Sorry to be the annoying new guy but I am trying to figure some things our. Using MP3Gain for all my albums on "Apply Max No-Clip Gain for Album" is that a pretty good idea? Also MP3Gain confuses me, once it goes through the process is all I need to do clear the files and then just reload them on my iPod? Thanks a lot!!

Have you read the mp3gain documentation? Or the many threads on HA? Also, you can search for mp3gain and soundcheck

Yeah, it's a good idea. I don't know what you mean about clear, but you can just reload them, and it'll be fine.

Um, I'd disagree very strongly.

Why go for max no-clip gain when that's likely to make albums' volumes vary widely?

I thought the point of mp3gain was to normalize volume so that all your albums (or individual mp3s depending on preference) have the same relative volume, thus ending the need to keep reaching for the volume control. It's not about maximizing the volume at all.

I use mp3gain on all my mp3s and I replaygain all my music. I use the default of 89dB and have no complaints. This actually reduces the volume on most of the mp3s I have.

Is it not possible just to set the level lower than 89db so that less albums clip? if you do this, how low can you go before it starts being disadvantageous?

I don't have any albums that clip with 89dB. Older (less compressed) tracks sometimes come close, but even then, a clipped sample or 2 won't be audible. The original Replaygain standard called for 83dB (which is the film standard), so you could try that if 89dB is still clipping.

I'd recommend "max no-clip gain" if normalization is NOT AT ALL IMPORTANT to you, and you're using MP3gain to fix any clipping samples instead.

I used to use album gain at 89, but lately I've been happy just using max no clip for album. I've found it's easier that way when listening to a mixed playlist on a non replaygain-aware player (a portable) when that playlist includes yours and perhaps some that were encoded by someone else.

singaiya: What do you mean? You can still apply the gain physically, on all files. (Even ones other people have made.) I don't think your method offers any benefits.

I guess I just mean I'm too lazy to mp3gain all my "legacy" files that aren't "mine". As long as it's as loud as possible and not clip is great for me.

And I guess I also have that fear that if one of the mp3 I make is too quiet, it won't sound as kick ass. So if a not-very-dynamic but super rocking song can withstand being 96db and still not clip, it should be that loud. NOthing worse than wimpy rock music right?

Uhm, if a song is too quiet after lowering the gain, turn up the volume

Um, if set to maxnoclip, it won't be too quiet and then I won't need to turn it up. Besides maxnoclip usually lowers the gain, not raises it.

I'm not proclaiming that maxnoclip is the best setting or that everyone should use it. I'm just saying it works for me, but I guess I can't explain well enough why.

Thanks, I made my way through using max no clip for album, but some tracks still have a Y or ??? under clip(track), how do I deal with this? just reload the mp3 and hope it improves or do I just leave them alone?

As long as the track doesn't say "Y" in the clipping column, it's good. The clip(track) column shows if that track would clip when set to whatever is in the target volume box.

If there's no "Y" in the clipping column and there is a "Y' in the clip(track) column, that means that track's volume is lower than the target volume. That's fine.

The ??? might mean there is some error or for some reason it couldn't be determined.

I agree that it has some of the benefits of mp3gain (fixes clipping, turns really loud and clippy tracks down a bit more than older music), but doesn't have all the benefits (constant volume across all tracks). That's it. I'm not telling you to stop or anything!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if the track was clipped from the start (before MP3 conversion) then the lost audio signal (clipping) will not be restored. The distorted audio will only be less audible...

If so, I'd simply use the setting I find better for my ears and/or for the music genre, of course avoiding the clipping that may occur in MP3Gain process.

The way I understand it, you are correct if the track is *audibly* clipped before encoding, it will still be audibly clipped after mp3gain -- everything will just be scaled down. It doesn't remove distortions / noise from the original uncompressed file.

But I think in most cases, the audible clipping is being introduced by the decoding process (quantization?), which mp3gain can eliminate by reducing the volume.

Yes. I mean when the album or the songs are really bad mastered, which is not rare nowadays.

I didn't want to create a new thread just for one question,
so I'm borrowing this thread. I hope you don't mind...

I've got a recorded liveset from XM Radio which the sound level is pretty low.
Is MP3Gain what I need to use to increase the volume of this mp3?

Yes it will raise it to whatever level you want (default is 89db, which is quieter then most pop CDs, but about the same as many older CDs).

Thanks Mike