I have mp3gain 1.2.5 I HAVE READ many many replies and threads here, and I can't find the basic way to deal with the new version, which does not have some of the commands mantioned in the HA FAQ. or those options have been renamed, etc.


what i want is, and i know it's simple, is to adjust all my albums using album gain to around 89db without clipping. a lot of my mp3's come up with a y under the clipping column. Very few under the clip(track) column. In 1.2.5 there is no "don't clip for album gain" under options or something like that, just track gain. So if I want to keep the levels between tracks of an album relative. How am i supposed to tell mp3gain that, if it only has the no clipping command per track? some tracks on an album show clipping, some don't.

I was also surprised by how many tracks had a yes under the clipping column. I know folks here get irritated with repeat questions, but I can't find current info on 1.2.5. All the help seems to be based on a version I can't even find. Help would be greatly appreciated. also what's the difference between the clipping column and the "clip(track)" column? (this I know I saw somewhere, but while i'm at it

sorry guys . . . please don't hit me, I'm fragile.

The "don't clip" options and the "album gain" option have different goals - you can't do both necessarily. I'd just use album gain and not worry about a few clipping samples (the ones that clip at 89dB are typically older, uncompressed recordings, so you'll literally only have 1 or 2 clipping samples in the entire song - not gonna be audible!

Alternatively, normalize everything with 89dB album gain, then see if you have any clipping tracks. If you do, renormalize to 88dB or whatever, and try again. Repeat until you find a value that works for all your tracks.

89 dB should sound fine. I don't think I've ever actually noticed a problem at that setting, though I'm sure theres examples of it out there if you look hard enough.

makes sense, the thing is, it's my newer cd's that are getting the clipping warnings. The Shins "Chutes Too Narrow" for example ended up with -9.0 album gain (which makes sense, this disc is way too hot) and every track but 1 has a y under clipping, although none of them have a y under "clip(track)"

edit: actually I would say the vast majority of the tracks I've analyzed have the big red "Y". Is it normal to have that many?? Could the values be messed up by itunes tags of some sort, I know sound check has some kind of tag in there.

IIRC (it's been awhile since I last used MP3gain), the clipping column indicates if the original non-modified file does clip (i.e. the original peak), while the clip(track) indicates if it clips once it has been modified.

So if this is correct, all you should ever care is for "clip(track)". It is expected that current CD's all clip.

that is the simple (probably should have been obvious to me) answer I've been looking for. THANKS!!!