Setting all MP3s to the same volume.

Spikeywan said:

...When on the PC, I used MP3Gain to set the peak volume of all my songs to the same level. This stops the issue of some songs being too quiet, causing you to crank the volume up, and then getting your ears blown to smithereens when a louder song is played. I also listen to my music a lot on my iPod when commuting by motorcycle, so I really need consistent volume levels, as I can't keep stopping to turn it up and down. I need a system that will work on both my iPod and my Mac.

I know that there is a feature of iTunes called Sound Check, but it didn't work on the PC version, hence the use of MP3Gain....

Click to expand...

hi spikeywan
you probably realise this but it's going to depend on the kind of music you listen to and also how close you want the levels to be.
the word 'music' pretty much covers a wide range. if you ask these programs to make metallica and the goldberg variations the same 'apparent' volume level, it's not going to do what you want. these levellers will not produce 100% results, it's impossible given the vast variety of music. but i don't know what's in your collection...
how long is your commute? perhaps you could create a playlist of the stuff you want to hear, add to it over the months, years, and adjust it as you go?
you can adjust tracks manually, there's a volume slider on the info page in itunes.

soundcheck works fairly ok on the mac, it helps somewhat, it's a starting place. you can run that and then maybe do the fine tuning manually yourself.

a more consistent way of doing this would be to use compressors and limiters at the output, but i'm unaware of any way of doing that on an ipod, but you can do it on your mac.

because music comes in so many shapes and sizes and because of how the human ear works, it's not possible to throw too wide a mix of tracks at any software and have it automatically make adjustments you'll be 100% happy with. i think.

have you used the soundcheck function on itunes?

meanwhile... http://www.mani.de/en/ivolume/index.html

you must be the worst googler i know..

is that too expensive? oh, you want it done for free... you can manually adjust the levels. for free. it will only cost you time.

what ipod do you have? ipods also have soundcheck built in.
theres always ios apps too, plenty of them. do a search for srs labs. their demo leaves a fully functioning volume changer.


https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/srs-iwow-app/id357877519?mt=8

let us know how you get on

That $30 ivolume app works ok - installed and ran on my itunes library, then synced my ipod. Playlists on my car sound system (from the ipod) are much better now - far better volume leveling between tracks.

Apple's sound leveling system is so hopeless you end up checking your settings to see if it''s even turned on... shame Apple doesn't support Replaygain (even as an option) as the free mp3gain works great - think Songbird (a Mac mp3 player) supports Replaygain... but of course, all ipods are gimped with only Soundcheck support.