LameXP v4.21 Final · Build #2382 (2023-12-29)

[T-Hawk]

Originally Posted by LoRd_MuldeR

It is important to understand that the ReplayGain tag that LAME is creating (by default) is nothing but a meta information. It does not alter the volume of the audio file at all!

ReplayGain normalization happens, if at all, at playback time. So, IMO, there are only two possible situations:

• If you do want ReplayGain to normalize the volume of you media files, then you need a playback software that supports ReplayGain and your media files need to contain proper ReplayGain meta information.
  The latter is exactly what LAME is doing (by default). In other words, LAME prepares the created MP3 files for ReplayGain processing, but the actual processing happens in your playback software.

• If you do not want ReplayGain to normalize the volume of you media files, then use a playback software that does not support ReplayGain –or– just disable the ReplayGain feature of your playback software.
  Either way, as long as ReplayGain is disabled (or unsupported) in your playback software, the ReplayGain meta information that may be present in the media file will simply be ignored.

tl;dr If you don't like ReplayGain processing, then disable it in your playback software

I would rather just not have to deal with it. It's not always obvious if a particular player is using ReplayGain and how to disable it. Foobar and Audacity are not adding the "meta information" to the best of my knowledge and both are using the LAME encoder. So I assume it is a LAMEXP default and not a LAME default. Looks like I will just use Foobar from now on and have to go back to the files I've already converted with LAMEXP and remove the track volume info.