Hey guys.. just wondering what you use to 'normalize' mp3s?

Basically, the MP3s we get all vary in quality.. some are low volume, some are loud, some are great, some are low bass etc

I've been using MP3GAIN to adjust my mp3s so they all sound the same pretty much BUT this worked well for my TSX however, for the TL, the stock bass/sub can't handle a good chunk of the 'adjusted' mp3s that worked so well for the TSX. usually the sub/bass sounds like crap.

any ideas?

 

I use Nero6 to burn with and I wanna say there's a check box to normalize the volume for every track. Not sure what you are using to burn with, but look around in there.

 

I just have to say it before anyone else does, upgrade your sub!

Honestly, I don't know how you guys can stand the poor sound quality of the mp3s. Maybe you don't notice it as much with a stock system but I absolutely hate them.

 

I have been using MP3 for many years now and frankly if you rip CD correctly the resulting quality is really pretty good. I don't use any of the rippers built into modern programs like Nero or Windows Media because they are all crap. The tools I use are actually old tools but they were designed with quality in mind. The CD rip is done with a tool called Exact Audio Copy, and it's free. It does an awesome job of extracting the audio and creating an exact lossless copy in WAV format. Get it here http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ Then I use the LAME encoder to create the MP3 file from the WAV file. Key to this last step is using LAME settings that have a high sample rate and Variable Bite Rate encoding. There are many LAME profiles that you can find on the internet that produce really good sounding MP3's. Plus EAC has the ability to integrate with LAME so the rip is a one step automated process.

Using the above process and making sure you use the right settings will produce very acceptable MP3 files but I do agree that normal 128bit rips typically sound like crap.

 

Get the LAME encoder here http://lame.sourceforge.net/

 

Lame is good, probably the best, but even its "preset extreme" falls far short of uncompressed CD quality. Good enough for the iPod (since the iPod's audio out is mediocre at best anyway) but I'd rather rip CDs to DVDA for the TL.

to the OP the best way to normalize would be to do it to the uncompressed wavs if you have them and then encode to mp3.