fixing volume issues on an mp3 file

You could see if any of the tools in Audacity such as amplify work for you. These would likely be lossy changes.

tt2

Once there, the website does not exactly engender confidence when having a look around...

You might want to give consideration to iVolume, which does the same thing but seems to be getting upgrades, including for Catalina. https://www.mani.de/en/ivolume/index.html

I used MP3 Gain to create a new file on my Desktop with the Volume set at the default 60.

I then created a second copy with the Volume set at 80.

There was no difference in playback volume between the two files.

Do you have SoundCheck enabled? if so, iTunes/Music will adjust playback so as to negate the effect of the adjustment you made to the file.

To see if MP3Gain really did anything, compare the file volume level in iTunes/Music Get Info on the Before and After files (the -6.9 dB in your screen cap).

BMW-KTM:

"fixing volume issues on an mp3 file: I wish to alter the volume level of audio files such that the changes I perform are reflected in the actual file. I know I can adjust volume in iTunes on a per-song basis but that's not what I want because it does not affect the file. It only affects how iTunes handles the file.[...] I want to change the volume level of the file and MP3 Gain has so far not been the answer."

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Are iTunes Purchases?:

If these come from the iTunes Store, then note that their specs cannot be modified. Due to piracy concerns, modifying the extension (from M4A-to-MP3) is unsuccessful, and has no affect.

You might try MP3Gain. I haven't tried it, but it claims:

MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.

Which sounds like it might do what you want of it.

tt2

BMW-KTM Said:

"I auditioned them first using finder and then I added them to iTunes Library and auditioned them again in iTunes."

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Try QuickTime Player:

You might want to try Quicktime Player for Mac. By doing so, you could tell if it is iTunes making the issue, not the file itself..

Go Here: Download QuickTime Player 7 for Mac OS X v10.6.3 - Apple Support

tt2 -- Just to calibrate, for that track in iTunes/Music, what was the "volume" value on the Files tab of Get Info? Thanks.

turingtest2 wrote:

It says -9.8 dB.

tt2

tt2 - Thanks. Yup, it's a hot one. Easy to see why a tool like MP3Gain or iVolume would have trouble on files like that.

Possibly not the same software. I failed to check, but the link I dropped is to a Windows utility rather than something available through the app store. Still no good, but for different reasons, unless you have easy access to Windows.

tt2

Then you may be asking for something that cannot be done. If part of the waveform of a song is already at maximum volume then I suspect no lossless algorithm can be used to increase the overall loudness.

tt2

No offence meant here either. Here is the waveform for a randomly selected track in my library.

It cannot realistically be made louder with a lossless transform, though in principle the quieter bits could potentially be amplified. Clearly I've happened upon a track that is generally quite loud throughout, but hopefully you see my point, there are some tracks that you cannot make louder using a reversible function.

tt2