Making MP3s louder

IM

My lads each have an MP3 player, for which I have bought special volume-limiting earphones - I didn't want to risk them damaging their hearing by cranking it up to 11...

Unfortunately, when I have loaded up some audio book CDs, the low volume, even at the top setting, is inaudible - and that's before we get in the car and have to contend with the sounds of the motorway.

Is there any way I can 'beef up' the volume of these files - music is fine, it's just the audio books causing a problem.

(Takes me back to the days of creating a mix tape, and having to fiddle with the record levels for ages... )

G42

This an excellent free program which should do what you want.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

bob_a_builder

You might find this a bit simpler to use than Audacity. its also free

has a preset setting to do what you want

MP3 Moulder

IM

That looks great - and very complicated!

Looks like I'd have to select each track in turn, then apply 'Amplify'. And with 24 tracks on the first CD I'm trying to sort - and another dozen after than - I'll be there all day.

Is there any way of setting the amplification at the rip stage?

Dave_C_2

If you are techie then Audacity is the best - and free!

1. Download Audacity - at some point you may need the lame encoder instructions on audacity site easily followed
2. Run Audacity and open the mp3 file pick a small file to try it!
3. From the menu edit>select>all to select the whole file
4. From the menu effect > amplify to get the amplify dialogue
5. Now the trial and error method. To make it louder (positive dB values) you have to allow clipping, which distorts the sound. In theory every 3 dB should double the sound. The higher the dB the more distortion you get. I would start about +6 dB on the slider.
6. Make sure the allow clipping box is ticked and click preview to try it
7. If you are happy click OK
8. Don't save, you have to export the file, so select file > export make sure save as type is MP3 and choose a new file name (don't save over the original)
9. That's it. Try the new file and repeat steps 5 to 8 until you are happy with the result. Amplify the original file in each case and save to a new filename. Amplifying the amplified file will introduce even more distortion.

Dammit, more replies when I was composing my reply and was distracted by real life

Dave

bob_a_builder

With MP3moulder, just put all the files for processing in one folder, select them all and drag over the MP3moulder screen - all files will be processed one by one with out further input reqd - so IT might be there all day but you don't have to be !

Test the resulting files, by default stored on your desktop (C:\Users\Family\Desktop\Re-Encoded)
If not quite right then just delete that folder, and re-run the process with a different amplification setting

IM

I've had a play around with MP3 Moulder...

I did some trial runs increasing the amplification x5 (the default) and x9 (the max).

Not a great deal of difference to be honest - although the x9 was very crackly.

Thought anything was better than nothing though, so I ripped all the CDs and did a batch conversion with MP3 Moulder.

One big problem. I've lost all the sequencing/file structure, and now have a list of 13 Track 1s, 13 Track 2s etc. to put back together again....

santer_2

Another option

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

Add a file or folder, set the target volume, click track analysis, when that completes, click album gain.

Maybe best to use copies until you get the gain as you prefer it

somersethillbilly

santer wrote: »

Another option

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

Add a file or folder, set the target volume, click track analysis, when that completes, click album gain.

Maybe best to use copies until you get the gain as you prefer it

+1 For MP3Gain.

Freebyman

somersethillbilly wrote: »

+1 For MP3Gain.

And another one for mp3 gain, very easy to use.

SteveJW

Have a look at the normalize function of audacity

For example, if you set "Normalize Maximum Amplitude to:" 0.0 dB, every selected audio track will be normalized to 0.0 dB, irrespective of its original level. Whatever peak volume differences there were between the tracks will be removed.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Normalize

Useful when mp3s come from different sources have varying peak volumes