Howto normalize music from Audio CD prior to MP3 conversion

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Howto normalize music from Audio CD prior to MP3 conversion

Hello,

I used Audiograbber when I still had a windows box. This program normalized the volume of audio tracks when it imported music before converting them to MP3. Is there any way I can do this, too in iTunes? The normal volume ajustment iTunes does at runtime is not what I want since I will not always listen to the music on iTunes. Any ideas?

Cheers,
Pete

Message was edited by: peter.neu

Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Jan 17, 2008 5:25 AM

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Answer 1

Matko D

Level 1

99 points

Jan 17, 2008 5:58 AM in response to peter.neu

It's not possible in iTunes. What you could do is rip the files to .wav using iTunes or any other program like EAC (windows only). In case your ripping program does not support normalisation, you could manually normalise the files in Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). Save them again as .wav and import the files in your iTunes library. Then convert them to aac or mp3. If you need gapless playback, I strongly recommend not to use Audacity to convert your files ot mp3 (even though the LAME codec used by Audacity is better), as this program adds a small offset to the beginning of a track.

Hope it is any help to you..

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Answer 2

peter.neu Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2008 6:10 AM in response to Matko D

Hm, that's too bad. Any idea if there is a way to automize this task? Seems really time-consuming if I have to first open Audacity to rip & normalize and then go into iTunes to convert.

The only trouble with iTunes import method is that it does not normalize. 😟 How could these guys forget about that?

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Answer 3

Matko D

Level 1

99 points

Jan 17, 2008 7:16 AM in response to peter.neu

I'm not familiar with Automator, so I don't know if there's a way to use this program for your purpose.

Basically I agree with the philosophy of importing music as original as possible and only normalise sound during playback. But in your case I understand it can be annoying.

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Answer 4

NoName

Level 6

12,831 points

Jan 19, 2008 2:31 PM in response to peter.neu

The way to go, I think, would be to use MacMP3Gain to ReplayGain scan and apply the desired changes to your files. If you aren't familiar with basic ReplayGain operations, you should study up on the subject a bit before applying any changes, since they're irreversible.

Note that this program works with existing files, rather than as a sort of CD ripping add-on.

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Answer 5

peter.neu Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 21, 2008 11:16 PM in response to NoName

Yep. I was using MP3Gain a lot when I have Mixes which include MP3s which are already encoded. The downside of MP3Gain is that it can worsen quality of the files that means you will have clipping at certain peak levels. It's really only useful if you have no other option e.g. your orginial CD is broken. But when you import from your CD you should avoid it.

So nobody has a clever trick including Automator and maybe some command-line programs? 😉

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