I am trying to find the best, easiest way to normalize volume on all my iTunes purchased music without audio quality loss (if possible).

A while back I normalized my entire music collection (40 plus GB) using AAC/MP3 Gain for MAC. However, you cannot normalize any iTunes purchased/protected M4P files using that program (or any other program that I know of). So, of course, I had to burn all of my M4P files to CD and the re-import them into iTunes so I could normalize them.

Now, as I continue to purchase music from iTunes, I always have to burn a CD of the files so I can re-import them to remove the protection and then run them through AAC Gain.

My question is...

Is there a way to either strip the M4P files of the protection without burning them to a CD and re-importing or is there a program that I am not aware of that can normalize M4P files?

The burning M4P CD thing is a pain, but I also would guess there is a slight loss of quality when re-compresing and importing the CD burned from a compressed format to begin with. Is my assumption correct?

I would love to continue to buy music here and there from iTunes, but the volume difference in those files from the rest of my collection drives me nuts.

Advice/help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks in advance...

The only way to normalize M4P files is to use iTunes' Sound Check feature. iTunes is the only program that can (legally) decrypt the iTunes FairPlay DRM and playback/modify M4P files.

Unfortunately, your only method out would be to burn the M4Ps to an audio CD then rerip and then you could modify those files with AAC/MP3 Gain.

Thanks for the info.

If that truly is the only way, is there really a quality loss that would be audible? I know the typical response is that it all depends on my ears, so let's say I am 'medium' picky.

this heavily depends on the bitrate but assuming you use the standard 128kbps VBR then yes, there will probably be an audible qualityloss.

J.M.

There are programs(HYMN, DeDRMS) that will strip the DRM without the CD-Burn work around, but these won't work if you are using iTunes 6 or higher.

Why not just use the iTunes normalization feature? If it works, it works. Much better than reencoding just to get the ReplayGain algorithms, in my opinion.

I have heard/read that the iTunes 'Sound Check' is horrible. I know it is on my iPod. I listen to music mostly in my car so using the 'Sound Check' feature on my iPod is so bad it's basically useless.

I just cannot stand having to 'ride' the volume knob in my car or at home when playing music from my iPod.

Has the 'Sound Check' feature been improved recently? Can you even use 'Sound Check' on an iPod through the line out? I am pretty sure on my gen. 3 iPod, it only works through the headphone output and again, it is really bad.