how to normalize thousands of wavs all at once? (1 Viewer)

[felix_suwarno]

hi guys. i have ripped every cd in my collection to wav files using CDEX but somehow they are not normalized.

Is there a way to normalize the wav files all at once ( there are around 2500 files ) without degrading sound quality?

please help. thanks

 

[Scott L]

will iTunes do this on import? I seem to remember it does something like this.

 

[Carlo_M]

Felix, I have not yet found anything that will normalize WAV files without actually altering the files. There is no lossless normalizing that I'm aware of.

Also, normalizing in and of itself doesn't really make all music the same volume. It sets the peak of each song to the same level, which is not what you may perceive to be the actual volume.

What I have found to be of great help is MP3Gain (and AACGain if you like that format). I have imported all of my files at 320kbps AAC and used AACGain on it. What MP3/AACGain does is actually mathematically compute the perceived volume of the entire MP3 or AAC file and set it to the same relative volume. It's not exact as MP3 and AAC file volumes can only be adjusted in increments of 1.5db, but since most ears can't discern 1db of difference easily, it's good enough. Also, since the altered playback volume setting is stored separately from the music part of the file, it does not degrade the sound quality at all. Of course, converting to MP3/AAC is itself a SQ loss. But to my ears (and I have good hearing) I could not readily tell the difference between the original file and a 320AAC.

 

[felix_suwarno]

thanks guys. but itunes didnt do that. i am using ipod 60 gigs, but i dont use apple lossless format because the wavs are also used in my office to be used with adobe after effects / premiere. so, i need them in wav format, not any other format. and my songs sound sometimes loud, sometimes NOT that loud. i hate it. any help? it seems that the ipod doesnt adjust the volume automatically on the fly.

 

[Carlo_M]

Sorry Felix, I think you're out of luck. You might want to google WAVGain which I think is someone's attempt to do what AAC/MP3Gain does for WAV files, but it will physically change the files. Maybe sound degradation will be inaudible, though.

Give it a shot and let us know!

 

[felix_suwarno]

or perhaps there is a patch for my ipod that adds "smart volume" function? it is version 1.1 now.

thanks for the replies, carlo.

 

[Rommel_L]

felix,

check this link and this link...


Google is your friend...

 

[Mike Fassler]

felix,

check this link and this link...


Google is your friend...

 

[MarkHastings]

FYI, iTunes volume normalization doesn't actually change the file, what it does is, it sets volume controls into each file. When a 'loud' song is played, the 'normalization' lowers the sound volume so that it matches the softer songs.

Of course, this means the normalization only works when you play the song in iTunes since it's a meta tag and not actually doing anything to the physical song file.Not at all...A real friend would let you know if the links (that it shows you) are worth clicking on (or are even helpful) - Google isn't your friend, Google is just an operator.

An operator gives you the phone number of the restaurant, it doesn't tell you wether that restaurant is good or not.

 

[Carlo_M]

Felix, and all who are interested, read MP3 Gain's site about the difference of normalization vs. true volume/level matching. Normalizing just sets the peak of the songs to the same level, which does not equate to "sounding about the same volume". Click on the first two links of that page:

Normalization (aka Peak Normalization)
Volume matching vs. Normalization

I would just hate for you to normalize all of your files and find it does not volume match like you thought it would. I've been frustrated in the past with normalizing features not performing like I thought they would...

 

[Rick_Brown]

Foobar does "Replaygain":

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?RGFoobar