MP3 Questions

Two questions on MP3's that are only tangentially related to Empeg.

a. Is there a volume normalizer for MP3's? Ie, if you have a batch of MP3's is there something that will set the volume of each track to the same level. I hate MP3's ripped by friends that are set at a different volume level and are either too faint or blast.

b. If you've downloaded tracks from the likes of Morpheus, Napster, etc is there something that will take those tracks and figure out what their ID3 tags are from something like CDDB? I've heard about these newfangled audio fingerprinting companies; have they produced anything useful for the consumer? I have a whole set of music at work that has been ripped (240 gigs) and about half of it is missing complete ID3 tags (only has partial info - artist and name of track embedded in filename).

All of this has been discussed recently. Search a bit around, but the short version of the answer would be:

a) There is a program (the name of which I don't recall) that is able to 'normalize' MP3 tracks without de-compressing them; moreover, it can do that on tune-by-tune or album-by-album basis. However, as Tony, Doug and others often stress out, perceived difference in volume is usually there owing to different amount of volume compression, not incorrect normalisation.

b) MusicMatch will do CDDB lookups based on partial tag data. MoodLogic will 'recognise' about half of tag-less tunes (depending on how mainstream they are, I guess )

Your first question is answered in the FAQ.

As for the second question, rumor has it that the registered version of MusicMatch will use the AMG database to fully fill out the tags based on partial information (such as an artist/title).

240 gigs?

Watchout, this is proof that Saddam now has mp3's of mass production.

Just joking.

It aint no rumor...that is one of my groups projects. It's called Super Tagging. You can take your poorly tagged/untagged files and submit them to us and we will fill in everything we can (and are legally allowed to do). It is part of the Plus version like you said. That same feature will also let you rename all your MP3 files based on the tags OR if your files are named with a consistent pattern, you can create the tags from the filename. It is a real timesaver.

Oh yeah...MMJB Plus will also do Volume Leveling...it's not as easy to get the results to the Empeg, but it exports to burned CDs and other portable devices just fine. I think (but an in no way sure) that the built in transcoding feature will take the volume leveling into account. I.E. You could rip all your tracks at a good archive quality, apply the volume leveling to your library, then transcode the files down to 128 for export to the Empeg.

Just don't get in on that crazy Mood Logic profiling crap and pay-per-use software license.

I've installed your software, but found it was just a bit too much overhead for my tastes. It also wasn't terribly speedy for my collection. Nice work though.

I'm sure following this BBS you're going to get all sorts of ideas on all sorts of cool new features (not that your support teams don't get bucketloads of mail... )

Bruno

Bucketloads would be an understatement!!!