Replay Gain on the J3,........possible?

[The DarkSide]

I'm asking a question, and wondering if it's worth asking at all.

I want the Cowon J3, but I need replay gain - I use the shuffle feature about 99% of the time. Having my tunes have similar volume on my player is quite important to me.

I'm wondering if anyone from Cowon reads these forums, and if so, do any of you feel this is a useful feature that Cowon should implement on the J3?

[Typhoon859]

I am also curious. I have the player and didn't find even a regular normalization option (which I wouldn't use anyway but still).

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

I'm asking a question, and wondering if it's worth asking at all.

I want the Cowon J3, but I need replay gain - I use the shuffle feature about 99% of the time. Having my tunes have similar volume on my player is quite important to me.

I'm wondering if anyone from Cowon reads these forums, and if so, do any of you feel this is a useful feature that Cowon should implement on the J3?

Yep, that feature would be very useful to me as well. DarkSide, doesn't Apple have something like that? Each time I import a music file into iTunes, it seems to do some sort of volume normalization. Is it doing "replay gain"?

[Olley]

Does the Jetaudio app have that capability?

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by Need Balance Control

Yep, that feature would be very useful to me as well. DarkSide, doesn't Apple have something like that? Each time I import a music file into iTunes, it seems to do some sort of volume normalization. Is it doing "replay gain"?

The only way the volume is adjusted is in the settings in itunes (sound check) which can be disabled, and in the settings on an ipod itself. No changes are made to the files themselves, it's just a sound enhancement feature.

Originally Posted by Olley

Does the Jetaudio app have that capability?

No, it doesn't (I have the JetAudio app installed - it's got 1 of the best audio/video converters around). Plus, it's so archaic it's not funny - gives win98 a run for it's money.

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Forgive my ignorance on this subject Darkside--I'm trying to learn--so even if I use a program such as MP3Gain or MediaMonkey to "normalize" my files, it won't matter on the the J3 because it doesn't support reading the normalized metadata, correct? Is that the problem?

And you're asking if Cowon would add support to the J3 to read the normalized metadata on your mp3 files, do I have it right?

[Resiak]

Why not use a small piece of software named MP3gain. It is free and I have used it for years. Here is the blurb on it:
MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear.
Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by Need Balance Control

Forgive my ignorance on this subject Darkside--I'm trying to learn--so even if I use a program such as MP3Gain or MediaMonkey to "normalize" my files, it won't matter on the the J3 because it doesn't support reading the normalized metadata, correct? Is that the problem?

And you're asking if Cowon would add support to the J3 to read the normalized metadata on your mp3 files, do I have it right?

Originally Posted by Resiak

Why not use a small piece of software named MP3gain. It is free and I have used it for years. Here is the blurb on it:
MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear.
Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.

mp3Gain changes the files on the computer so they all sound equal in volume. It modifies the files, and does more than just adding info to the tag. It's reversible, but not everyone want's to modify the mp3's attributes.

Replaygain on a dap would make no changes to the music files at all, but would allow them to be volume leveled on the device, and this feature could be activated or deactivated in the settings. That's why I feel it's an important setting and should be available on ALL the Cowon dap's.

It's not permanent, and you'd have the option to not use it if you like. I really hope it becomes 1 of the settings on the J3 especially - I'd buy it the minute it was put in the FW.

Please, Cowon, put Replay Gain in the J3 -
Thank You!!!

[NeedBalanceCtrl]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

mp3Gain changes the files on the computer so they all sound equal in volume. It modifies the files, and does more than just adding info to the tag. It's reversible, but not everyone want's to modify the mp3's attributes.

Replaygain on a dap would make no changes to the music files at all, but would allow them to be volume leveled on the device, and this feature could be activated or deactivated in the settings. That's why I feel it's an important setting and should be available on ALL the Cowon dap's.

It's not permanent, and you'd have the option to not use it if you like. I really hope it becomes 1 of the settings on the J3 especially - I'd buy it the minute it was put in the FW.

Ok, I get what you're saying, but my question is would one use a program--such as MediaMonkey--first to get the "normalized" metadata and let the hardware implementation of ReplayGain on the J3 decode that metadata, or would both normalizing and the decoding of the normalizing take place on the J3?

Put another way, would you first have to process all your files in MediaMonkey first or do you just directly copy mp3 files to the J3 and the J3 will do everything?

Thanks.

[The DarkSide]

The software on the player itself can analyze the files and create a volume level to use for normalization, OR you could use MM to analyze the files an the player would level the files based off of this tag attached to the metadata.

Either way it works, and quite well at that. The Sony's have the best implementation of all, but Sansa, Apple, and hopefully Cowon will catch up.

[Typhoon859]

Sorry for reviving the thread. I was just wondering, if they haven't implemented the feature through firmware yet (which they probably won't), can a custom Music UCI have programmed a Replay Gain feature? I've seen some interesting stuff done though I'm not sure if that'd be possible since pure and simply, stupidly, the J3 disables the UCI when the screen turns off. Has anyone found anything of similar merit for the device?

Aside from the annoyances that come with fluctuating volumes, my dilemma is that since the minimum volume level to have the J3 set is 20 (since below that, quality begins to suffer), the sound can be a bit too excruciating loud on my Brainwavz M2 headphones. That forces me to lower it below 20 and as mentioned, the quality suffers. Also, in general, it gets fatiguing sooner than it should and each time it ruins and shortens my listening experience.