replay gain doesn't seem to work for me

hi, i’ve checked out the “how to” replay gain thread, but i find it more confusing than illuminating.

i have a 4gb Clip + and i use it on an iMac, btw, so i don’t have any “library” features or playlists, in case that affects anything.

i assume (yes i know “an ass out of you and me”) that Replay Gain can add or subtract volume to a track or an album. so i’ve chosen “Repaly Gain” then “Mode: Album” then “Pre-Gain 12.0 DB” thinking that this should boost lower-volume tracks (especially from older CDs, before the Volume Wars).

now, 2 things are happening that confuse me.

  1. no discernible difference in volume. i thought 12.0 DB would boost a track by 12 DBs. is this wrong? anyways, i can’t hear a difference.

  2. i would assume that Album Mode would use the same Gain setting on all tracks on that album, but would not affect other tracks from other albums. wrong. when i choose Replay Gain, Album Mode every single track on my player has that setting.

this kinda defeats the purpose of boosting certain songs if every song is boosted as well (if that’s what it is supposed to be doing.)

if i change it to Song Mode, then it applies that setting to every song on my player. if i change the number to say 3 DB, it applies that setting to every single song.

if my understanding of Replay Gain wrong? is it a Mac thing? 

thanks in advance for reading all this and any replies that aren’t abusive.

p.s. i have to say i love this product but the support information is NOT anywhere near as clear and simple as it is for Apple products/software, to use another tech example. 

Theres a lot of info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replaygain

But basically, in album gain mode every track in an album is set to the same volume.  In track gain mode, every track gets the same volume (usually only used with mixes or shuffle since this will cause really wierd effects on gapless albums).  +12dB would try to make every album 12dB louder, but you can’t actually go nearly that loud so either it would saturate (if clipping detection is enabled) or massively distort (no detection).  I don’t recommend going above a few dB if you want replaygain to actually normalize volume.  

hi, thanks for the response but i’m either a) no clearer or b) it isn’t working the way you say.

for example, if i pick one song off of Back In Black, say Hells Bells, then i pick Replay Gain, Album Mode, i would expect that all 10 songs on Back In Black to have a volume boost.

but i would NOT expect my entire music collection, hundreds of albums, to have the same boost.

is this how it should work? if so, it’s buggy.

when i choose Album Mode for one song, it’s then automatically applied to every song, every album, in my entire collection.

is my understanding wrong? or is it a bug? i’m a Mac user, BTW.

thanks.

@jason70 wrote:

hi, thanks for the response but i’m either a) no clearer or b) it isn’t working the way you say.

 

for example, if i pick one song off of Back In Black, say Hells Bells, then i pick Replay Gain, Album Mode, i would expect that all 10 songs on Back In Black to have a volume boost.

 

but i would NOT expect my entire music collection, hundreds of albums, to have the same boost.

 

You can check the album gain value in most software that supports replaygain.  Usually when you replaygain scan albums, it shows you that value as well.  The actual value will depend on how loud the track is, but its very unlikely multiple albums will have precisely the same gain.

@jason70 wrote:

when i choose Album Mode for one song, it’s then automatically applied to every song, every album, in my entire collection. 

I dont’ know how you would pick album mode for one song.  Its usually an all or nothing thing.  If replaygain is on, all songs you’ve scanned get it.  If its off, none of them do.  Turning it on for individual songs wouldn’t make sense.  

hi, thanks for trying to help but i’m still lost here.

“You can check the album gain value in most software that supports replaygain.  Usually when you replaygain scan albums, it shows you that value as well.  The actual value will depend on how loud the track is, but its very unlikely multiple albums will have precisely the same gain.”

what software are we talking about here? the Sandisk Clip Plus software on the actual Clip Plus MP3 player?

or are we talking about my computer software that i originally ripped my mp3s with – in this case, iTunes on my iMac that i used to rip MP3s from my CD collection.

i’m unaware of any Replay Gain setting/feature on my iTunes.

and on the Clip Plus itself, i’ve checked Replay Gain on and off, and have heard no difference. ditto for track or album mode.

sorry, but i’m missing something here. i’m vaguely aware that some MP3 files have gain data attached to them and somehow the Clip Plus “levels” out all the MP3 files to make them the same volume but other than that i’m not understanding how to do this.

i think i need a dummy-proof walk-through on what to do from the beginning. or someone to tell me that Replay Gain does not work with my setup: files transferred from my iMac to my Clip Plus.

i have no “Interface” software when i connect my Clip Plus to my iMac. i just have folders of the my various albums. i cannot create Playlists when my Clip Plus is connected/charging to my iMac.

is this is the problem? 

sorry for the utter confusion but it’s either not working, or i’m not doing something that i’m unaware of.

thanks.

@jason70 wrote:

 

or are we talking about my computer software that i originally ripped my mp3s with – in this case, iTunes on my iMac that i used to rip MP3s from my CD collection.

 

i’m unaware of any Replay Gain setting/feature on my iTunes.

 

and on the Clip Plus itself, i’ve checked Replay Gain on and off, and have heard no difference. ditto for track or album mode.

 

I don’t use iTunes, but if you don’t have the option of inserting ReplayGain settings in iTunes, that would explain why there’s no volume or sound difference between On & OFF on your Clip+. You have to use ripping (or editing) software that supports it.

@jason70 wrote:

hi, thanks for trying to help but i’m still lost here.

 

“You can check the album gain value in most software that supports replaygain.  Usually when you replaygain scan albums, it shows you that value as well.  The actual value will depend on how loud the track is, but its very unlikely multiple albums will have precisely the same gain.”

 

what software are we talking about here? the Sandisk Clip Plus software on the actual Clip Plus MP3 player?

 

Back in the Replaygain instructions thread you read, at the very first step it had you download a program and scan your files to add the replaygain info.  If you go back to that step, and look at one of your files in that program it should give you the replaygain value for that track.