mp3gain messes up sound?

2004-04-03 23:41:22

I'm not sure what happened but I think after I ran through my mp3s with mp3gain a considerable number of them got messed up. It might be something else though so I don't know. I don't think I used to have a problem before but now in a considerable number of them there is at least one secti where for a fractin of a second it makes this annoying sound that's just wrong. I don't know how to describe it and I don't know if it's clipping or what because I'm not sure what that is.

Does anyone know why this may be and what could've happened? 

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #1 – 2004-04-04 00:10:23

In the mp3gain program, go to Options -> Advanced, and check "Enable maximizing features."  Add all of the MP3s in question.  Are they currently clipping? 
["clip(Track)" indicates if it will clip when track gain is applied, "clip(Album)" indicates if it will clip with application of album gain.  "clipping" tells you if the file is currently clipping.]
If so, you might want to checkmark "Don't clip when doing Track Gain" to prevent future occurances, and then Apply Max No-clip Gain only for the files that are clipping.  Or you could lower the Target "Normal" Volume from 89.0dB, so that none of the files will clip upon gaining... but then you'd need to make sure to keep that Target Normal Volume & re-gain already gained files, or else groups of your MP3s will be "equalized" to different loudness levels.

If the MP3s aren't clipping, it could be that your MP3 player doesn't like the tags that mp3gain adds.  To correct, Options -> Tags -> Ignore  &  -> Remove Tags from Files.  Unfortunately, this means the gain data will not be saved with each MP3.

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #2 – 2004-04-04 01:03:13

Ah well I kind of just deleted a bunch of the ones making funny sounds figuring if I wanted them so badly I could get them again sooner or later. That was until I realized there were so many, so I'll go back to try to find the rest that do it. So far though it seems some do clip but others don't so many some also clip in addition? I'm not sure.

Well I think I'm using the latest version of winamp and I'm kinda not seeing an option to remove whatever tags these are. Is that usually a problem?

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #3 – 2004-04-04 01:28:07

bad move RMS.... mp3gain is reversible.... you can restore your files to the original state...

Sergio

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #4 – 2004-04-04 04:57:54

Huh really? How would I do that?
I know that once I'm done with the stuff I was adjusting I can undo it but when I close the program I don't really see any option to load up stuff to undo.

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #5 – 2004-04-04 09:42:44

1.  Drag and drop MP3 files from a Windows Explorer window to MP3Gain, or use the Add Files button on the toolbar.

2.  Select menu item Modify Gain - Undo Gain Changes.  (The MP3Gain tag info must be there for the undo to work, of course.)

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #6 – 2004-04-05 00:16:39

Ah ok thanks. Got it.
Apparently that didn't fix it though so apparently something else must've somehow happened. Oh well.

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #7 – 2004-04-05 00:45:41

My guess is that MP3Gain added some tags to the file to store the gain information, and your player isn't skipping over the tags properly during playback.

I would use the program Tag to remove all tags from the MP3, and then try playing the MP3 again. Do a Google or Hydrogenaudio search for "Tagger" (the program that uses Tag!), download it, and use it to remove the tags. First just try removing ID3v2, and if that doesn't work, try removing all of them. I bet you a nickel that will fix the problem.

mp3gain messes up sound?

Reply #8 – 2004-04-05 00:51:06

If I remember correctly, mp3gain keeps its undo information in an APEv2 tag. Some players might be confused by that; I know that Winamp in_mpg123.dll doesn't like mp3s to have one APE tag entry and the rest in ID3v1, for instance.