problem with volume leveling

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Derek70

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i have the volume leveling turned on but still some songs are louder than others. i like to play my songs randomly sometime like a radio station, but this is nerveracking. why is this happening? i tried everything to fix it, the volume leveling is not working. i wnt into prefrences, i saw where sound check is checked. still it doesn't work
 
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kornchild2002

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Soundcheck is not perfect and often produces wonky results. This has held true ever since Apple introduced the feature in iTunes and iDevices. You need to use a 3rd party program to adjust the volume/gain of your songs. There are two routes you can take. The first one will be less accurate but still produce acceptable results. The second one will be more accurate but it may cost you some money.

  1. Use a program like mp3Gain or AACGain while disabling Soundcheck in iTunes. The programs will then take your files (either mp3 or AAC files), scan them, and adjust all their "volumes" so that they are within +/-0.5 dB of each other. That range shouldn't be audible on your end when going song-to-song. You pick a single dB value (the lower the negative number, the higher the playback volume so a -95dB song will playback louder than a -84dB song) and it's applied to your entire music library. The process can be reversed but you have to use the same program you used to apply the gain values. These will work only for mp3 and AAC files, nothing else. AACGain and mp3Gain have a benefit in that, if you play your music using different hardware and software outside of the Apple universe, the songs will be volume leveled on them too. This method has been around for a while and is effective but a newer method has come out after iTunes introduced Soundcheck.
  2. Leave Soundcheck enabled but use a 3rd party program to scan your library and convert those Soundcheck values to more accurate adjustments. This is more accurate as every song will be within +/-0.1 dB of each other so the differences won't be audible at all. As before, you have to rely on a 3rd party program but, unlike the first step, the software may not be free. I'm not sure what programs exist on the Windows side but I use iVolume for OS X. It cost me $30 but has been very reliable. It even comes with a lifetime supply of updates for the newer versions of OS X and iTunes. I think you can use foobar2000 on Windows but I'm not sure how it works. I do know that there is a version of iVolume for Windows as well. The benefit of this, aside from being more accurate, is that it will work for all the audio files in your iTunes library whether they are AAC, mp3, Apple lossless, WAV, or AIFF. The downside is that this method works with only iTunes and iDevices. If you playback your music using other devices/software, the volume won't be leveled.
 

Cold Irons

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iVolume is available on Windows (Win 7 here). I use it, and it works "OK"....still not perfect....I still have some volume differences, but much better than nothing (and much better than the iTunes soundcheck option).
 

Code Monkey

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I keep meaning to transition to iVolume, but I'm also skittish with the $30 price tag and the infrequency of maintenance updates. Last update was October 2012, a month prior to a wholesale revision of iTunes, prior to the last Mac OS update, and well over a year ago (and while it claims Win 8 compatibility, that was during the period of the pre-release betas). Promising free updates doesn't mean that much when the last full revision was 5 years ago, and maintenance updates are less than once per year.

Foobar2K you just "load" the desired tracks into it and select the volume normalization from a drop down menu.

One quibble: there is no functional difference between iVolume and the free solutions beyond the automation. You're not going to get better results with iVolume, you just won't have to monkey with stuff outside of iTunes at the file level. My main reason for wanting to move to it is that my audio collection has been piecemeal normalized with mpe/AACgain one album at a time over the past 12 years. If I transition to iTunes Match, I will wind up with a nightmare of the stuff it uploads from my computer with the mp3gain tags mixed in with the stuff it matches without. An iTunes integrated solution would be much preferable, particularly since I believe the soundcheck values should be mirrored to iTunes Match.
 
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kornchild2002

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I believe the devs behind iVolume release updates only when they have to. I can't speak for the Windows version of the software since I under OS X but I do know that they had to release updates back when iTunes 10 and iTunes 11 were released. iTunes 11 broke compatibility and they fixed that, they didn't need to release an update when Mavericks came out as the software was still compatible with it.

I went with iVolume mainly because my options are limited with OS X and I didn't want to have to fire up a Windows VM just to use foobar2000 or something else. Plus integration with iTunes is always nice. As I said, I don't know if the Windows version performs just as seamlessly but I haven't had any issues, aside from compatibility with new versions of iTunes (which are patched within a week of the new iTunes release). The results have been a lot more accurate than using mp3/AACGain as, even with those, I had some audible problems.
 

Derek70

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OK, i just downloaded Mp3gain. i was wondering. since i manualy load my ipod. can i use it directly on my ipod. or do i have to take them off the ipod and reload them after i level the volumes. because i want level the volumes of the music that is already on my ipod. is that possable?
 

Derek70

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in other words can i volume level from the ipod itself? That would make a whole lot easier if i could.
 

Derek70

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OK i did some experiments. (i know i have not been on here awhile but i have just now discoverd something) my ipod DOES have volume leveling it is just that the Panasonic SC-HC 28 does not use it. it has its own equelizer, its own sound set up and it does not use the volume leveling my ipod has. on my earphones. thres perfect volume leveling but on the Panasonic it has its own sound set up. my only question is is there a way to override it where it will use the ipod's sound set up?
 

cjmnews

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The volume leveling only goes through the headphone jack. The connector on the bottom does not get the leveling benefit because the volume is not adjusted on the pins on the bottom.

If you can connect the iPod to the Panasonic SC-HC 28 with the headphone jack, you get the leveling.

Lower quality sound, but leveled.
 

Derek70

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I tried that. i had a wire with a USB on one end and an earphone jak connector on the other end. unfortunatly it would not recognize it. it just said "no device" im probely gonna have to get a small set of computer speakers with an earphone jak connector. :(
 

cjmnews

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That Panasonic system was designed to use the bottom port of iPhone, iPods and iPads. There is no headphone jack connection to use. The bottom port will give you much better sound quality.

I'd use the Panasonic and adjust the volume with the remote. Or try adjusting the volume of tracks within iTunes to make them similar. They can't be too far apart. Songs from the 80's and earlier are lower, yes. But adjust these in iTunes, or use the software mentioned above.

Yes you will have to remove the tracks from the iPod and put them back on to get the volume adjustments onto the iPod.
 

Derek70

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i tried adjust the volume adjust ment on the track. where i clicked on "Get info" then "Options". theres no differance. only through the headphone jack. from now on i will only download from Amazon. i learned my lesson the hardway about those free downloads. they're free for a reason. they're like Gump's "box of chocolates",
 

cjmnews

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My bad, I forgot that volume is not adjusted on the bottom port again.
 

Derek70

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about the mp3gain, it will not recognize most of my music files. it recognizes some but not all. in fact most it will not recognize. dont know whay theyre the same type.
 

cjmnews

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My guess would be ID3 tag version. You should be on v2.3.
iTunes can convert them for you.
 

Derek70

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This kinda sucks because i am trying to make my ipod more album orinted and i am in a place where there are no music stores. i have what i call "fake" albums" meaning i have some songs from an album on "greatest hits" and i retag them to make it say it is from the orginal album. and i download the rest of the songs from that same album as if i ripped the album itself. most of the time i get lucky and it is the same volume.
i just now bought a set of speakers and ONLY ONE SPEAKER WORKS! and they didnt give me a reciept to refund them!
UUUUGH! It just want' meant to be, was it??
:mad::mad:
 
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