3 Ways to Normalize MP3 Volume: Quick Guide
Many of us like to listen to music whether it’s in the car on the way to work, walking down the street or at home to relax. There is a multitude of different ways to get your music files from P2P networks, download services like iTunes, searching for MP3s on Google, or visiting Myspace. One of the problems you will have most likely come across if you have music from several different sources is that they don’t all have the exact same volume level.
Some individual tracks or whole albums will have been encoded by a different person or company using different methods. The result is some tracks might be significantly louder or quieter than others. What you need to solve this problem is a program to alter the volume of the songs to a similar level so there are no sudden jumps between tracks when there shouldn’t be.
One way is to re-encode the file to the desired level, but this lowers the quality of the audio. Here we show you another way that has some useful advantages.
Normalize MP3 Volume Using ReplayGain
It’s not actually a program or piece of software but ReplayGain is an audio standard to measure the volume level of a music file. It uses an algorithm to calculate a track’s overall perceived loudness and then adjusts the song to the required level, making the sound you actually hear more consistent across several songs.
What makes ReplayGain useful is the process is lossless and it can do this without re-encoding the audio file. The calculated settings are stored in the music file’s metadata so it can be undone and the file restored to its original volume level later on. ReplayGain has two different modes to choose from and the software you use to adjust audio files using this method will usually have both available.
ReplayGain Track Mode
This mode is best used for collections of individual tracks that are completely separate from each other, like compilations or greatest hits albums. The volume level for each individual song is calculated and the amount of gain needed for it to match the target volume is displayed. Some songs may need a drop in volume to reach the target level, others may need an increase.
The image above shows that all the songs have a different volume level so the track gain to be applied is different for each. If the volume is already close to the target volume, the file will be skipped.
ReplayGain Album Mode
This mode is suited to whole albums or related collections of songs. It calculates the average volume level across all the selected tracks and then works out how much gain needs applying to reach the target level. All tracks will be altered by this amount only. This has the advantage that quieter parts of an album will stay that way relative to the louder parts, but the overall volume of the album will change.
Look at the same image above and you can see that all tracks are to be adjusted by the same amount, whether they are louder or quieter than the average. This mode is especially useful if your album has music that continues from one track into the next without a break, such as live albums or classical music.
Software That Uses ReplayGain To Adjust MP3 Volume
Most modern music playing software and hardware can read the ReplayGain metadata inside MP3 files. However, fewer programs can actually process the file and write the ReplayGain data to the file in the first place. Here are a few free programs to look at.
MP3Gain
MP3Gain was one of the first pieces of software that used ReplayGain to adjust the volume level of MP3 files nearly two decades ago. The program is open source but apart from new language translations, it hasn’t had any meaningful updates since 2005. MP3Gain does work on the latest Windows 10 but you need to download the correct version to avoid error messages when you start it.
To load MP3 files into the program you can select individual files and playlists using the Add File(s) button or use the Add Folder button to load whole albums or complete folders. Drag and drop also works if you don’t run the program as administrator. The default target volume is 89dB which you can change up or down if you want (75.0 – 99.9).
Simply press the Track or Album Analysis button and the volume levels will be calculated. If changes need to be made, choose to apply the Track, Album, or Constant type of gain to the files. Constant is a simple method to change the db level by the target amount across all files. If you want to put the levels back to default, simply use the Modify Gain > Undo Gain Changes menu option.
Both installer and portable versions available. If you’re not sure whether you have the required Visual Basic runtime files installed, download the “Full” installer. Otherwise, you will probably receive an error on start, most likely regarding a missing “MSCOMCTL.OCX” file.
wxMP3Gain
MP3Gain actually comes in two parts, there’s the frontend GUI and then there’s the console based tool that does the ReplayGain processing in the background. wxMP3Gain is simply a different frontend for the MP3Gain console tool that is more modern and up to date. As it doesn’t rely on old Visual Basic files, you won’t get error messages about missing OCX files.
The biggest disadvantage of this frontend program is there’s no option to choose album gain and only track gain is available. All songs will be changed individually to match the target volume level. Most of the options that are available in the original MP3Gain are here as well. It’s just some of them might be in different places, Constant Gain is in the settings window, for example.
Setup installer, portable, and Linux versions are available. MP3gain.exe is already included so you don’t have to download extra files.
Foobar2000
Foobar2000 is a well known and popular music player, CD ripper, and audio converter for Windows and other platforms. One of its features is ReplayGain support where you can not only apply it to music files as they play, but you can also write the volume level metadata to the music files for use with other players.
With a music file in your playlist, right click on it and select an option from the ReplayGain sub menu. There are options to apply an automatic track gain, apply album gain to several files, remove any current gain data in the file, or apply gain to file content. This last option opens a window with some settings similar to those found in MP3Gain, such as setting the target dB level, making files louder or quieter only, and prevent clipping.
The ReplayGain feature for playback is enabled by default and set to the album mode. If you wish to change any of the options, go to Preferences > Playback. Foobar2000 can create a portable version when running the setup installer.
Note: There are some other music players that can write ReplayGain metadata to audio files. They include MediaMonkey, Quod Libet (album gain only), and possibly the most well known Windows audio player, Winamp. However, Foobar2000 seems to have the best overall implementation, in our opinion.
Thanks for this! Now I have so many options to download songs with iMyVid Free Online MP3 Downloader and edit them with the tools you’ve mentioned. I can’t wait to try them, especially ReplayGain Track Mode. It looks easy to use and perfect for beginners like me. Looking forward to use other tools in this post!
thank you for sharing this! Now I have many volume normalizer to use on my songs. As a music lover, I love downloading music with AceThinker MP3Juice Downloader and there are time that I want to adjust their audio settings. A good thing that you listed many free tools to use. I will surely try them!
After the files are normalized, how or from where the normalized files are retrieved,or where do they reside?
Hi, I try to use this software but nothing change after adding constant gain to 3db. Not sure where I’m wrong~ Please help, thank you/
I did 1 folder. Trying to do another one but no matter what I do (choose files or folder) only the first track in folder is showing up in the utility.
what I am doing wrong?
If you Download MP4gain, it does work well BUT if anything goes wrong there no no support at all. So I have paid for the programs but I have to pay for it again because the 1st version won’t work on my pc.
So please be warned, be carful how you spend your money with MP4Gain
Why are you talking about MP4Gain? This article is about the open-source software MP3Gain…
This soft is useless for me because it can’t decrease volume below 75db.
The developer probably never thought people would want to go to such low db levels, which is why the user interface doesn’t allow it.
However, I believe the command line tool can go below that if you read up on how to use it.
Although a lot of software and devices support ReplayGain (which is what MP3Gain is setting in the mp3 headers) it is by no means ubiquitous. You will still find instances where the playback will not have adjusted audio.
Could I use this for nature sounds, I’ve got some on my mp3 player, but when I plug it into my pillow speaker the sounds are not really loud enough for me to hear?
They can be used for any MP3. If you are not happy with the results, just undo them.
I have a USB with several mp3. These are on several folders. Do I just run the entire USB drive.
You can do that if you want. If you have thousands of MP3s it might be better to split them into chunks instead of trying to do all at once.
Please explain “what is clipping”?
Google the phrase in quotes and it will tell you…
I still have a problem with songs being louder than others even after using this. I use track gain to 98 or 99 and applied it and yet there is still a big difference in sound from track to track. I think the problem is that if a song is like 97 or around that, the program decides to leave it alone. Therefore not totally fixing the volume issue.
MP3Gain doesn’t work with Windows 10
It does work with Windows 10 fine but you are likely getting the MSCOMCTL.OCX error?
If so, that is because some old Visual Basic files need to be installed on the system. Simply download and install the MP3Gain full installer. The VB files will be registered and the program will work.
You can uninstall it and use the portable version afterward because the VB files stay registered.
Very good app, like it so much. But it only works on English file name. File name with other language/signs won’t load.
It’s not true. The app works perfectly with Cyrillic symbols. Try version 1.3.4 with Unicode support.
can i add files directly from itunes to mp3gain ?
there is a build in option for this in windows 7.
It is called loudness equalization.
There is, but what happens when you put the MP3 on your phone or music playing device?
there is an app on android Mp3Gain :D
Use Sound Check in iTunes to make song volume consistent. ;)
So you might as well do what the article said and use MP3Gain, the loudness will then be the same across all devices…
I have installed this program several times on my Win 7 64 bit OS and it does not work.
Is there a 64 bit compatible version?
What sort of errors or issues do you have? I have been using this software on Windows 7 64-bit for years…
Mp3gain works very well and is easy to use.
It’s a very small program that fixes an age old problem
It doesn’t need to be installed if you download the zip file
Just tell it where you want the log file saved and do the album batch
You can adjust the target volume if needed
I am very happy with the results and it’s FREE
500 songs in an hour @ 128 bit on core i3 2310
Why do is it ‘recurse into sub folders by default’? I just want all my files in one folder and I certainly don’t want a computer program telling what it thinks is best for me!
i have just fixed my problem with my mp3s with this software.. very effective and easy to use. thanks a lot.
Great tool. However if you’re looking for what radio stations have, that’s call compression, expansion and limiting. These are hardware rack units that go in stages of the audio line.
There are software units that do the same but the best performance will be with pro audio rack units. And yes…the public knows- you just need to know where to go. (Sam Ash, Guitar Centers etc). It might be helpful if you do a little more research before you start blasting people or programs you know little about.
Cheers.
Thanks heaps Raymond – this is the best software that resolved my long lasted problem. A great help indeed!!
I used mp3gain to fix some issues with mp3 files interesting soft to have it in the list!!!
oh my! great stuff here! didn’t know about this!
It’s really quite an easy tool, I used it to adjust volume levels of my mp3 player and now it blasts like hell!
love it.
thanks doc…. keep it up.
Hi nice post.
Thanks Guru
I’m trying to use this one.
A nice post again from a nice person.
I hope u continue like this…
Great tool mp3gain.
There is also mp3directcut, not an automated tool for many mp3s, but with this you can edit the mp3 like in a wav editor, without altering the quality.
So you can normalize the mp3 (like mp3gain in track mode) adjust volume in a section of the mp3, introduce effects of volume fading, split the mp3…
Interesting. Thanks for the tip.