MP3's

M

mental marv

New Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2010
Hi...

Ive been a dnb fan for a few years now, and have recently made the investment in some cd decks, i know how to mix and can kinda mix to a reasonable standard on vinyl from rinsing my mates decks for years.. but the whole mp3 thingy is quite new to me..

Ive obtained and purchased a load of tunes on digital format. The thing ive noticed is that alot of them are all mastered at very differnet levels, some tunes i have to boost the gains up to max and some are way down... (maybe its my shitty mixer...Behringer DJX 700)

Basically is there are kinda processing i can do to the mp3s to make them all the same volume...like run them through any audio programs and do something to them to increase the volume on the quieter ones and maybe decrease it on the louder ones...

Hope this is kinda making sense to people... But when ive used vinyl in the past never really experienced this prob, i mean sure there are louder and quieter tunes pressed but some of these mp3s are rediculous... Ive checked the bit rates of the files and they all come in at around 12-15mb which ive been told is about average for a 320kbps...????

Any help would be appreciated folks...

Cheers... Marv
 
buy a tc electronic finalizer off ebaty..this wil lsort your probs out nice..it has an excellent AGC ( automtic gain control) ..3 band compressor and is top kit..will set you back some serious paper, but you will never regret it..I don't use one myself. I prfer to get my levels right in teh first place, which is all about knowing your tunes, and check your levels BEFORE you move the cross fader.
 
Cheers... I always check the levels when mixing and before moving the faders, but would it not be better if the majority of the tunes were all around about the same levels, as apposed to having to boost the gains up to max? Would it not be doing more harm than good to the mixer aswell??

I just want to know if it is possible to increase the levels of the tunes in a program (without effecting any other sound quality etc) then reburn them and hey presto the levels are within a closer range to each other..
 
There isnt anything i can do like this is there: Import said mp3 in to software, increase its output using some plug in or something...Save it, then said mp3 now has a higher volume without having to increase the gain up to max... I know bugger all about production and software, i mean ive only ever used audacity a few times when have recorded mixes with mates and that...

Appologies if im not making sense to any1... Not sure im making sense in my own head to be honest.. But still....

Thanks
 
I agree with Radius, it's all about checking levels.

As much as I like using Cd's their a pain in the backside! Like you Marv I have problems even when buying from well known online stores!!

If you can just get a copy of Toast, there is a feature that allows you to boost the db's before burning. Does me a treat!
 
Agree with the whole levels thingy.. But like you say even when buying from well know online stores you end up with some real quiet tunes (even more so than vinyl im finding).. This toast you speak of sounds exactly like the kinda thing im after mate thanks... All i want to do is boost the db of the mp3 a little bit then reburn them on to disc...

Cheers for that matey
 
Cushty... Simple as that yeah? I take it id doesnt effect the sound in any other way? It doesnt make it sound wierd or anything like that.. just simply boosts the level yeah?
 
other answers given so far may be better but this is what I do

put the mp3 into something like Cool Edit Pro (which I use, or I'm sure you can do it on audacity as well), increase the volume level (using the 'hard limiter', not using the standard volume control) so that most of the wave is filling the wave level screen (or until it's as 'loud' as you want it), then save it as a wav, then convert it back to mp3 using an mp3 converter (I use xillisoft, free download). it's not as complicated as I probably just made it sound.

this works fine for me. someone else may beg to differ...
 
or get serato it has auto gain as well. some of the others ideas are good as well. I guess its whatever you can afford really, this aint a cheap hobby by any means.
 
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