Adjustment of MP3 volume

[Muse]

I make MP3 recordings of radio broadcasts using Total Recorder Standard Edition (an $18 program). I've used it for years with great success. Lately I've been listening to these on a Sansa Sandisk m250 2 GB MP3 player. I bought a second Sandisk m250, hoping to get a different firmware version because the version 2.2.5a one I had evidently doesn't support accelerated FF/Rew (I listen to files up to 3 hours, sometimes more, and the slow default FF/Rew is sometimes quite a problem). I received a version 4.1.08a m250, and it does support accelerated FF/Rew but I find that the maximum volume is far lower than that of my other m250. It's just not loud enough playing the MP3s I'm making when at the loudest setting. In order to achieve an approximately equal volume on the other m250, I have to decrease the volume from maximum a dozen detents. I could increase the recording volume of the MP3 files I produce in Total Recorder, but the recording volume therm bars in Total Recorder are already almost into the red and I don't want to clip or distort.

I have used MP3Gain, a freeware utility for years to normalize my MP3s but MP3Gain in order to take one of these MP3s and normalize to "Radio Gain" actually wants to decrease the volume by 7.6 db! IOW, if I run MP3Gain's "Radio Gain" on one of these files it actually gets softer, not louder!

One workaround for this problem would be to use more efficient headphones with the newer m250 player, because I'm using rather inefficient (but quite high fidelity) Etymotics ER4S earbuds. However, I'm thinking there may be another way to deal with this. What if I reverse what MP3Gain wants to do (not use "Radio Gain" but specify a custom gain) and boost the gain say 8 db? Would that be a reasonable way to deal with this?

 

[Jeff7]

With MP3Gain, I think you can enter any dB value in that you want. If you'd like, you can have it normalize to 99dB or more, though you might start to get some clipping.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
With MP3Gain, I think you can enter any dB value in that you want. If you'd like, you can have it normalize to 99dB or more, though you might start to get some clipping.

Yes, I did an experiment and set the db to 103. It doesn't sound all that much louder. What do you mean by normalizing to 99 dB? Would I do that in MP3Gain or Audacity or some other program? Anyway, MP3Gain reports that the file that I was experimenting with was already at 97 dB, so 99 dB might not do much.

If I boost the db in MP3Gain to 103 or even 110 would that produce clipping?

 

[Jeff7]

Set the dB to 103 = Normalize to 103dB.
Same thing.


MP3Gain has a column there that should tell you if there's clipping, indicated by a red Y. That doesn't indicate the severity though. There's probably already a lot of clipping in the original CD, courtesy of insane dynamic range compression done at the studio.


You can try boosting it to 110dB with MP3Gain. Supposedly all changes it makes are reversible.

Some of it might also depend on the output capability of your MP3 player.

Another option might be to see if your player has a multi-band equalizer function; try boosting all of the sliders by 10dB or more. My e130 has the equalizer under the Sound Effects submenu; I'd expect the m250 to have it too.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Set the dB to 103 = Normalize to 103dB.
Same thing.


MP3Gain has a column there that should tell you if there's clipping, indicated by a red Y. That doesn't indicate the severity though. There's probably already a lot of clipping in the original CD, courtesy of insane dynamic range compression done at the studio.


You can try boosting it to 110dB with MP3Gain. Supposedly all changes it makes are reversible.

Some of it might also depend on the output capability of your MP3 player.

Another option might be to see if your player has a multi-band equalizer function; try boosting all of the sliders by 10dB or more. My e130 has the equalizer under the Sound Effects submenu; I'd expect the m250 to have it too.

That's a clever idea I hadn't thought of! That might actually resolve the problem and infinitely easier than normalizing every damn MP3 I want to put on my 2nd m250! I have the EQ set to custom in the m250 and have the top 2 sliders (3k and 14k) set to ~+5 db, and the other 3 at 0 db. I'll see what happens when I boost them to +12 db (the maximum) and + 7db respectively. I'm boosting the top two sliders + 5 db relative to the others because I had a hearing test and they determined that I'm about 1/2 way attenuated from 3k on up. Both ears.

I'll look for that red indicator in MP3Gain, which I hadn't noticed. I believe I am using the latest version.

Some more experiments are in order.

Edit: Boosting all 5 EQ sliders absolutely takes care of the problem, evidently. Won't know for sure until I get in the gym, but I'm pretty sure it's adequately loud now! In fact I think I'll have to turn it down or else suffer further hearing loss!