How to normalise all mp3s in the same folder to the same volume?

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There must be a programme out there that can normalise all mp3s in the same folder to out put the same volume. I don't mean a player. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Sam,

Goldwave will do batch processing. I also did a Google search for batch processing normalize mp3 and it seems that the current version of Audacity might be able to do this too. (I haven't checked this out, though. I suggest you download it and have a look.)

I suspect that the final product might not be as good as you want, though. Normalizing will look for the highest peaked amplitude of an individual file. If the file hasn't been limited, it could well be that a single stray wave peak could overshadow the results and give outputs that are not necessarily balanced between individual files.

With the above in mind, it might be better to run the files through a limiter first off so that anomalous peaks are chopped back.

It will be interesting to read what our forum experts think about this.

Regards,
Noel

I can't help you with an app to do that, but I'd advise you to make a copy of all the mp3s before you do.

Why?

Normalizing won't make them all sound at the same volume. All normalizing does is boost the volume of the entire track so that the highest peak is maximized (or at a preset volume near max).

So if you have one track with a fairly constant volume and another with one huge peak at say the ending or a big hit, when you are done normalizing, the track with the fairly constant volume will sound much louder than the one with the huge peak.

I guess that's why mastering engineers get paid so much.

But if you have the originals and normalize a copy, if it doesn't work out well, you haven't lost anything.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Brand new 2012.5 updates from Norton Music:
2 new style disks for Band-in-a-Box
2 new free (with a purchase) fancy intro/ending disks for Real Band and other DAW's
The Ultimate Gospel Fake Disk
The Real Rock Fake Disk (plenty of classic rock in this one)
The Beatles Fake Disk
And an updated Christmas Fake Disk

Hundreds of Free .sgu and .mp3 demos for the above at: http://www.nortonmusic.com

How many files are you talking about? If you are looking at 12 or so MP3 files for a CD, the best way might be to bring those 12 MP3's (or wav files, preferably) end to end into a DAW (with a gap between). Then you can manually normalize them so they are approximately the same volume.

I haven't done this myself yet, but I will on my CD project. It is probably the best poor man's mastering you can do. You can add slight limiting and compression to the whole mix to give it a unified sound.

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Replay%5FGain

Mp3 gain was designed to do exactly what you want. I know of cases where it's been used on hundreds of files at once. A backup first. I won't comment on what I thought of the origin of the files, I was hired to fix wiring problems and help put in equipment to level the sound output. But stuff done by indie bands tends to crazy differences in sound levels.

+1 for MP3Gain and +1 for backup your files first.

Mp3Gain is not a normalizer but does exactly what you are looking for. It will batch process an entire folder or individual files.

By default, it levels all files to 89dB but that figure is user adjustable. It also has an "analyze" mode that shows the status of the files before processing.

I used MP3Gain to adjust the play volume of a whole directory of files for my wife. All in all it did a "pretty good job" (homegeneity was better in the processed directory than in the unprocessed directory)

But there were still some files that were at a lowere or higher relative volume than the rest. My wife pointed them out to me, and I used audacity to change the volume of those files separately from the rest. I really only had to change a few.. less than 5 as I recall. Out of a directory comntaining about 400 songs, I was fairly impressed by that.

But it's not perfect. And our original directory of of songs is 100% certain to be different than yours. As Notes says so often: "Your Mileage May Vary"

Perceived sound intensity is something which gets largely overlooked these days.

A simple vocal with a finger-picked acoustic guitar may measure the same as a thrash-metal band, but there's no way it's going to sound as loud. There seems to be a tendency to want to do everything on the meters these days, but I still liked the days when the balancing engineer used his ears and experience.

Am I just getting old, or what?

ROG.

Quote:

Am I just getting old, or what?

is WHAT an acceptable answer? Or does it have to be YES or NO?

ROG, What! (notice the lack of a question mark).

A silly expression, at least in my estimation is: "It goes without saying!" so I'm not saying. You can quote me on that!

Pat & Don -

Thanks guys. Anything which makes me smile on a Monday has got to be a good thing!

Oh yeah. it's Tuesday. I must be getting old after all.

ROG.

And to make you even more smile, it's already Tuesday

I got the edit in just in time, Mike. LOL.

ROG.

LOL - I wass afraid of that, ROG.

Remember, two positives equal one negative. "Yeah, right!"

Wow! Thank you very much fellas! I mean that most sincerly. Really I do. Yeah. Thank you.

Ok, I have the original tracks and I don't (and won't) mess with them. However, I am doing a solo show (most probably about 20-30 numbers). No SE. Just me. SOLO. Hence, I want to know that when I have set my system up, the tracks will all come out at more or less the same dB. I will only be singing - get my drift? Everything else will be controlled from my iPhone. It is a concept I have (started initially by 'Mike Sings') using an iPhone, together with mic and PA. The iPhone will play all the backing tracks and will be clipped to my mic stand (thanks to a neat little invention from IK Multimedia, designed especially for such a gig), so control will be at my fingertips. I want to be able to keep things flowing (and to be able to change order if necessary) so I do NOT want to turn all the tracks into one huge file. Therefore, I don't think a DAW, per se, will help in this instance. PLUS, if something were to happen to that huge single file, it would be a nightmare to start it all over again and try to get back to where I was. Best kept as separate songs.

I have a 'dress rehearsal' of the show on 20th July and have already been invited to perform for a last night gig in a small local bar on its last night before summer closing.

THAT's why I want to normalise all the tracks in the folder.

So, thanks very much and goodnight!

I WILL keep an eye on this thread for the next couple of days. So, if anybody has something to add, I would like to hear it!

The sea lion sings!

Thanks for the heads up on MP3 Gain. It sounds like it will work much better than normalize, for reasons I stated in my previous post. I have other sourceforge apps, and they work well. I'll d/l this and give it a try.

Of course, I'll back my files up first

Brand new 2012.5 updates from Norton Music:
2 new style disks for Band-in-a-Box
2 new free (with a purchase) fancy intro/ending disks for Real Band and other DAW's
The Ultimate Gospel Fake Disk
The Real Rock Fake Disk (plenty of classic rock in this one)
The Beatles Fake Disk
And an updated Christmas Fake Disk

Hundreds of Free .sgu and .mp3 demos for the above at: http://www.nortonmusic.com

Not to talk anybody out of making backup copies...

MP3Gain stores the changes made to the file as an APE tag. Any change made can be undone using that information. As long as the tag is not deleted, the original volume can be restored. Pretty cool.

Quote:

Not to talk anybody out of making backup copies...

MP3Gain stores the changes made to the file as an APE tag. Any change made can be undone using that information. As long as the tag is not deleted, the original volume can be restored. Pretty cool.

good to know!

thanks, Rachael!

Bob, we would all benefit from your experience. Please post back afterwards. It's not perfect but much better than "normalize". Old time radio (OTR) is another of my hobby interests and you can imagine the different playback volume levels encountered on 70+ year old recordings, especially from amateur tape-to-digital domain. It's all over the map. Mp3Gain does an excellent job of "leveling" them without additional losses or artifacts.

Please let us have your afterthoughts. It is a common problem in mp3 music.

The price of MP3Gain can't be beat. I did make a donation to the guy though since I had been using his pgm for a few years. I had tried some paid software trial versions and MP3Gain is a lot better and easier to use.

Stan

MP3 Gain worked wonders for me! Thanks, folks