Loud & Quiet Music

I (maybe naively) thought this was a function of the individual recording ? I've certainly noticed it with other formats in the past vinyl, CD etc and just live with it. At least now we've got remote controls !

Hi

I doubt very much that you are doing anything wrong when ripping etc. There is a great difference in loudness between some recordings and the norm, if there even is a norm.  I usually listen with the volume at 10 o'clock, which is pretty loud in my setup.  For most albums this is fine, while some may require a minor adjustment, generally in the upward direction, just a little to wake them up.  However, two examples, 'Sinead O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra' and 'P.J Harvery - Rid of Me' both require the volume whacked up to 12 o'clock for the same output volume.  That volume level would be deafening on a 'normal' album, but for these two it's just right.

There are, I believe, functions in some playback software, streaming hardware, and possibly even ripping software, that will attempt to normalize the volume.  If you find it a real problem this may be the answer, but you may find it has a negative affect on the overall SQ.

Mr Paws, the apparent loudness of a track and more typically of an album is deliberately chosen and mastering time. Different forms of compression are often used to raise the average signal level and therefore apparent loudness to often provide a stylistic feel to the album/track.

According to some analysis on commercial music compression I was reading in the AES, loudness compression peaked (!) in album masterings around 2004, and has been genereally reducing slightly since then. However artistically, there is another compression element at play. This is the Crest factor. This is the ratio of the peaks to the RMS of the signal. Artistically by increasing this factor you can increase subtlety in the music with mini dynamics from percussion, voices, guitars etc. Therefore a track might appear less loud but it it large mini peaks in it that can give a feel of intimacy. Clearly you can't change this without distorting the master recording.

Simon

Some ripping solutions (eg Vortexbox) apply 'ReplayGain' tags to even this out, but if your streamer doesn't use them (which it doesn't) then it will have no effect anyway.

Indeed, and so called replay gain simply normalises the peak values of tracks,but it doesn't normalise the RMS value and therefore if the peaks are normalised, it doesn't imply the loudness is.... welcome to the world of compression.

Simon

Ah, the old 'loudness wars' problem.  It's why I tend to avoid 'remastered' versions of albums. 

Well reading the analysis I was you may benefit from a remastering of an album originally mastered around 2004. The 'wars' were at their most ferocious then.

Simon

It may not work very well in theory but in practice I have found it a very satisfactory solution. 

First off you need to have used the DSP effect "replayGain" ( NOT ReplayGain apply) when ripping the CD. Have you done this Mr Paws?

As mentioned the Uniqute (or any Naim streamer) cannot read these tags. This is where asset comes in. In the Configuration page enable replay gain - track - increase to 24 bit. 

Then your playlists will contain songs at roughly the same volume with no need to reach for the remote every couple of songs. 

If if you have not originally applied replay gain when ripping there is a codec that can be downloaded that allows you to apply it retrospectively. 

This has rescued the Uniqute for me with respect to playlists, my SBT can read the tags natively and it used to annoy be no end not to have the ability on the Qute. 

SJB