Hi,

I have a live concert that is on FLAC files. I would like to burn this to disc, but there is one problem with it. The volume level of the recording is only about 70% of the level of a CD that would be purchased at a store. How can I raise the volume levels of these FLAC files so they will be louder? All of the files would have to be raised equal amounts, since this is a live show. I would like to try to get this as close as possible to the volume levels of a modern CD pressing, so that this wouldn't be any louder or softer than the disc before it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

ALiEnScaPE

Burrrn! allows applying Album Gain to the files prior to burning them. Using the preamp you can modify the 89 dB reference value to your liking, though I wouldn't advise going for more than +6 dB, just to avoid noticeable clipping.

Besides, instead of making this album louder, I'd rather suggest lowering the playback volume of all modern, clipped ones. You can do so by scanning your entire FLAC collection using foobar2000's ReplayGain scanner. That's the way most of us do it. In my opinion ReplayGain is the best available method for getting your albums' volume to comparable levels.

Read the Wiki articles about Clipping and the Loudness War to understand why you should abstain from increasing your music's loudness to the so-called "modern" one.

So, basically, all of my MODERN CD's are clipped, nothing can be done? Just lowering the playback volume of them to match the lower volume FLAC and MP3 files that I have will not undo the clipping of these CDs, as they would have to be remastered, correct?

Seems like damn near every CD that I rip with EAC has a peak level of around 98-100. The most recent one I can recall that didn't was ZZ Top's Deguello. That was around 80 I believe.

You're correct, there's virtually nothing to be done other than remaster or sometimes get vinyl LPs instead (which often, though not always, are mastered with more dynamic range).

The best approach is to lower volume of the loudness war victims. If you try to raise the dynamic old recordings to match the loudest new ones, you'd have to distort them to get them that loud.

The peak level isn't a guide to how dynamically compressed they are though. Many times highly dynamic recordings also have brief peaks at 100%. Perceived loudness is more about the average level than the peak level, and the crest ratio (peak to average ratio) is an indication of how dynamic the sound is.

Yes have a look at the tracks in a sound editor, if it looks like a brick then it's heavily damaged by compression. If it looks "spikey" then it's much more likely to be ok, although there's still a chance that there could be clipping. But that can be masked much better with replaygain than an overcompressed brick wall sound.

Hey, thanks for all the information here. I always wondered why my files looked like they were clipping when I opened them in an audio editor. Count me in on the fight against the loudness world order.

So, I'll use foobar and replay gain to get my music to play at the same levels on my PC.

What would be the best plan of action to accomplish this for the tunes on my iPOD, on a PER ALBUM basis?

For the iPod the AAC and MP3 formats are of high interest concerning the ReplayGain issue, since MP3Gain and AACGain (this one supports both MP3 and AAC) allow manipulating the files themselves instead of adding the values to the metadata. This approach allows using album gain or track gain on any possible device. The command-line AACGain can be used in conjunction with the MP3GainGUI by replacing mp3gain.exe with aacgain.exe and renaming the latter. On AACGain's site there's also a link to iGain, which integrates the application into iTunes.

Alternatively, MP3tag is known to be able to convert ReplayGain values to Soundcheck ones, though I don't know how this exactly works. Haven't ever been the owner of an iPod. But it should be possible to convert the desired album gain instead of track gain to Soundcheck.

Otherwise, have a look at Rockbox. This firmware supports ReplayGain via the metadata with a lot of formats, including FLAC.

I installed Rockbox.... I have to first change the REPLAYGAIN metadata using foobar2000 before this will work on Rockbox, is this correct?

With Rockbox as long as you have Replaygain turned on under Settings > General Settings > Playback > Replaygain it will apply the gain that is in the files' metadata. Just scan the files using foobar2000 and it will write the appropriate data to the files' tags.

It's much more likely that they are just heavily compressed. This is not the same thing as being clipped.

Ok, so I've been using both foobar2000 and Rockbox, and loving the hell out of them. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

However, I am now confronted with a problem, and would like to know how to handle the following situation. I have quite a few albums that have more than one disc. Some are live, some are not. How does one approach replaygaining these?

Should I ReplayGain each DISC individually as if they were seperate albums, or should I replaygain all discs in these albums together?

I think the foobar experts can tell you an easy way to apply replaygain to a set of discs.


How far apart are the RG numbers?

Do you have reason to believe the set wasn't mastered or packaged properly?
Are any of these albums compilations?
Are any of them single albums which have been split into multiple discs?

No reason to believe these sets (I have quite a few multi-disc albums) were not mastered or packaged properly.

I guess a few of them could be considered "BEST OF ARTIST" compilations, such as the ZZ Top 4 disc box set, and the Jimi Hendrix Box Set that I have, but none of them are MULTI-ARTIST compilations.

Yes, a few of them are single albums that have been split into multiple discs, such as Pink FLoyd's THE WALL.


Here are a couple quick values that I got:


Phish: Live in Brooklyn
--------------------------
All 3 CDs ReplayGained as 1 album -5.82 dB
--------------------------
Each disc ReplayGained as seperate albums
CD 1 -5.31 dB
CD 2 -5.94 dB
CD 3 -6.19 dB


ZZ Top Box Set
--------------------------
All 3 CDs ReplayGained as 1 album -7.16 dB
--------------------------
Each disc ReplayGained as seperate albums
CD1 -6.88 dB
CD2 -7.18 dB
CD3 -7.28 dB
CD4 -7.26 dB


Keller Williams : Stage
--------------------------
Both CDs ReplayGained as 1 album -4.67 dB
--------------------------
Each disc ReplayGained as seperate albums
CD1 -4.27 dB
CD2 -5.09 dB

I see that there is little difference between the various album gains for each disc in its respective set, so IMO it really doesn't really matter what you do.

If you find a set where discs differ by more than just a few dB, you may want to ask yourself if the relative difference makes sense. Maybe there's a compelling reason for one disc to be louder than another. Maybe it makes more sense to give them equal loudness.

I'm not suggesting that you have to calculate each and every disc individually and then again as a set, just do what makes sense.

On a personal note, I have some Beatles albums that sound much louder than other material I've set to the same reference level. I've had to go back and drop the level for a second time to get them to sound right. I'd like to believe that people aim for what sounds best to them rather than be concerned over the numbers.