Hi,
I was wondering if replaygain was affecting sound quality by lowering the sound sent to the soundcard.
I use the m-audio firewire audiophile and I read somewhere that in order to get the most of your soundcard, the sound sent to it had to be just below clipping.
Full Version: Replaygain question
QUOTE(PedroElGringo @ Nov 29 2004, 04:10 PM)
I read somewhere that in order to get the most of your soundcard, the sound sent to it had to be just below clipping.
In that case you should be just fine using replaygain. In my experience it will keep the signal just below clipping on most records.
Note that most modern records are mastered way to loud and especially there replaygain comes in handy. On older recordings that where mastered properly replaygain will adjust the signal way less then on new ones. Therefore it will allways keep a good balance to your different albums.
In case you want the signal slightly louder you can always adjust the preamp for replaygained files. Allthough I don't recommend that.
QUOTE
In case you want the signal slightly louder you can always adjust the preamp for replaygained files. Allthough I don't recommend that.
Playing with preamp setting can cause sound to clip so I don't like using it.
I agree with you about replaygain, that's why I use it, but does anybody know if the sound quality is better if the signal sent to the D/A converter of the soundcard is louder ?
Yes, it (theoretically) reduces quality.
On decent equipment it's very unlikely that you'll never notice. Your m-audio sound card certainly counts as decent equipment.
Read this for more...
http://www.replaygain.org/faq_noise.html
Cheers,
David.
On decent equipment it's very unlikely that you'll never notice. Your m-audio sound card certainly counts as decent equipment.
Read this for more...
http://www.replaygain.org/faq_noise.html
Cheers,
David.
QUOTE(2Bdecided @ Nov 30 2004, 12:42 PM)
On decent equipment it's very unlikely that you'll never notice.
I suppose you ment ever, not never? 
Ok thanks for your help, really interesting document.
One solution is to put the preamp slider to the max (+12dB) and to select "use peak info to scale down tracks that still...". With that setting, you get the maximum volume you can get without clipping without using the advanced limiter, which modifies the output from the original track. But you lose the ability to play all your tracks at the same volume using peakgain instead of trackgain.
I thought I could maybe turn the preamp slider up to +6dB and use advanced limiter to avoid clipping. Not really an audiophile solution, I admit. What do you think of that ?
One solution is to put the preamp slider to the max (+12dB) and to select "use peak info to scale down tracks that still...". With that setting, you get the maximum volume you can get without clipping without using the advanced limiter, which modifies the output from the original track. But you lose the ability to play all your tracks at the same volume using peakgain instead of trackgain.
I thought I could maybe turn the preamp slider up to +6dB and use advanced limiter to avoid clipping. Not really an audiophile solution, I admit. What do you think of that ?
No need whatsoever to fiddle with preamp settings.
Just use replaygain as is and make sure that 24bit output is fed to your soundcard and don't worry about all this any more.
(see Preferences -> Playback)
Just use replaygain as is and make sure that 24bit output is fed to your soundcard and don't worry about all this any more.
(see Preferences -> Playback)
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