Mp3gain

[tal7420]

Hi...
To anyone who works with Mp3gain....what, from your experience, is the optimal Target Volume to set my music files to?
I work with traktor and i guess the best volume should the one closest to 0 db. shown in Traktor...

In other words, what volume should my music files be in order for me to play them on Traktor with the LEAST POSSIBLE gain changes done to the tracks in real time...

Thanks!

[SlvrDragon50]

94-96

[dreamdrums]

mp3gain is nothing but a big waste of your time. mp3gain works in two modes.

in the first mode, replaygain values are written into the metadata. that metadata is completely useless for DJing with traktor because traktor ignores those replaygain values.

in the second mode, the computed replaygain is applied to the actual audio stream (in a reversible manner). that's not terribly useful when DJing with traktor, either, because you can only modify the frames in an mp3 in 1.5dB increments. that's quite imprecise. traktor's own autogain algorithm is much more precise, applying gain in 0.1dB increments.

besides, it's likely that replaygain-that's what mp3gain is based on-is very similar to autogain. i haven't tested this, though. it's possible that traktor uses a more modern algorithm a la EBU R128. i think it's unlikely that traktor uses an algorithm older than replaygain.

[dreamdrums]

one more thing. people sometimes say "i use mp3gain but leave autogain on." if all you care about is traktor, that's kinda absurd.

in that scenario, autogain will take precedence because it is applied last. so autogain will just offset whatever change mp3gain made. e.g., if mp3gain reduced the mp3's global gain by 1.5dB, the autogain will just be 1.5db larger than it would have been had you not run the file through mp3tgain.

[SlvrDragon50]

mp3gain works perfectly for me...

I can tell a clear difference between which songs have run through mp3gain and which ones haven't.

Traktor autogain is awful. It's not consistent enough. Some are loud, other ones are soft.

[dreamdrums]

Traktor autogain is awful. It's not consistent enough. Some are loud, other ones are soft.

do you anything of substance to support this?

i mean, i see two explanations for your claim. one, you were affected by one or more autogain bugs in the past and have bad autogain values. two, you are imagining this.

of course, there's a third possibility, namely that mp3gain is actually better. but in light of the facts i presented above (particularly, the 1.5db step size of mp3gain), i consider that extremely unlikely.

[SlvrDragon50]

Yes.. before I discovered mp3gain and used Traktor's autogain, songs were inconsistent. I don't know what else you want. WOuld you like me to record a sample of every song and give it to you?

Regardless, mp3gain works for me and a bunch of other users here. If you did not notice a difference in your songs after running them through mp3gain, you did something wrong or used a very old version of mp3gain. I don't know anyone who uses mp3gain and leave Traktor autogain on. Point of mp3gain is to turn off Traktor autogain.

You can read the opinions of other people here:
http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=67968

[Jester]

94-96

yep.
ean=96
jester=94
turn autogain off
turn ears on

[Patch]

I've said it before - I use MP3Gain and set everything to 89. More tracks clip using anything higher than 89 (for me).

You can always pump it up at the mixer/amp stage...

[tal7420]

I've said it before - I use MP3Gain and set everything to 89. More tracks clip using anything higher than 89 (for me).

You can always pump it up at the mixer/amp stage...

As for the "clipping" part...can you shed some light? it's been quite confusing for me...
I know it has something to do with disturbing sounds when playing the file....and if that is the case...how come ean & jester don't mind it?

Thank you!