Consistant Volume on Mix CD's

[TV Forces]

I thought I would ask you fellas your opinion on this topic.  I've always been a stickler for volume and would work hard at getting my mix cd's to sound uniform.  I'm sick of getting discs that are all over the place and it's nice to be told that people I have given discs too, mention how they appreciate everything sounding level.  But lately I'm losing time and patience with doing this.  I would do it by ear and it takes a long time.

I've recently started trying to figure out the "Group Waveform Normalize" function on Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition.  They make it sound so easy and I'm not having much luck.  I've looked at message boards where people talk about GWN and nobody seems to have this problem.  Basically, it uses the RMS value, stuff about "preceived levels," and analyzes the files.  It then normalizes them to the groups average.  Sounds like a plan.  But each time I do it, there are still songs WAY louder then others. 

Does anyone here have any tips on how to quickly give your mix cd's a consistant volume?  Any experienced guys here that can knock these things out fairly quickly?  I look forward to any replies this post generates and I'll try whatever I can.

[Boxer Monkey]

All I can say is, monitor and adjust. I have no quick method, and God knows I wish I did because this is an absolute sickness with me.

(Thank God I'm not alone!)

[Beckner]

Get a standalone burner if it bugs you that much. I agree though. I thought I saw an option in Media Player for it.

[Joe]

Lots of programs have this feature.

I just checked my version of MediaMonkey, and it will automatically level all audio on the fly as it is burning.

You can get it here., demo version burns at 4x speed but you could at least check to see if it does what you want. The other plus is, unlike the majority of other jukebox/media playing software available, it is NOT a resource hog, and has a Winamp 2.x style player as the default (or you can point it to your player of choice). Great program.

[TV Forces]

Get a standalone burner if it bugs you that much. I agree though. I thought I saw an option in Media Player for it.

Excuse my ignorance, but how could a standalone burner help compared to another kind?  I think the media player option is just for playing, not altering and re-saving. 

And thank you Joe, for your suggestion.  I will try it.

[Joe]

No problems, tell me how it goes!

Also, you may want to try Nero Express 6, it has a "Normilze all audio files" checkbox when you select which tracks to burn. It could do the trick also!

[Joe]

Just checking my version of Windows Media Player (Version 10)... it too has a music leveling option, it's a little bit hard to find....

• Go to the main interface, then click on the BURN tab.
• Two columns will be shown, look above the right column, right hand corner... you should be able to see 4 icons, the first looks like a small piece of paper with a tick on it. This is for burning properties. Click on it.
• Then click on the "Quality" tab of the window that opens... you should see a "Apply volume leveling to music when it is burned" option, make sure the tickbox is ticked.

[TV Forces]

wow, that MediaMonkey thing is confusing!
i'm going to work on it a little later when i have more time.

this works well for you?

[Evenreven]

For mac users reading this thread, Roxio Jam has a pretty good normalizer.

[TV Forces]

Thanks Joe, but I tried MediaMonkey and it didn't do a very good job.
It DID seem to make the songs the same volume, but some that had
their volume decreased, ended up sounding like crap. 

I guess doing it the long & hard way, is the best way.

[Joel5001]

I just adjust the volume when I'm listening.  Adjusting the levels sends me into an agitated manic state after about three songs.

[Beckner]

Excuse my ignorance, but how could a standalone burner help compared to another kind?

You got me, but just we are clear I'm referring to my Aiwa dual tray component burner. Maybe it contains an internal equalizer? (I'm a Luddite so if that's retarded. I apologize.) One of my more frivolous purchases sure but handy when I wanna make sure I'm making an absolutely perfect copy. I've never had a volume concern with it-- I only discovered the issue recently when making a Wings compilation, all the BOTR tracks from the 1998 remaster were all much louder.

[Joe]

 I would say if Mediamonkey is too confusing, try one of the other suggestions, either Nero or Windows media player. I think I used Nero last time to level up a bunch of tracks and it did an ok job.

Just try a few different programs till you find one which does the job as you wish, there has got to be a hassle free solution!