Creating a volume-equalized CD from flac files?

[neveronfriday]

I have never spent enough time reading up on this flac stuff. I have my entire collection ripped to flac and that took enough reading ... EAC, accurate ripping and all.

What I want to to do now is create one single CD from a whole bunch of different flac files which have, to say the least, hugely different volume levels.

How do I do that?

Reverb gain -> wave - Burrrn?

Can someone help me out with a quick (total) idiot's guide?

Thanks.

Edited May 20, 2010 by neveronfriday

[Dan Gould]

Goldwave has a fully functional demo version available for download at Goldwave.com

Use Batch Processing in the File menu. Choose all of the files you want to burn (I assume they are in one folder).

The first tab is "convert". Use this to convert FLAC files to wav (I think it will default to the right wav settings but you want 16 bit, signed, and check 44100 as the rate).

Then go to the process tab. Choose "Add Effect". Expand your choices by clicking the box with the +. Click maximize volume, and choose either "full dynamic range" or 90% (I usually go with 90%).

The folder tab sets where you want to save your converted and edited files, which should now be burnable to CD and have the same maximum volume levels. Just click "Begin" and Goldwave does it from there.

I went through the directions from my current version of Goldwave; if its been updated substantially, things may be slightly different. But that's how I've dealt with the problem you have. Good luck.

[neveronfriday]

Thanks, Dan.

Will try that today.

[Shrdlu]

Nero also has a volume equalization facilty. You have to make sure that you click "apply", or it ignores the setting. I did use this once, and it worked.

[Dan Gould]

Thanks, Dan.

Will try that today.

Were you successful?

[Neal Pomea]

While we are talking about Goldwave, will this volume equalization thing work if I am compiling speech followed by music folowed by speech, for a podcast like a radio show? Will Goldwave equalize the volume for mixed formats like that? Thx.

[Dan Gould]

It won't do it very well if you have a single sound file with a mix of levels/types of sound. What it will do is apply the same boost across the whole file based on the highest peak it finds. So I would split up the files into component parts, then use the batch processing to apply the Volume Maximization. Then if you had to, you could bring the parts back together into a whole. Or don't use batch processing, select each segment and maximize it individually.

And here's a trick I've used that I bet a lot of people would frown on (Allen especially): Sometimes I transfer LPs where the inputs aren't terribly high but there are isolated drum hits that will severely restrict the effectiveness of the Volume Maximization. So, I will isolate the drum hit, carefully lower the amplitude so that its still prominent but not as prominent as it was, then boost the whole file. Dropping the drum hit down gives you "room" to do that. Or, sometimes there will be a powerful drum hit at the start or end of a song, and I will leave it intact and only select and boost the rest of the track.

What can I say, I like a strong signal on my CDRs.

Edited May 28, 2010 by Dan Gould

[Daniel A]

It should be noted that peak normalization doesn't necessarily make tracks sound equally loud. "RMS normalization", which sets the average sound level, is usually more successful for that purpose.

(Slightly off-topic, if you'd like to smooth out the sound level differences between FLAC:s when playing back the files without having to alter the data, check out "Replay Gain": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_Gain )