No ReplayGain on FLAC files

[ubeagle]

I have normalized MP3 files (using mp3gain) and normalised FLAC files (using foobar2000) on my hard drive. All files were normalised to 89 db. Rhythmbox plays all files (MP3 + FLAC) at the same volume. In Banshee the FLAC files (especially those from newer CDs) are playing at a much higher volume than the MP3s. Therefore, I assume that ReplayGain doesn't seem to work with FLAC files in Banshee.

I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 with Banshee 2.0.1.

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

On 09/07/2011 19:46, ubeagle wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> I have normalized MP3 files (using mp3gain) and normalised FLAC files
> (using foobar2000) on my hard drive. All files were normalised to 89 db.
> Rhythmbox plays all files (MP3 + FLAC) at the same volume. In Banshee
> the FLAC files (especially those from newer CDs) are playing at a much
> higher volume than the MP3s. Therefore, I assume that ReplayGain doesn't
> seem to work with FLAC files in Banshee.
>
> I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 with Banshee 2.0.1.
>
> ** Affects: banshee (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>

Could you upload some sample MP3 and FLAC files for analysis? My FLAC files seem
to all work, but some of my MP3 files don't. Could it be that the FLAC files are
playing at the correct volume but the MP3 files aren't?

  status incomplete

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin

[ubeagle (fun-stuff)]

Attached, see the FLAC file, normalised with foobar2000 under Wine. The metaflac command shows that gain is reduced, but it sounds much louder than the MP3 file (next attachment).

$ metaflac --list Desktop/gypsy.flac |grep replaygain
    comment[0]: replaygain_track_gain=-9.85 dB
    comment[1]: replaygain_track_peak=0.973083

[ubeagle (fun-stuff)]

Here comes the MP3 file (same extract of the song as the FLAC file). Normalised with mp3gain. Its volume is reduced in Banshee.

[ubeagle (fun-stuff)]

However, I just noticed that when I turn off the ReplayGain plugin in Rhythmbox, the FLAC file sounds louder, too. So with the enabled plugin Rhythmbox seems to reduce the volume of every file - whether they have a replaygain tag or not.

Now I am confused. Two questions come to mind:
1) Isn't it possible just to read out the gain tag of FLAC files like the metaflac command and apply the volume when playing? (Is there actually a player which can do that?)
2) If the answer to question no. 1 is no and there will be no way to do this in Banshee... is there a similar "ReplayGain" plugin (as there is in Rhythmbox) for Banshee which just normalises all songs to an average volume when playing?

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

On 14/07/2011 01:25, ubeagle wrote:
> However, I just noticed that when I turn off the ReplayGain plugin in
> Rhythmbox, the FLAC file sounds louder, too. So with the enabled plugin
> Rhythmbox seems to reduce the volume of every file - whether they have a
> replaygain tag or not.
>
> Now I am confused. Two questions come to mind:
> 1) Isn't it possible just to read out the gain tag of FLAC files like the metaflac command and apply the volume when playing? (Is there actually a player which can do that?)
> 2) If the answer to question no. 1 is no and there will be no way to do this in Banshee... is there a similar "ReplayGain" plugin (as there is in Rhythmbox) for Banshee which just normalises all songs to an average volume when playing?
>

I've always found mp3gain a bit weird. Could you try comparing an ogg file with
the flac instead? You can use vorbisgain to calculate RG stuff for ogg files.

What you could also do is compare the volumes of the same flac file with and
without the RG tags present.

As for your questions..
1) Don't Banshee and Rhythmbox both do exactly that with RG enabled? Technical
details: they both use the rgvolume GStreamer element to handle the reading of
replaygain tags. I think it doesn't work quite right with mp3gain tags (they're
not really standard anyway -- the MP3 standard does not support replaygain).

2) No such thing.

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for banshee (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]