? to me it lowers volume except we can't pre-amp the volume in foobar (can we?) so i'm stuck with lower volume even if windows' mixer is maxed out...
the benefits of this as far as i can tell is that you dont have to remember to scan all songs to apply a normalization, the dsp applies it on the go each time you play a track...

thanks again