Equalizing volume on burned CDs

I make playlists in iTunes 6.0.4 (3) that I like to burn to CDs (in iTunes) for use in my car and elsewhere. With older CDs, the volume gain is significantly lower than more current CDs. When iTunes burns the CD, there can be a big jump or drop in volume as it moves from track to track, depending on the gain of the original source CD. The preferences check-box under Advanced / Burning for "Use Sound Check" doesn't seem to do much, if anything to help. (Sound Check actually works quite well for this when just using iTunes to play the playlist from the computer - so it seems like there might be somthing wrong with the Burning version of Sound Check.)

Is there other software I should try that's relatively easy to assemble and burn playlist CDs with, that also allows volume tweaking of the tracks for the burn?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25 & G4 17 Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.4.5), 1.0 eMac, D-Link DSL Router & Switch, D-Link USB Hub

Posted on May 13, 2006 3:01 PM

18 replies

Jess Smith1 Author

Level 2

204 points

Jun 13, 2006 7:46 PM in response to Jess Smith1

I did as suggested by the Dragon Burn support team: Burned my purchased songs to CD, which converts them to AIFF files (unprotected files), then, modified the titles slightly and re-imported them into iTunes from this new CD, but changing the Preferences / Advanced / Importing - "Import Using..." to AIFF Encoder.

This brought the unprotected AIFF version of the file into iTunes, which should allow Dragon Burn to use these files. I will try a couple of burns using these files to see if both Dragon Burn and MacMP3 Gain will work with these files.

If this works, this is probably the simplest solution using the currently available tools.

By the way, Volume Balancing in Dragon Burn does not seem to modify the original file in the Library (looking at the date/time Modified tag in the Finder), but modifies the AIFF file it creates when importing an iTunes Playlist. So if this works, it is a much more "hands off" approach, then having to manually make duplicate music files for MacMP3 Gain to modify.

Jess.

P Rocka

Level 1

129 points

Jun 14, 2006 12:18 PM in response to Jess Smith1

posted to soon. nevermind

sby29

Level 1

4 points

Jul 13, 2006 7:58 PM in response to Jess Smith1

Great thread everyone.

Jess, others - How is Dragon Burn working out? Are you using that in conjunction with MacMP3Gain, or on its own? I have the same issue as you - I can't stand how soft iTunes burned CDs are and I'm exploring new methods of making mix CDs with decent volume levels (weren't mix tapes so much easier back in the day?).

Another quick and easy way to convert protected music to AIFF is to open GarageBand, drag the protected file from a Finder window into a blank track, and immediately export the thing into iTunes. It'll be imported as an AIFF. Once in iTunes you can then change it back to ACC or MP3 or what have you, and it will be unprotected.

Following HS's advice, I tried MacMP3Gain this afternoon, but I couldn't figure out what to do once I ran MP3 gain on the copies of the mp4 files I'd copied to a separate folder outside of the iTunes folder. I feel like there's something I'm missing in NoName's first May 14 post about this process. Since I didn't have any other burning software, I tried sliding the folder of slightly-re-titled tracks back into the iTunes library to see what would happen, but iTunes wouldn't have it - it recognized almost all of the songs, and whenever I played one of them it REPLACED my new title with the old title and REMOVED the file from the new folder. In iTunes, I was looking at two identical tracks in my library, one a little softer than the other. Plus I suspect that this wouldn't solve the problem of making a burned CD any louder, just more even, like SoundCheck attempts to do.

Once you run MacMP3Gain on the duplicated files that reside outside of iTunes, is the idea to take them to your other burning program and keep them out of iTunes? In order to accomplish my goal of boosting overall volume of all tracks, not just balancing them, I'm going to need a program like Dragon Burn - right?

Thanks people - sorry for all the questions!

iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Equalizing volume on burned CDs