Great little program - equalize volume

[admin_exported]

I thought I'd tell you all about a great little program called wavegain / mp3gain. It equalizes the actual percived volume of wav or mp3 files. So now you can make compilation albums (using wavgain) or equalise the volume of tracks on your ipod (using mp3gain) and that old Stone Roses track won't sound quiet compared to Oasis! In fact if more people used this perhaps the record companies wouldn't bother boosting (i.e. compressing) the volume of the tracks so much...!?

Heres the links.

http://members.home.nl/w.speek/wavegain.htm

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

Perhaps someone who is very intelligent can explain what "dithering" is? And does this degrade sound quality?

Thanks

jules.

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="jules153"]

Perhaps someone who is very intelligent can explain what "dithering" is? And does this degrade sound quality?

jules.

[/quote]

I'm afraid I don't meet your selection criterion for responding to this question, which is why my answer will be in very simple terms!

No, it's nothing to do with being indecisive.

Basically dithering involves adding random noise or data to a digital signal, which has the effect of making it appear more linear, especially in the very low-level (signal, not frequency) area. All analogue to digital converters add some degree of dither, in order to produce smoother results when the signal is reconverted back to analogue.

See, I told you it was going to be the very simple version...

 

[Clare Newsome]

There's a volume-equalising feature in Apple iTunes, too - Sound Check.

You can find it under iTunes/Preference/Playback - there's a Sound Check option there.

Personally, however, i'm not keen on the effect it has....

An alternative (and by many accounts a better one - though we haven't offiically tested it) is :iVolume, though this doesn't work with DRM-protected iTunes downloads.