first off, i'm curious if "normalizing" files is a bad thing?

second, i usually normalize during the rip proccess in EAC. i'm wonderring if there's a way to normalize in a similar fashion a wav file from another source (something that wasn't normalized). an example, dowloading live performances from archive.org, i usually store the tracks as seperate songs and not a full show. so i want to normalize the track so it isn't too soft or too loud (in comparison to other files being played).

if i normalize in EAC at 98% for everything under 97% and over 99%, and i use another app that is recomended for normalizing, what values would i use in said program to generate similar dynamics?

thanks for any feedback.

Read up on replaygain and wavegain...

To read about it, go to the HydrogenAudio knowledgebase : http://doc.hydrogenaudio.org/wikis/hydrogenaudio/ReplayGain

thanks PIO for filling in the blanks in my post. I was being lazy at the time of the first post

On side note is it better to use the WinAMP DSP for ReplayGain or individually use replaygain on all your tracks? Are the results the same?

I use the WinAMP DSP to ReplayGain my tracks.


Regards

AgentMil

Replay Gain - Home
MP3Gain FAQ: You mean MP3Gain normalizes mp3 files?
Also, the MP3Gain help file has extremely good information which goes into further detail then the Replay Gain website in some areas (afair).

If you're still interested in Replay Gain and would like to possibly comprehend it better you can download mp3gain-win-1_2_3.zip, inside is a help file.

Some may dispute this statement but even better is a program which will scan your files, calculate the value and then write the info into a tag. This way no permanent changes are made to your files. This depends on the audio file format your going to be ripping to as well as what file format you are using along with the player.

I don't know of anyone who recommends the Normalise feature in EAC.

(Sorry I wrote this lastnight but my 'net connection went down before I could reply)

I hope this further helps you, tec

If you use Foobar2000, you can do exactly like this for ANY of the commonly used formats. The tag used is APEv2.
To qualify my statement, I am not really sure if APEv2 tags are properly allowed in formats like AAC, FLAC, and OGG. For them, the replaygain information is probably stored in FB2k's database.

Edit: Ahh, my oversight. The ReplayGain wiki explains everything.

Well, I just have to dispute it... :-)

It is not better if you intend to play it on a portable, or for some obscure reason need to use a software player other than foobar2k. In those cases MP3gain is the only choice you have. And the changes made to the files are not permanent, undo information is stored in a tag so that the changes can be undone.

In general, normalizing should be avoided whenever it's possible.

Normalizing is no bad process: It searches a whole song for the sample with the highest absolute value and sets it to 32768 (in 16bit, when normalizing to 0dB). The other samples are adjusted accordingly.

But normally normalizing is a lossy process, because each time there are rounding errors added to each sample. And, on the other hand, normalizing actually improves nothing, since it can't increase the signal-to-noise ratio or the dynamic range.

No, in this case foobar stores the replaygain values directly into the native file tags.

I think only if the native tagging standard would not allow for the addition of replaygain fields, FB2K will revert to using apev2 tags for storing thiose values. For example in the case of mp3 wih id3 tags.

thanx precisionist ...

that was kinda the answer i was looking for. crap, now i got all these normalized files and just because i'm german and an a-type, i know at some point i'm gonna want to fix this.

thanx precisionist ...

that was kinda the answer i was looking for. crap, now i got all these normalized files and just because i'm german and an a-type, i know at some point i'm gonna want to fix this.