Using ReplayGain

[timequest]

Typically, messing with the gain stage is an audiophile no-no. The more simplified the gain path, the better. That said however, I have no idea if adding ReplayGain to my EAC-based setup will have any negative impact on fidelity. What say all of you in the Know? Is ReplayGain a worthwhile addition, or can it impact the fidelity of the music files during playback?

[jbraveman]

Replay gain is just information added to the tags. It doesn't modify the files otherwise. However, when the player is instructed to read the tags it does normalize the output. It is helpful when shuffling and you want the shuffled mix to have the same volume.

[slimpy]

The player adjusts the volume (in the digital domain) based on the gain values in your files.
As these values are usually negative the volume will generally be lower than with replay gain disabled.
This will slightly affect the SNR but probably not in a noticeable way if you have the SB's volume set to 100.
But the only way to find out is to test it yourself. This won't be easy however because you have to level match the output between listening with and without replay gain enabled.

-s.

[Nonreality]

I think it works very well. You don't need it if you just play one album at a time but if you play any mixes or just line up a bunch of albums you will like what it does.

[pbg]

I've been using it as well, and it works great for Random Play.

I think a wonderful enhancement would be a setting that would enable Replay Gain when in Random Mode only.

[schiegl]

I think a wonderful enhancement would be a setting that would enable Replay Gain when in Random Mode only.

this is what "smart gain" does...

kind regards,
Markus

[pbg]

this is what "smart gain" does...

kind regards,
Markus

Thanks Markus - I was under the impression that SmartGain swtiched the replay gain levels between their 'Album' and 'Track' settings if it sensed there were sequential songs from an album being played?

What I was talking about was an option to enable replay gain albeit set to album, track or smart mode only when in Random Play.

[schiegl]

You're right about smart gain, but if you set album-gain to "+0.00dB" you have virtually disabled replay gain when tracks from the same album are played. OTOH a mixed playlist - which random play most probably is - uses the track-gain settings.

For which one of your use cases would this approach fail, i.e. you like replay-gain with random mix playlists but not with other mixed playlists (from musicip, et. al)?

kind regards,
Markus

[pbg]

You're right about smart gain, but if you set album-gain to "+0.00dB" you have virtually disabled replay gain when tracks from the same album are played. OTOH a mixed playlist - which random play most probably is - uses the track-gain settings.

For which one of your use cases would this approach fail, i.e. you like replay-gain with random mix playlists but not with other mixed playlists (from musicip, et. al)?

kind regards,
Markus

That makes sense – Unfortunately I didn’t have that foresight when I was ripping my CD’s and creating my GAIN settings. I created both the track and album GAIN tag values. In hindsight I probably should have just created the track setting. I could easily enough get rid of the album ones or set them to 0 .00

I’m just trying to think if there would be ever the situation when one may want the album gain?

[schiegl]

In hindsight I probably should have just created the track setting. I could easily enough get rid of the album ones or set them to 0 .00

You should set them to 0.00dB. Omitting album gains will result in those track gain values being used instead which is not wanted at all. I know what i'm talking about, because i did exactly this in the past and wondered why track gain was been used: with a little scripting i performed the operation: "set album gain = 0.00dB if (album gain is not set) and (track gain is set)". Now it works fine...

kind regards,
Markus