Volume Leveling
What is Volume Leveling
Have you ever put on an album and noticed that it was drastically louder than the last album you were listening to? Everyone has a few albums that every time you put them on you race for the volume control to turn them down. Similarly, I'm sure you've heard albums that were "too quiet" and you had to turn them up quite a bit to hear them at all (only to go racing for the volume control again when you followed them up with a loud one). This is the result of the fact that (unlike film) there's no loudness standard in audio engineering. Because louder audio is often perceived as sounding better, there has been a "loudness war" in mastering music to try and make the loudest sounding music possible, often through compression (reducing the dynamic range to make more of the song "loud"). There are two big unfortunate side effects of the loudness wars: some modern music is very compressed, and albums have drastically varying average volume levels.
There's not much to be done about the first problem (unless you're a recording engineer), but Volume Leveling mostly solves the second problem. It does it by analyzing the "loudness" and dynamic range of the music (using the international standard R128 analysis method), and then adjusting the volume level of the music to a reference level. The result is that most music will sound close to the same average volume with volume leveling on. Volume leveling does not compress the music or affect dynamic range; it just changes playback volume.
By default, when you play an album, the whole album gets adjusted by a fixed amount so that intertrack dynamics aren't affected (i.e. a "quiet" song on an album will still sound quiet compared to the rest of the album). When you play a mixed playlist, each track is adjusted individually so each track sounds about the same volume (like on the radio).
Because most music is mastered so that its peak level is close to (or sometimes even above) digital full scale, in order for volume leveling to work correctly (without clipping) most music must receive some amount of attenuation (rather than boost). This means that when you first turn it on you'll need to turn up the volume a little; but after that you'll be able to leave the volume control more or less alone.
Getting Started
In order to use volume leveling you'll need to analyze your files first using the Analyze Audio library tool. The information is stored in the database and in the file itself, so that playing the file with any compatible player will play it back at the volume set here.
Use the functionality of Smartlists to tell you which files still have to be analyzed. Create a Smartlist with the following rules:
- mediatype=[audio] filetype=mp3 -artist=[] (replaygain==0 or peaklevel==0 or bpm==0 or intensity==0)
It's a two-step process. First, the program analyzes your files and adjusts the gain levels. Second, you select to playback your files using those levels.
Step 1: Analyze Audio Files
Select files to be analyzed.
- To analyze all files, select files using one of the following methods then go to Tools > Advanced Tools > Analyze Audio:
- Use the smartlist mentioned above; or
- Select Audio Mode, then select all files in the content list (Ctrl + A)
- To analyze a few files, select the files in the content pane, right-click and select Library Tools > Analyze Audio.
The Audio Analysis screen shows the files selected. Make sure that "Skip analyzed files" is checked, and select "Analyze".
Wait for the analysis to be complete. This could take a while, depending on the number of files it is analyzing. If you have many files (over 5,000), perhaps you can do this overnight.
Step 2: Set your Playback Mode to Read the Replay Gain Values
- Go to Player > Playback Options > DSP Studio > Volume Leveling on the Menu bar.
- Place a check mark in the box next to Replay Gain in the tree.
Auto Analyze during Import or Rip
You can set the program to automatically analyze files when you import them using auto-import or rip them from a CD to your computer. This setting is enabled by default, but can be changed in Auto-Import configuration or CD Settings.
Technical Information on R128 and Replay Gain
The program uses the R128 analysis method which is the industry standard for loudness normalization. Jriver uses 83dB as the target output level corresponding to -23 loudness units below full-scale (equivalent to -23dBFS). For more information about how this reference level interacts with other portions of JRiver's audio engine, see Volume and Adaptive Volume.
Prior to adopting R128, JRiver used replaygain analysis for volume leveling. Note that for compatibility, JRiver continues to write replaygain tags so that analyzed files can be used with other players that support the replay gain standard.