To use Sound Check or not to use Sound Check?

Question

Level 1

8 points

To use Sound Check or not to use Sound Check?

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and to Ipod in general. I purchased an Ipod Classic 160G a couple of months ago and am enjoying it. I have ripped about 500 CDs into it at either 128 or 256 kbps AAC. I use the higher codec for CDs that are "old" (pre-1993) or not remasters. When I play back, there is a noticeable difference in volume level. What I have been doing is individually adjusting the volume in Itunes for each ripped CD. It's a tedious process. My question is: would it just be better to use Sound Check? My concern is that, by using Sound Check, there might be a loss in quality in the files. That is, does Itunes normalise the sound to the "lowest common denominator"?

Thanks for any advice.

Toshiba laptop, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Feb 27, 2008 7:12 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 27, 2008 7:29 AM in response to Nebajense

There will not be a loss in quality, but it sure messes up the dynamics of the music. If your listening to a song with allot of volume changes, it tries to make it all the same volume. It's up to you but sound check bothers me.

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Answer 2

Nebajense Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 28, 2008 12:21 PM in response to Jeff Bryan

Just some follow-up questions to that: once the imported songs are run through the Gain software, they are automatically adjusted in Itunes or must I over-write what was imported into Itunes originally? Also, for the CDs that I've already ripped and exported to my Ipod, I must now run those ripped files in Gain and then transfer them to my Ipod? (In other words, erasing what's on my Ipod now, pre-Gain.)

Apologies for these newb questions!

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Answer 3

Jeff Bryan

Level 9

61,797 points

Feb 29, 2008 11:12 AM in response to Nebajense

once the imported songs are run through the Gain software, they are automatically adjusted in Itunes or must I over-write what was imported into Itunes originally?

Everything in iTunes that hasn't been run through the gain software, must be before transferring to the iPod.

Also, for the CDs that I've already ripped and exported to my Ipod, I must now run those ripped files in Gain and then transfer them to my Ipod? (In other words, erasing what's on my Ipod now, pre-Gain.)

Yes.

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Answer 4

Feb 29, 2008 3:04 PM in response to Nebajense

I tried mp3gain on my iTunes, but with 20,000 songs it was taking more than 24 hours & finally crashed - & that was just analyzing songs & not actually changing gain. Also it showed that there would be a lot of clipping even to change songs to 89 dB, so I was a little reluctant to perform the changes.

I wish there was a more elegant solution. I do like the proposed standard that mp3gain makes for having a standard gain reference written into the tags of all mp3 files.

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Answer 5

Jeff Bryan

Level 9

61,797 points

Feb 27, 2008 7:55 AM in response to Nebajense

There are 3rd party programs that do this more effectively (at least in my opinion).

For Windows there is mp3/aacGain.

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Answer 6

Fronzman

Level 1

20 points

Feb 27, 2008 9:23 AM in response to Jeff Bryan

Great tool! Thanks for that link!

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Answer 7

Nebajense Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 27, 2008 6:32 PM in response to Nebajense

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

Re the AACgain software, I downloaded it, but am not sure how it works. Do I have to run every CD through it and then place the file into Itunes?

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