Do i really need to use ReplayGain? I have just started to try out mpc. Did about 5 albums and they all sound amazing! I have only tryed replaygain on one album so far.... all mpcs sound sweet to me regardless. So is this just an extra feature you can play around with or is it nessasary?

Thanks Guys

Don't expect replaygain to do magic to your MPCs, it's mostly a way to keep your albums at the same volume.

thats what i was thinkin

i think id rather just listen to them the way they are .. its not like alot of albums have tracks with drasticly diff volumes

I think you did not understand.
ReplayGain makes your albums the same average volume, but keeps the volume difference between the individual songs (in Album Mode, which is the one you want to "listen to them the way they are") it also keeps them from clipping, which is becoming the norm with recent albums.
You will still "listen to them the way they are", that is, loud tracks will be louder than quiet ones, the advantage, is that if you play an old CD (those were quieter) and follow it with a new one, it will not damage your equipment (or your ears, if using headphones).

You shoul try it, it is not just an "extra feature", it is a must.

Well, it's up to you, but my answer to your question is also: Yes. AtaqueEG already explained the benefits. And you also have the benefit that ReplayGain is a standard feature of Musepack, supported in all recent mpc decoders, opposed to mp3, for example.

cya

Of course there are a lot of albums that have tracks with drastic (extreme!) different volumes (not talking about intended differences).
Just think of all those albums that haven't been mastered at all... a lot of stuff from small independent labels, or, if you want a music style: Reggae for instance... a lot of albums that are plain unlistenable if you don't replaygain.
Even a lot of the major-label stuff shouts out for a replaygain-treatment.
Personally I think audio-quality has never been as bad as on current releases...
Give thanx for replaygain.
Tom.

thanks guys ill try it out

In my experience major label releases are mastered at lot worse than most stuff released by indie labels, which can not afford such a boomy production or have the bands produce the album by themselves.

dev0

tryed it out a bit and i think i like the way it sounds without the replay gain.. i dont like how low the volume is with replay gain turned on

when its off it sounds exactly like the cd wich is what i want

ReplayGain can't remove clipping that was already on the CD. It can only eliminate encoder clipping, depending on the player used.



You make it sound like ReplayGain is the magical cure to bad-sounding CDs - where the hell did you get that idea? It's not! ReplayGain is simply a method of making tracks or albums sound equally loud - clipping prevention is an added bonus (so to speak), but it doesn't have much to do with the audio quality of CDs. It refers to clipping introduced by the encoding/decoding process and clipping that may be introduced by ReplayGain amplification.



Your system probably has a volume knob for that. And if not that, you can use the ReplayGain preamp in foobar2000 to raise the ReplayGain target volume (although I don't see why one would want to do this, the default 89dB is fine even on the cheapest hardware I use).


I think you'll appreciate ReplayGain once you've had your ears blown off, because your player played a very quiet tune off an older album (which is always a lot quieter than modern releases), followed by an over-compressed, loud, blasting track off a recent album. I think I'll prepare an example which will teach you

I meant just that.
Current albums already clip (most of them) and when encoded to MP3 (which is what I use) it usually gets worse.
So yes, you are right.

Anyway, we both agreed that the best reason to use RG has to do with hearing preservation.

Adjust the volume in Windows or through your player higher then... Leave the ReplayGain on. You'd thank us later, when you realize how important ReplayGain is...

player is at full and all windows volumes are set the way i normally have them
so then i need to turn up the speakers to make it louder

problem is every other sound windows makes is now hella loud

i guess my question really is.. i have been listening to music on the pc for years and have never run into any problems with a track suddenly being WAY louder then the rest in an album.. so why is this such a problem with mpc?

sorry if i seem like im being ignorent but i just dont start listening to an album with my speakers at full

i see the point if its a bunch of diff tracks form diff sources tho.. i have always normalized when i make mixed cds (mp3->cdda)

It's not so much of a track being WAY louder than the album, but an entire album being louder than other albums.

One counter-example I have to that is Phantom of the Opera. There are some passages on that album that are very quiet, so you have to turn up the volume to hear it comfortably. Then the next song would be ridiculously loud.

Still, if you go from latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album, to Samuel Barber's Adiagio for Strings, you'll have to futz with the volume knob. And if you have a LOT of albums with on a randomized playlist, then don't let go of that knob....

i have over 9000 mp3s on my hd and i can load them all and play them wth shuffle on and yea have had minor problems once in a blue moon...

so yea i see the point i guess and altho ill prolly have the option tunred off in winamp ill replaygain all my rips now just incase i change my mind at a later date

thanks for all the info d00ds

*lol* Of course ReplayGain is not a cure to bad sounding CDs... get this:
A poorly mastered CD is a poorly mastered CD is a poorly mastered CD!
Same goes for recordings that haven't been mastered at all.

It's as easy as that: ReplayGain can very much enhance your listening pleasure on playback - for instance just think of a playlist that contains tracks ripped from various CDs that you might have bought over the last decade or so. You will be surprised the huge differences in terms of volume. ReplayGain can fix that for you to a great extent (if you're picky or playing some special music, you still have to adjust the volume a little bit, but that is no problem anymore with mpc-files: you do it once according to your wishes, and it's done).

You see, no magical tingy - easy to understand and can really maximize your listening pleasure.
Give thanx again for ReplayGain!
Tom.

That's exactly what I said, ReplayGain doesn't improve audio quality as such. Which is, however, what you claimed in your first post.


Oh really? I suggest you re-read my previous post, because this is exactly what I said - ReplayGain is there to even out annoying volume differences (which can indeed be huge across various albums) between audio files and/or albums. I don't understand what you're arguing about.

The only thing Replaygain does is calculated some values and store them in a tag, or in the case of mpc somewhere in the header of the file. A smart player can now use these values to let you choose at playback time between things like: clip prevention, track gain, album gain or .. not to use them at all.

It gives just more possibilities for you.

BTW. It is not something mpc specific, but mpc was the first to have standard support for this in the decoders and playback plug-ins AFAIK.
--
Ge Someone

*lol* I have no idea what you are referring to and who is arguing about what in this threat.
I think ReplayGain is a great tingy, although it is far from being perfect.
With today's poor audio-quality-releases, you just need something like that -
Give thanks for Replaygain!
Tom.
P.S.: *ooops* maybe Volcano's post wasn't meant as a reply to my post... no wonder I find it such a confused read, lol!