MP3Gain is a very useful application; however, it is not portable. In fact, choosing the "portable" download link led me to lots of frustration. In order to work, the "portable" version needs a specific file, difficult to find from a reliable source, loaded on the host computer. As described on PortableApps, "This application requires admin rights to run on machines that do not yet have a particular OCX file registered. As this requires admin rights, the base app can not be considered portable and has been removed from our directory. Interested parties can still download the last release, version 1.2.5 but note that it is unsupported." It was many months before I learned that the problem that seemed unsolvable with MP3Gain was a problem that existed only in the portable version. In the meantime, I had wasted several hours.
Review details
- Interface
- Features
- Ease of use
- Value
- Recommend to a friend? Yes
- Posted Jul 03, 2017 for v1.25
I needed something to lower the volume on a large number of Mp3 files. I had trouble getting Audacity to do it - it seemed to only do some of the files in a given directory or collection. Furthermore it only was able to do edits by converting to wav files first then back to mp3 (!!!!??)
Then I tried the Sobolsoft volume program and it puffed the size of my mp3 files to almost twice the original!
So the MP3Gain was the best option by far. Not only does it not increase file sizes, it will do the edits without having to do any conversions to intermediate wave files.
At first I was confused about how to get it to lower the volume below the target of 75db. So that is the only pain - that you have to work around this limit.
How I did it:
Select 'Add folder' (note it will edit your files IN PLACE)
Change "Target 'Normal' Value" to 75 (it won't go lower)
Click 'Track Analysis' (will test all in folder - takes a while if lots of files - skip the following step if your volumes are already less than 75)
Click 'Album Gain' (should be one of the icons on top - makes all in folder 75
Click 'Modify Gain', then 'Constant Gain'
Set slider to lowest amount (on mine this was -12db)
Click the down arrow by 'Track Gain' and make it be 'Constant Gain'
Click 'Constant Gain' (changes all tracks to -12db)
Keep doing the constant gain edit until you get volumes as low as you want.
Review details
- Interface
- Features
- Ease of use
- Value
- Recommend to a friend? Yes
- Posted Jun 25, 2016 for v1.25
First used this when I was on Win ME, now on Win 10! Works ONLY on MP3s, because what it actually does is change media playback settings in the MP3 file headers. It does NOT touch the actual music content at all. So it can always return to the initial default with no harm done.
Its main use (and what I want) is to make any motley collection of music tracks all sound about the same loudness to the human ear. Once it has analyzed the tracks, it records the current (default) settings in the file headers, and lists them - this never needs to be done again. It tells you whether that level "clips" the sound peaks (happens a lot on old recordings), and whether the target normalized level will "clip". So you can choose a target level which will preserve the sound quality of all tracks (no clipping), let some clip (will cause odd distortion), or set it to keep peaky tracks below clip level - I choose this usually, choosing a target level so that few if any tracks will be affected.
All this is easy to discover from the display, with a little trial-and-error. So my car's MP3 player collection currently includes music from Free, Queen, B.B. King, Everly's, Motorhead, Abba, Cream, Buddy Holly, Santana, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis and Mozart - among others! All very listenable... Much easier to use than it sounds - try it!
Review details
- Interface
- Features
- Ease of use
- Value
- Recommend to a friend? Yes
- Posted Dec 09, 2015 for v1.25
Monkeys Audio
Free
foobar 2000
Free
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