Mastering/Compression Software?

CQ7String · #1 06-20-2002, 01:21 AM

Does anyone know of software that can compress a number of MP3's?

Here's the scoop... I have a handful of MP3's that I've recorded, but due to my absolute lack of any type of mixing skill, the volume levels on them are all over the place. The final mix itself isn't bad, but when I burn them all onto a disc, for example Track 1 is half as loud as track 2 and track 3 is twice as loud as track 4, etc, etc...

So I'm hunting for something that can basically just keep all the levels the same across the board..

Anyone?

Thx much.

- CQ7

http://www.fortunatemind.com

JESTER700 · #2 06-20-2002, 07:43 AM

http://www.geocities.com/mp3gain/

Two hands31 · #3 06-20-2002, 07:52 AM

http://www.goldwave.com will do that for you, as well as many other things that may come in handy.

CQ7String · #4 06-20-2002, 01:05 PM

As usual, you guys are awesome. Thanks very much!

bduersch · #5 06-20-2002, 06:16 PM

Magix Audio Cleaning Lab (ACL) is awesome... it does compression, equalization, de-noising (hiss, clicks, crackle, hum), stereo imaging, and directX FX. It can read and write CD's and various audio file types (WAV, MP3, etc). I've been using it in my home studio to clean up .WAV files before burning them to CD, and it's great.

Check it out at http://www.magix.com I think it cost around $35 but was well worth it for the amount of time it's saved me.

--B

Lonely Raven · #6 06-20-2002, 07:06 PM

Hey CQ, I know what your talking about...it's called "Normalizing".
I use AudioGrabber AKA AudioCatalyst and it has that as a feature
when ripping your own. I normalize all my MP3s so they are all pretty
close. But the stuff I download can be really trashed.

Tell me if you get any of those programs to work for you. I have over
20GB of MP3s right now...I run an MP3 server at the LAN parties and
people can upload and trade during the party/show so the collection builds
up quick.

LGMT · #7 06-21-2002, 04:26 PM

I use T Racks 24 bits, but only works with wav files.

There's a good soft from sonic foundry called wave hammer. It's sound Forge 6.0 Bundle, if you want them drop me a line.

Vai the god of Sound · #8 06-21-2002, 06:02 PM

Actually, I use Cool Edit Pro for recording and mastering.

You could get it at www.syntrillium.com or off KaZaA

All you need to do is put about a 3:1 ratio on the compression at 20dB and it levels it out without making those "sucking" sounds like a noise gate.
Then normalize it to -.05 dB....very simple.

Lonely Raven · #9 06-21-2002, 07:14 PM

Yeah, but for all of that you have to have the files in wave format, right?

In my case, I'm talking about 15,000+ MP3s

That would take a little while to uncompress, normalize, and recompress!

There has to be a program out there that will allow you to "batch process"
a whole bunch of MP3s.

I found one a while back, it did it's job really well, but was buggy. It would
randomly crash, forget where it left off if it did crash, or just flat out not
accept some files simply because it didn't like the file name! I E-mailed
the dude who wrote the program, and he turned out to be some 15 year
old genius that just didn't have time to finish what he started. Too bad,
I bet he could have made a TON of money. Hell, I offered him $50 to
fix up the current version so I could at least go though our LANparties
jukebox!

Can any of you tell me for sure that those programs will work on MP3s?
Or are you all just suggesting programs that work with Wav format?

JESTER700 · #10 06-22-2002, 12:51 AM

In CEP2, you can use a "group normalization" to normalize RMS, making things SOUND equal (peak normalization doesn't do this).

But yeah, in WAV format.

shawn · #11 06-22-2002, 01:29 AM

i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but pretty much any software that modifies an mp3 converts it to a wave first. whether it does so under the surface or right there in your face is irrelevant. that ive ever heard, there was one piece of software that actually processed mp3s without conversion -- pretty obscure piece of which i dont recall the name.

--shawn

LGMT · #12 06-22-2002, 10:23 PM

Jester700, Cool Edit Pro 2.0 can apply all functions in every file format supported by the software. It's more usefull to the topic question.

And the best part is that u can use the batch procesing so, you don't need to stay 34 years in the front of you computer to procees 15.000 mp3

.

Lonely Raven · #13 06-23-2002, 12:45 PM

(sigh)

As I said, unless it does it as a batch function, I'd sure hate to have to
unpack the MP3 and recompress it myself.

Batch Function=Select and Run