Hi,

As a newbie to MP3Gain I'd like to get some confidence in it before I let it loose on my library of MP3's.

I'd feel much happier if I could play about with it and compare a batch of files 'before and after' running through MP3Gain. A facility to carry out non-destructive testing would be very useful, and I was a bit surprised not to find a 'save as copy' or 'save to another folder' option.

I know I'm in danger of becoming anally retentive but I'd be happier knowing I could recover all my original files if I made a major cock-up.

I once re-tagged 500 MP3's with the same tag by accident whilst getting to grips with a new bit of tag writing software.

And I hope that explains my caution and proves that I need all the safeguards I can get!

Apologies if this question has been asked before - I've hunted but not found anything relevent.

Thanks.

The question I forgot to ask in the original post is:

Is there anyway to get MP3Gain to do what I want it to?



Thanks Again.

Not exactly.

Since mp3gain has to directly modify the gain setting in the mp3 files, there's no way to easily "undo" what you've just done. You can configure mp3gain to keep a log of the gain values it applies, but I don't think there's any built-in way to get mp3gain to use the log to revert the files back. It would be pretty handy though, huh?

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to copy a small selection of files and test mp3gain on them to see if it did what you liked before unleashing it on your entire collection.

I've always heard that if you have the logs, you can revert to the old state they were in.

Also, regarding your tagging, couldn't you have just re-tagged the way you wanted them to be? I use Tag & Rename, and I can tag over and over again til my hearts content.

Thank you both for the advice, I'll do some small test batches to increase my comfort factor, and then run MP3Gain against previously backed up batches of files - I'll just have to be disciplined about it - it'll make a change from my usual chaotic approach!

Thanks Again

How come VorbisGain has an option to clean and remove tags (-c, --clean I think) but MP3Gain doesn't? Aren't these programs the same thing, but for different file formats? Now I'm confused....I was about to apply MP3gain to all my MP3's, but I'm not sure I want to do that if I'm not happy about the results and want to remove the tags. I've tested VorbisGain on my ogg files and the -c option completely removes the tag and restores the volume levels back to original.

Daffy

Because MP3gain doesn't applies gain based on tags. Gain is applied on each MP3 frame.

Ah, call me a newbie. Thanks! But I have a follow up question - which method is better? Tagging, like vorbisgain does, or direct application to the mp3? Or do both produce the same result? If so, I would think VorbisGain is more user friendly since you can undo the gain if you're not happy with the results (I actually had VorbisGain lower the volume on song I could barely hear from old CD from the early 80s - I couldn't understand it's logic so I removed the tag on that file).

The difference is in the playback. With the gain applied to the MP3 frames, the decoder doesn't have to know about replaygain whatsoever, which Tags (or some header fields) the decoder (or player) software has to apply the gain.

To answer your question, Tags of some sort are better because they much more flexible. For instance you can choose between title or album gain levels or even ignore the replaygain info alltogether at playback/decoding.

The gain applied by MP3gain BTW is "non-destructive" that is if you apply the opposite amount of gain (+ becomes - and vv) you have the same file as the original.

edit: typo
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Ge Someone

Thank you GeSomeone. Very informative.