How to keep the levels of perceived volume the same?

[alaios]

Hi all,
one constant struggle that I have is that I need to keep changing the volume up and down of the different tracks that I play. Is there a way to somehow level automatically the volume levels to keep the perceived volumes kind of constant? This is probably especially a problem when I am listening at a family gathering and sometimes the music can become quite loud.

Any ideas?
Regards,
Alex

 

[Propheticus]

You can tackle it either at the source (app) or at the playback device.

Several streaming services or software music players offer options called "normalisation" or "replay gain".
Some receivers or streaming devices offer features like "Audyssey dynamic volume" or "Dynamic compression".

If you'd share more specifics about the source and playback device(s) used, you could get more specific answers.

 

[Curvature]

normalisation

If you do normalization, try for RMS or loudness, not peak, if those options are available.

 

[DVDdoug]

Virtually all of the streaming services use loudness normalization.

Some player applications support ReplayGain (I'm still using Winamp.) You scan the file in advance and the file is "tagged" with a loudness adjustment that's applied at playback time. The actual audio is not touched so it doesn't do anything if your player doesn't support it. Apple has a similar feature called Sound Check.

MP3Gain uses the same loudness algorithm but it does change the audio so it doesn't depend on the player. It doesn't decompress-recompress the MP3 and because of that it can only make changes in 1.5dB steps (which in most cases can volume-match within 0.75dB). There is a more obscure variation called WaveGain.

Note that because most music (including quiet-sounding songs) is 0dB peak normalized and can't be boosted without clipping (distortion). For that reason , these loudness-matching algorithms tend to lower the volume of most tracks, and that bothers some people.

 

[ZolaIII]

He is asking for equal loudness normalisation to SPL not material based volume leveling. Automatic one's work to calibration point of 86~88 dB (white noise - 20 dB). I do combo of EBU R128 + ISO 226 2003 to both source and SPL. So I do white noise - 20 dB calibration from file with applied R128 (basically - 23 dB).
You have software ISO 226 2003 implementations in EQ-APO and JRiver, hardware one on some interfaces and that's about it. There are and other software vendor oriented one (on different audio cards) but I don't recommend those.

 

[Deleted member 21219]

Mediamonkey might do what you want. https://www.mediamonkey.com/windows

Jim