equal volume levels

[Barcrest]

Although I am aware of some people using applications like MP3Gain the problem is my library is in the hundreds of thousand titles, normalizing all these titles thru MP3ZGain would require considerable time and power, and to be honest I am terrified the application is going to end up ruining any of my files as it does rewrite them as it normalices them.

Personally I would like on "on the fly" solution that normaklizes them as they are being played, I went to the extent of purchasing a hardware unit that supposedly does this about 6 months back, but unfortunatelly not only did it not do a good job at normalizing it also introduced a whole bunch of hiss into my media stream.

Tony is correct, doing this on the fly is the best and doing it with hardware is the best solution. I need to look around the web again see if i can find anything. If anyone else is looking you are looking for an audio compressor. I believe that is the correct term for something that makes the sound a constant level, or so my audio engineer tells me.

[eist1]

Just an FYI, I use MP3gain on all of my MP3's, and of right now I have about 22000, and have had no problems. Here's an FAQ from the MP3Gain site:

Does normalizing the mp3 degrade its quality?
No. MP3Gain does not decode and re-encode the mp3 to change its volume. You can change the volume as many times as you want, and the mp3 will sound just as good (or just as bad!) as it did before you started.

Also, if you want to go back to the original Gain level, you can go to Modify Gain/ Undo Gain Changes, and it will set the MP3 back to the original level. When I originally did mine, it took about a day and a half, but after it was done, they were all pretty close in volume. Now I just run it when I add a new album.

[Zazen]

Tony is correct, doing this on the fly is the best and doing it with hardware is the best solution. I need to look around the web again see if i can find anything. If anyone else is looking you are looking for an audio compressor. I believe that is the correct term for something that makes the sound a constant level, or so my audio engineer tells me.

This is good for a kind of listening where everything should be approximately the same volume like in a bar, but if you have a piece that relies on soft-loud contrast between parts (movements of a symphony) it can adversely affect your music. The main reason I use MP3Gain is that it can look for loudness across the entire album and change it as a whole, so it will not push the soft violin solo up and the massive orchestral crescendo down.

[Barcrest]

Tony is correct, doing this on the fly is the best and doing it with hardware is the best solution. I need to look around the web again see if i can find anything. If anyone else is looking you are looking for an audio compressor. I believe that is the correct term for something that makes the sound a constant level, or so my audio engineer tells me.

This is good for a kind of listening where everything should be approximately the same volume like in a bar, but if you have a piece that relies on soft-loud contrast between parts (movements of a symphony) it can adversely affect your music. The main reason I use MP3Gain is that it can look for loudness across the entire album and change it as a whole, so it will not push the soft violin solo up and the massive orchestral crescendo down.

Yes i have noticed volume can fluctuate during the same song/video with cheaper compressors. However hardware compressors are what are used in the industry for TV etc so they must work. To be honest it's all a little over my head. I have just left my albums as they are and on the whole they sound fine, the couple of exceptions i just alter my volume slightly.

[netcat]

the other problem is I have several hundred videos and many thousand Karaokes, and have no way to regulate the audio volume for the videos

[coffee]

Yes, my problem is also the videos. I use mp3gain for my mp3's and I have no problem with them. One should be able to use this to normalize the mp3 part of the karaoke files.
My only problem is the VIDEOS.

Coffee

[eist1]

You can try this, found it out on the web. Looks like someone created a batch file with a few apps (including MP3Gain) to normalize .avi files. The .bat could be tweaked if needed I'm sure. I couldn't get it to work, but it's a start.

http://www.vidomi.com/download.php?op=geninfo&did=19

[eist1]

Netcat,

I just sent you a similar program to test on a few of your Video files. Check your email. Let me know if it works well for the videos or not. The videos will need to be in .avi format for it to work though.

[Barcrest]

Right i asked the experts over at Matthews Electronics.. http://www.djequipment.co.uk

I have Songs where the volume level is different, i want to make them sound the same when playing them at discos and such. Somebody told me i need a compressor, i was looking on your site but i am a bit lost, what do you suggest i need as i am confused now.

They said....

Hi Barry, all you need is one of these COMPOSER PRO-XL MDX2600 £79.00 inc vat Mark

So there you go, that is the hardware solution and to be honest it's not to expensive. You might be able to find them on ebay.

[coffee]

Hi Everyone

I tried the link Eist1 posted and it is very promissing. The problem is that I need a "normalize.jobs" script that is run through "job control" in nandub. Nanbub is the same as VirtualDub. Can anybody maybe assist with this script that is needed? It just need to combine the audio and video. (Direct stream copy)
The bat file works well untill it gets to (  start /wait nandub/nandub /s"normalize.jobs" /x /r  ). The site's support forum is down. It normalize the sound but it can't compile it again. This will be very helpfull to everyone that uses Freebox because if this is working you just need to copy your files into a directory and normalize it once.
No need for hardware, filters or plugins.
Well done Eist1.

Coffee

[eist1]

Coffee,

I think I found a better soluton, it's called AVI_Gain, here are a few links to a few diffrent versions. See which version works the best:

http://www.bestsharing.com/f/e1Ta9E247163

http://www.bestsharing.com/f/0aZqq214081

The only think I needed to do with each is to go into each .bat file and remove the N- from in front of the %1 if you don't do this the program errors out saying it can't find the file.

With this program, just put all of your .avi's in the root folder (Example: c:\AVI_Gain) and run the batch file, it will normalize the avi's and rename them. Hope this works. Try a few samples and let us know how thwy sound. Thanks

[Barcrest]

see that tree infront of you, well you are barking up the wrong one. hardware is the way to go

[eist1]

Barcrest,

If you are referring to my comment "better solution", I was referring to the previous link to the normalizer software (AVI_Gain), not the hardware solution. I fully agree that the hardware would be the best way to go, but that is a pretty big piece of hardware to add to my already filled stereo cabinet, and I have no complaints so far with MP3Gain, as it sounds fine to me, especially after using SRS Audio Sandbox to enhance the MP3's (whether using MP3Gain or not). As for the video audio nomalizer (AVI_Gain), I personally haven't tried it on actual music videos, so that's why I was asking coffee and netcat to try them out and let us know if they even work. Hopefully we'll hear something from them. Thanks

[coffee]

Hi Barry

I respect your point-of-view. I just think that people can rather donate $75 to you than spend $150 on hardware that is bulky and sometime not so reliable. You should be able to bulk prosses your videos with this way we are busy with.
Eist1, I'm on top of this and I will let you guys know as soon as I get it working. I got a code gennerator last night and I'm currently busy with it.

Coffee

[Barcrest]

Sorry didn't mean to upset anyone