analyse volume automatically

[Max1113]

The volume of new added Songs should be automatically analysed.
Can you write a function?  

I allways forget to  analyse the volume with replaygain  

Thank you

[phred]

How are you adding your new music tracks?  If from CD, then Edit > Preferences > CD Ripping > Analyse volume and write replaygain tags.

If you're getting your tracks from other sources, I'm not sure there is currently a way to automatically do this.

[Pingaware]

This already exists, at least in the form of when you add new tracks from any source, they can be automatically analysed. Go to Preferences>Tags (2) and it's the final option in that menu. (Quite well hidden - I knew it existed and spent 10 minutes trying to find it!)

[phred]

(Quite well hidden - I knew it existed and spent 10 minutes trying to find it!)

Wow!  Yes, it is indeed hidden.  I knew about CD leveling, and I thought there was another option, but I didn't see it until you pointed it out.  Hopefully this will fill the OP's needs.

[Max1113]

Great   
Thank you for searching

[Anti]

Isn't there a caveat with this?

If a downloaded track already has volume levelling parameters set in the tags, they are NOT over-written by MusicBee. So you will have a situation where MB will be doing some volume levelling at specific settings (Eg. type of algorithm and the gain setting), and some of your tracks will have volume levelling done at other settings by other software.

Obviously for volume levelling to work properly, it has to be applied consistently across entire library.

[Skoop]

I have several related questions to that issue.

Let's say I have an album with some number of tracks in it that I normalized using "Analyze Volume" manually, at a dB offset setting of my choice.  

Now, what happens when I import another track of that album from some source--for example, I record it from a streaming source?  

Does MB run "Analyze Volume" on the import using a default 0 dB offset?  Edit:  Yes.  I just tried it.


Does MB run it as is, with whatever offset is currently set (the dB offset setting appears to be sticky in that it doesn't revert to 0 after use or restart).  Edit:  No.  It runs a vanilla analysis at 0dB offset.

Finally, if a track is added to an album that had previously been normalized at some setting, would it be preferable then to strip the gain tags and then redo the entire album so that album-relative volume is then established for all tracks?

Answer:  Probably yes, if you have normalized your library to play at similar volume on an album basis. 

I looked at the track gains that came in on seven tracks that I recorded from a streaming classical station, and compared those tracks to others in the album that I had imported previously and normalized at my preferred setting of -3.5dB.  The new files looked suspiciously high in value, so I cleared the entire album and ran it again at my setting.  The numerical difference was exactly 3.5dB on the high side.

So I conclude that MB will normalize new files added at a default 0 dB offset, not at whatever you might have last used when Analyzing Volume manually.

[Pingaware]

Yes Skoop, it's fair to say that automagic volume analysis is a little basic. But if you want proper non-clipping, quite a lot of manual work has to be done anyway, so I personally don't bother with this setting. So long as you keep on top of it as you add tracks and never try and do a huge bunch in one go, it's perfectly manageable.

[Skoop]

Yep, I've since disabled it.  There's some opportunity for improvement there, but there are more important fish to fry.  So for now, manually it is.