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Music, Audio, and Podcasting
How can I boost the volume of a song before adding it to my iTunes library?
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<blockquote data-quote="dc2bluelight" data-source="post: 1812724" data-attributes="member: 399729"><p>In iTunes, go to Preferences > Playback and click on "Sound Check". Sound Check is Apple's version of "Replay Gain". The way it works is when you import a track, iTunes scans the entire track and comes up with a gain correction that can be applied during playback. The sound file itself is not changed other than to have Sound Check metadata added, but playback gain is adjusted during playback. Using Sound Check helps a lot in avoiding major volume changes between tracks, including your vinyl rips. </p><p></p><p>Replay Gain is a similar process, scanning the file, analyzing loudness, and adding a meta-tag that tells the player what adjustment the track volume needs. Very much like Sound Check, but more cross-platform. The downside to Replay Gain is there are few apps that can do the file scanning and meta-tagging AND deal with all the different file types. Typically, you have one app for .mp3, one for FLAC, etc. But Replay Gain works quite well. Look for it in apps like WinAmp, or Foobar2000. </p><p></p><p>However, if the track is really, really low, and re-recording is not an option, you can always open the file in <strong><a href="https://www.audacityteam.org/" target="_blank">Audacity</a></strong>(free audio app) and apply "Normalization" (Effects > Normalize, set for -1dB), but understand this will change the file itself permanently unless you save-as a different filename. And, understand that Normalization looks only at the highest peak in the entire file, and adjust the entire track level so that peak lands at whatever level you choose. -1dB is safe. But be aware that one loud record tick can create the highest peak in the file and establish the normalization level, which won't be what you want. Fortunately, there are also declick functions in Audacity. By contrast, a single loud record tick will not affect the loudness analysis done by Sound Check and Replay Gain.</p><p></p><p>The big difference between normalization and Sound Check/Replay Gain is that normalizing looks at the highest peak and ignores track loudness, <em><strong>then changes the actual data</strong></em>, where Sound Check and Replay Gain use a loudness determining algorithm to establish track volume and apply the correction as a meta-tag leaving the actual audio data unscathed. They are NOT the same. You can turn off Replay Gain or Sound Check any time. Once normalization has been applied, it's permanent.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dc2bluelight, post: 1812724, member: 399729"] In iTunes, go to Preferences > Playback and click on "Sound Check". Sound Check is Apple's version of "Replay Gain". The way it works is when you import a track, iTunes scans the entire track and comes up with a gain correction that can be applied during playback. The sound file itself is not changed other than to have Sound Check metadata added, but playback gain is adjusted during playback. Using Sound Check helps a lot in avoiding major volume changes between tracks, including your vinyl rips. Replay Gain is a similar process, scanning the file, analyzing loudness, and adding a meta-tag that tells the player what adjustment the track volume needs. Very much like Sound Check, but more cross-platform. The downside to Replay Gain is there are few apps that can do the file scanning and meta-tagging AND deal with all the different file types. Typically, you have one app for .mp3, one for FLAC, etc. But Replay Gain works quite well. Look for it in apps like WinAmp, or Foobar2000. However, if the track is really, really low, and re-recording is not an option, you can always open the file in [B][URL="https://www.audacityteam.org/"]Audacity[/URL][/B](free audio app) and apply "Normalization" (Effects > Normalize, set for -1dB), but understand this will change the file itself permanently unless you save-as a different filename. And, understand that Normalization looks only at the highest peak in the entire file, and adjust the entire track level so that peak lands at whatever level you choose. -1dB is safe. But be aware that one loud record tick can create the highest peak in the file and establish the normalization level, which won't be what you want. Fortunately, there are also declick functions in Audacity. By contrast, a single loud record tick will not affect the loudness analysis done by Sound Check and Replay Gain. The big difference between normalization and Sound Check/Replay Gain is that normalizing looks at the highest peak and ignores track loudness, [I][B]then changes the actual data[/B][/I], where Sound Check and Replay Gain use a loudness determining algorithm to establish track volume and apply the correction as a meta-tag leaving the actual audio data unscathed. They are NOT the same. You can turn off Replay Gain or Sound Check any time. Once normalization has been applied, it's permanent. [/QUOTE]
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How can I boost the volume of a song before adding it to my iTunes library?
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