![]() My audio library includes a lot of music which seems to be recorded at different sound levels, such that any random play can jump from a really quiet song to a really loud one, making me jump for the volume control. Years ago on a home theater system I had the ability on the receiver or amp or whatever it's called to turn on what they called dynamic range, which would boost soft sounds and quiet loud sounds so I could watch a movie late at night at relatively low volume and hear everything, it would boost whispers and dampen loud sounds so it would not wake up the neighbors if there was an explosion in the movie. ![]() In that case it is better than creating a wave, lowering or increasing its value, and then make it back to an mp3, because those operations would certainly induce more losses.I am not an audio expert. Where mp3gain can be useful, also is when the wave is no longer available, and perhaps mp3gain can get rid of some overshoots and volume level is too low, or too high. So, still the very best way, is to get the levels and sounding you are after, in Sonar, and not rely on mp3gain, except in a minimum way. But it is no substitute for a good recording and mix and mastering, to begin with. No tool is perfect, it is just sort of an 'averager' of sound, and it does a pretty good job. If your volume is low, to begin with, that should be taken care of in Sonar, and clipping being a problem, that has to do with initial recording settings, or effects, or microphone adjustments.Īgain, mp3gain is not really meant to 'raise' volume, but to do certain normalization to a specified level, while following the said algorithm.That means that it both will raise and lower volumes when used, in order to achieve that said level.Įven though it is 'lossless', meaning the audio data is not altered, it does not mean that you will not loose the 'hearing' of some sounds that you want to keep and hear. So, mp3 gain does not rob Sonar of anything.Īs people are suggesting, do make the best effort to have the wave have proper volume, by mix, effects, and whatever, because mp3gain is no panacea. I have had some mp3's produced from Sonar pass the analysis perfectly, requiring zero adjustment of mp3gain, but they have been just a couple of times. That algorithm is based on how humans perceive sound, specially music.Much of this algorithm, since it's public domain, is no doubt used in some of the plug-in effects we find in softwares, including Sonar. The psychoacoustical algorithm that mp3gain uses is the SAME algorithm that Replay-Gain uses, which is a free development in collaboration by various professional audio experts of the free-software community. I have mine set at 93, though, and it 'reds' just a little on some jobs. The default they recommend is 89 db, a little higher than what some organizations consider standard. The great thing that mp3gain will do to the resultant mp3 form Sonar (or any other mp3) is do a psycho-acoustical analysis of the mp3 and do a special normalization that will get rid of bad clipping, if there's any bad clipping.The level of clipping left, depends on the DEFAULT setting that one gives to mp3gain. Now, Sonar can make an mp3 directly using LAME (as I do), or buy an mp3 codec. I'd prefer to make the best WAV file I can and then if someone wants to make it into a less than perfect MP3, that's their business.Ī good wave is the objective of Sonar, no doubt.īut many people need to make mp3's out of it. MP3s are compressed and have a loss of quality from the original. I can't imagine that the end game for some is a good sounding MP3. Mp3 Gain, though, is not meant to adjust for bad-volume mp3's though, though it can help. In fact, the algorithm, or similar variations, is already a standard for various companies, specially those that make hardware players, in trying to achieve normalization of mp3's that abide by the standard. Those interested can read the specs of what it does.Many people use it. However, even without a copy, the process is 100% reversible, because the algorith changes only the volume of each frame of the mp3, not the other data. ![]() It is very, very convenient to use, and of course, you can do the tests for results on a copy of the mp3.So, there is no risks. Of course if the original mp3 is great, then there is no need for it.And, if it is poor, then it can not make improvements. I have used it and it is a good tool.It will correct for clipping too, quite well. You set the db desired, make an analysis, and then apply the changes. It has state of the art algorithm to normalize without affecting quality, and it is not a "volume level" changer. MP3-Gain is an amazing little free piece of software.
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