I'm trying to get replay gain to work and I'm having some problems.

I made a directory called Test and copied about 10 MPCs with wide variations of level into it. Using Speek's MPC Batch Encoder 1.9 and Replay Gain .81a I used the --auto setting. All I get is a CMD window that pops up for a split second then closes. I didn't get any readouts like I've seen posted elsewhere on this forum. I tried a couple of the different winamp playback options (.90b in_mpc.dll) and didn't hear any difference in apparent volume. Did I do something wrong? Thanks in advance.

Have you put a copy of replaygain.exe and mppdec.exe in the same folder as MPC Batch Encoder, and replaygain.exe in the Windows folder?

Ruse,

Originally, I just copied replaygain.exe into C:WINNT but not into the folder where the batch encoder and mppdec.exe is.

Ok, I just tried adding it to my MPC Programs file and still no go. I also updated to Speek's 2.0.3 batch encoder successfully and clicked on 'Output to text file' but all I get is text file with a simple header and no data. Still trying different things.

On average, how long does it take replaygain.exe to run a file (say a 5 minute song)? Is it instantanteous or does it take a few seconds to run through the whole file?

Any other suggestions?

copy mppdec.exe also to c:winnt

INSTALLATION:

- Unzip into the directory where you keep mppenc.exe and mppdec.exe
- Copy replaygain.exe into your Windows directory (in most cases this will be: C:Windows or C:WINNT)
- Run MPC Batch Encoder.exe

Maybe your are using the letters å,ä and ö in your path to
the mpc-tracks. I know this happens when I try using these
letters in the path. It's tough being Swedish...

/Tobbe

Open up the command-line DOS window, and from there run the mpcbatch.bat file that the batch encoder makes.

You'll be able to see what the problem is.

Copying mppdec.exe to C:WINNT did the trick. Thanks JohnV!

Last question: The Headroom adjustment on .90b in_mpc.dll acts as kind of a master output, right? 0dB would be no additional boost or cut after whatever the replay gain adjustment is? A -3dB setting would actually make the overall output 3dB hotter and conversely, +3dB would attenuate the output by 3dB. If Clip Protect is turned on is there any reason to have a headroom setting higher than 0? We'd just be turning the already attenuated signal down even further and lose S/N, right?

Many thanks to sharp ears on this forum.

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Speek,

If you're reading this, you may want to update your installation notes with the MPC Batch Encoder to include JohnV's reccomendation. Nice tabs, btw.

I will do that. Sorry for the inconvenience. I didn't realize that mppdec.exe also had to be in the path. I already had it there because I knew that was needed for the Winamp MPC plugin.

I think what you say about the headroom slider is correct. But I did some tests with RG and CP off, and 0 dB on the slider is certainly not the original level. 0 dB is ~ 1.6 dB attenuated. I don't know why this is.

So I guess the Headroom slider operates independently of any of the Replay Gain and Clip Protect settings?

Speek, how did you come up with the -1.6dB measurement? Was this compared to a previous version of in_mpp.dll or something else?

A weird aside--I just went to check my in_mpc.dll settings and eventhough the Headroom adjustment box on the far right side had 0 as a setting, the slider bar was pegged all the way to the left. As soon as I touched it to see what was going on, it snapped to its correct position in the center.

Hi,

there is a bug in 0.90b, which leads to an -1.58dB quiter signal. this attenuation is independent of the "Headroom"-slider.
this bug is fixed within 0.90c (coming up today)...

regards,
buschel

Yes, this was compared to the 1.9.0 version and also to mppdec.exe. These two had the same loudness.
I decoded the song, loaded it into CoolEdit and did Analyze -> Statistics.