Does loud music compress less well? I seem to remember reading this but I cannot find it. I also noticed that on two of my CDs that all had peaks of 100% according to EAC resulted in larger files that normal while using --aps even though the CDs are not particularly more complex than others. If they do compress less well would it make sense to use wavgain on the files ( setting them to 89.0 or so) before converting to mp3 in order to reduce file size? I realize that wavgain reduces quality but from my understanding would probably not be susceptible esp. after converting it to a lossy format suchas mp3. Please let me hear you opinions.

I think so, but it depends somewhat on complexity and amount of high frequency. Note that I deal with lossless mostly.


Well you can try it, I believe it will reduce filesize a bit, but this is not what quality is about. Altering a source audio file to get better compression is like the anti-thesis of what HA is trying to promote.

check out paragraph 21 at http://www.r3mix.net/ critique section...

No.
How much a track can be compressed using psychoacoustic metods do not depend on the volume of the track.
Some vbr encoders (inluding lame) sometimes spend less bits on music with lower volume, but this does not mean that the music is easier to compress. It will make the track sound worse (though not always noticable).


No.
Lowering the volume of the track will only make the track sound worse. You should use lower settings in the encoder instead.