Question about Replay Gain standard

Am I the only one to think it’s a stupid idea to store the “gain”, rather than the actual level?

Well,there are many views on this topic.Also there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

Plays music on a specified volume level rather than different volume levels from each music file.So that you don’t have to change the volume all the time according to your desires when listening to music.This also saves battery life because you don’t alter the volume again and again.

And it is also healthier for your ears because you don’t expect a really high volume level at once when a new song starts to play.

Disadvantages:

Consumes time to alter the volume level of each track.Songs might have a really low volume because replay gain decreases your volume and brings it to a certain level.

Well,

its YOUR choice whether you want to have it or not.I had the same impression as you when I first saw the update thread.

Cheers,Happy hearing!!!

SR

You misunderstood.

I use ReplayGain all the time, and was very excited when the Fuze got this feature!

This topic is not about whether it should be used, but about the techical part of it. Here, I’ll explain if you’re interested:

  1. When you “Analyze Volume” a track in MediaMonkey, it uses an algorithm to determine how loud that track is, let’s say 93dB.

  2. MM then compares the track’s level (93dB) to a “reference level” (89dB by default) and decides: this track is 4dB too loud, when playing it, we should apply a -4dB gain.

  3. MM puts this result (-4dB) to your track’s metadata.

  4. You put this track on the Fuze, it will recognize this information. Everytime it plays this track, the volume will be reduced by 4dB, so that all tracks are played at the same volume level.

  5. Of course you’ll find it quieter than before. That’s why you use “Pre-gain” to make ALL track louder.

What I was trying to say is in step 3, ReplayGain should have stored the level of the track (93 dB), instead of the -4dB gain, for various reasons.

Message Edited by justme on 04-14-2009 01:09 PM