ReplayGain: What apply method works best for you? (poll)

[L5730]

Hi all,

Some while ago I became dissatisfied with how ReplayGain Album Gain was working for me on my music library.
What I tended to notice was that album-to-album loudness variation was significant enough for me to seek a different solution.

I'm using Foobar2000 and ReplayGain values are calculated using the EBU-R128 loudness algorithm. Values are Integrated LUFS for Track Gain, and then all track I-LUFS are averaged to find an Album Gain value.

What I discovered was that if I took the data of loudest Track from an album, and applied that as the Album Gain (rather than the average of all tracks), things were much more level when playing album-to-album.
Of course, using Track Gain as the source for ReplayGain doesn't work as it messes up the dynamic flow of an album.

For example below, take the loudest track, and apply that adjustment as the Album Gain. That's a fairly significant 1.33 dB difference in playback volume. It's enough to notice.

Cyndy Lauper: She's So Unusual.

TrackGain   AlbumGain   My AlbumGain    Track
-3.13 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        01 Money Changes Everything
-2.80 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        02 Girls Just Want To Have Fun
-1.34 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        03 When You Were Mine
+0.94 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        04 Time After Time
-2.08 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        05 She Bop
-1.96 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        06 All Through The Night
-0.99 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        07 Witness
-2.05 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        08 I'll Kiss You
-1.01 dB    -1.80 dB    -3.13 dB        09 He's So Unusual; Yeah Yeah

 

[Redbeard65]

I have used Media Monkey for years and album gain is my preferred one.
I mostly listen to whole albums and using track gain kind of destroys the flow of an album.
I recently started using Roon and I'm letting it make it's own decisions on replay gain by setting volume leveling to auto. So far, I'm pleased with the results.

 

[Apesbrain]

I don't often use Track Gain, but I write the tags anyway. There's no cost to it. LMS has a setting called "Smart Gain" that is smart enough to apply Album Gain when playing albums at a time, and Track Gain if playing random tracks in a playlist.

 

[RayDunzl]

Not Applicable here, for music to which I'm really listening.

But I've started using a compressor with random things sent to the TV from the internet.



Don't use it with a movie (unless a freebee interupted with short commercial blasts)

So I picked "Custom".

 

[ernestcarl]

Both via JRiver. If streaming, I use normalization by default.

 

[L5730]

Not Applicable here, for music to which I'm really listening.

But I've started using a compressor with random things sent to the TV from the internet.

View attachment 98271

Don't use it with a movie (unless a freebee interupted with short commercial blasts)

So I picked "Custom".

I actually have a VST compressor running on Foobar2000 on another install. It does help give a bit of 'radio' homogeneity. Fine for background listening. Of course, I wouldn't dream of using a compressor for more pleasurable listening.


Just to clarify my first post:

I'm still using Album Gain for playback mode, but I am manually changing the actual number for the Album Gain to that of the loudest track of the album, instead of an average of all tracks. It makes album-to-album play more consistent.

 

[Foxenfurter]

As per Apesbrain LMS smartgain all day long, I think neutron on Android has something similar I wouldn't use a player without it now. What blew my head-off was on a random mix was a William Orbit trackat -10db followed by a killers track at +10db