NormalizeMpThreeVolumes
This is cool... Don't you hate it when you are listening to your mp3 collection and the volume levels are all different?
I've been using the tool normalize for quite a while to adjust wav file volume levels when burning cds - works great.
Well I just discovered the latest version of normalize works on mp3s too. And the way it works is cool - it computes a dB adjustment for the file, but instead of decoding and reencoding the file to apply it (which would degrade the audio), it writes the adjustment into a special standard id3v2 Relative Volume Adjustment tag.
Then any mp3 player can check that tag and apply the adjustment on playback.
I adjusted all 1200 or so mp3s on my system - took about 3 hours. Now everything is consistently the same relative volume.
Of course, the downside is that apparently the only thing that operates on the special tag right now is a plugin from the normalize author for xmms. Still, it's a standard id3 tag, so expect it in more players as id3v2 becomes more widespread.
