Joey C 2

Q: Is there a way to normalize sound in a playlist?

I do an Internet radio show and want to have all the songs in my 40 song playlist from ITunes be about the same volume level.  Is there a way within iTunes to accomplish that?  Thanks.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on Oct 1, 2014 8:46 AM

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Q: Is there a way to normalize sound in a playlist?

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  • by Limnos,Helpful

    Limnos Limnos Oct 1, 2014 8:57 AM in response to Joey C 2
    Level 9 (53,914 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2014 8:57 AM in response to Joey C 2

    iTunes: About Sound Check - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2425

  • by Joey C 2,

    Joey C 2 Joey C 2 Oct 1, 2014 9:13 AM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (149 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 1, 2014 9:13 AM in response to Limnos

    I am guessing this is the best that iTunes has to offer.  It seems that it affects my entire library of thousands of songs, not just a playlist of 40 or 50.  I tried it and it seems to muffle the sound a bit, at least to my ears.  So, this is probably the Correct Answer, just not an option I think I will use.  Thanks.

  • by Chris CA,Solvedanswer

    Chris CA Chris CA Oct 1, 2014 9:27 AM in response to Joey C 2
    Level 9 (79,523 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 1, 2014 9:27 AM in response to Joey C 2
  • by ed2345,

    ed2345 ed2345 Oct 1, 2014 9:29 AM in response to Joey C 2
    Level 7 (24,801 points)
    Oct 1, 2014 9:29 AM in response to Joey C 2

    Joey C 2 wrote:

     

    I am guessing this is the best that iTunes has to offer.  It seems that it affects my entire library of thousands of songs, not just a playlist of 40 or 50.  I tried it and it seems to muffle the sound a bit, at least to my ears.  So, this is probably the Correct Answer, just not an option I think I will use.  Thanks.

    Sound Check is the "official" iTunes answer, but many people on this Forum have found that it does not work very well. 

     

    Third party solutions that some have used are iVolume and MP3Gain.

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Oct 1, 2014 9:29 AM in response to Joey C 2
    Level 9 (53,914 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2014 9:29 AM in response to Joey C 2

    That's all iTunes offers, I believe.  There are, of course, other tools for normalizing but they tend to be on a file by file basis.  Ultimately it really depends upon what you hear and cant be truly fully automated.  Some tools may be better than others, particularly for lossy formats where recoding is undesirable.

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Oct 1, 2014 9:44 AM in response to ed2345
    Level 9 (53,914 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2014 9:44 AM in response to ed2345

    ed2345 wrote:

     

    Third party solutions that some have used are iVolume and MP3Gain.

    http://www.mani.de/en/ivolume/ (commercial)

     

    MP3Gain - http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ - Windows only

     

    MP3Gain Express - http://projects.sappharad.com/mp3gain/ - Mac port of MP3Gain

     

    http://www.rinaldo.net/Mac_Archive/AudioTron/MacMP3Gain/ - earlier Mac port of MP3Gain

     

    Fission application (commercial) has normalize tool

  • by Joey C 2,

    Joey C 2 Joey C 2 Oct 15, 2014 4:52 PM in response to Chris CA
    Level 1 (149 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 15, 2014 4:52 PM in response to Chris CA

    Thanks, Chris.  I downloaded iVolume and it seems to work great.  The only goofy thing about the software is that it inserts itself into the Comments column of iTunes on each song saying that iVolume has normalized the song and gives the date.  That pushes any other information you may have in that field out of view in the iTunes window.  It has not been removed, as it can be seen by going to Get Info, Info.  However, I sometimes need to see the Comments section information when I DJ.  So, if anyone downloading it does not want to have their comments hidden, they should check the box to not Modify Comments under the iVolume preferences.  I was able to find the option later to remove those comments.  My understanding is that by doing so it may affect or even obviate the ability to transfer normalized songs to my iPod and iPhone.  Seems like a flaw design by iVolume.  It is more important to me that I see the comments.  I use the computer much more than my iPod these days.  Hope that iVolume can make an update to change this scenario.

     

    Thanks again..

  • by SuperSizeIt,

    SuperSizeIt SuperSizeIt Jul 6, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Joey C 2
    Level 3 (579 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Joey C 2

    I don't think its a flaw design by iVolume. More like Apple iTunes flawed design that forces iVolume to work this way. Since iTunes Sound Check is has never worked properly from the start to today, we have to rely on workarounds. iVolume simply works the best. I'm okay having that hack/workaround implemented to help iTunes normalize the volume.

  • by Joey C 2,

    Joey C 2 Joey C 2 Jul 6, 2015 1:11 PM in response to SuperSizeIt
    Level 1 (149 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 6, 2015 1:11 PM in response to SuperSizeIt

    Thanks for the comments.  I have been happy with iVolume and have gotten used to opening Get Info to read comments I may have inserted for informational purposes.  The software does a good job on normalizing my library.