mp3Gain-like program for ac3???

[gamaD]

does it exist?

[buzzqw]

afaik no

but in azid you can use the -a -g switch...

BHH

[gamaD]

yeah, i know, but that's for recoding, if there was such a program, i could amp up my ac3 files without recoding, thus preserving quality.

why isn't there such a program? ac3 licencing issues, or something else?

[buzzqw]

Dunno... sorry

i think is for license' issue

but will be a usefull tool (btw you con use reclock to amplify ac3 audio)

BHH

[pelmen]

only a few people use ac3 for audio instead of mp3

ac3's primary role is for audio attached to video, so why bloat out the format with features that are irrelevant on dvd

perhaps ac3 doesn't having tagging features the way mp3 can...mp3gain works on mp3 by adding a gain tag to the file (hence no re-encoding) and that tag gets read by the audio player and the gain applied. so perhaps its just not possible without going outside the ac3 spec (need someone who understands the file format to confirm/deny this one).

would be handy though to see one, perhaps work with very high bitrate AC3 files and as the last step run it through besweet or whatever and normalize the file and compress it to the final bitrate in that step.

or, as many others do already, normalize and clean your master rips/recordings to a "standard" level and archive them using a loseless format...then just batch process your mp3/ac3/ogg/etc collection from those and in the future new fileformats you just encode them from your archived master files without needing to re-record.

sorry i couldn't give a definite answer on this one :(

[gamaD]

actualy, i was thinking of the "old" mp3gain method, where it amplified the file without reencoding, not just added tags.

i would like to keep my dvd-rips with the original audio, so i don't loose quality by reencoding. problem is, some of them have insanly quiet
tracks. for now i'm reencoding them to same bitrate aac, after normalizing, but i'd like to do it lossless.

another idea that comes to mind is replaygain support for video players. i could then add gain info to the container (i use matroska) and the player would amp it up. bu i haven't sen any players or plugins with this feature.

any programers want to give it a try?

[Brother John]

In fact ac3 has a built-in feature for making the track feel louder: dynamic range compression values within the BSI info.
ac3filter works with those info. Just enable DRC in the filter config. Though I don't like the feature because sometimes it almost completely destroys the surround impression.