Emby server/client - ReplayGain or R128 volume normalization support for music

[Luke 42077]

On 7/10/2024 at 5:07 AM, ryancey said:

And for music? Any plan?

Another case I experienced is when you are not able to adjust the volume (in the shower, doing work with busy hands, etc) and the speaker suddendly shouts

I'd really like this to be a concern for the Emby team, it's been a while, the tech is well-known, this issue has been solved since decades, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's a major pain point for music-centric users

Thanks a lot

Hi, yes these are features we plan to look at in future updates. Thanks for the feedback.

[ManiacDC 8]

Just +1ing this for music. All my music is ReplayGain tagged and it's pretty annoying for the volume to be all over the place since I like to listen to large playlists on shuffle.

[thekingpin 29]

Just a friendly +1 for this request from a happy emby premiere subscriber.

[Vicpa 611]

Seven years and counting, 

But I am sure as @Luke @ebr

On 7/11/2024 at 12:23 PM, Luke said:

Hi, yes these are features we plan to look at in future updates. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[chowbok 132]

Looks like there's a ReplayGain implementation for MKV files: https://github.com/kevinlekiller/mkvrg. Whenever this gets implemented for audio, it'd be cool if the logic could also be used for videos.

Edited August 28, 2024 by chowbok
fixing typo

[ebr 16169]

15 hours ago, chowbok said:

if the logic could also be used for videos.

That couldn't support most video formats (compressed or lossless bitstreams).

[wilcoson 1]

On 7/11/2024 at 12:23 PM, Luke said:

Hi, yes these are features we plan to look at in future updates. Thanks for the feedback.

Um, yeah. Future plans since at least 2017. This will never be implemented so just be honest.

[ryancey 55]

Yes, a bit of information would go a long way. At this point, it should be considered a bug and not a missing feature, since it makes a bad user experience.

Edited September 1, 2024 by ryancey

[ryancey 55]

Annual reminder that this feature is still really missing. Can you please share why it isn't being worked on since 8 years (!) it has been asked for?

[thekingpin 29]

7 minutes ago, ryancey said:

Annual reminder that this feature is still really missing. Can you please share why it isn't being worked on since 8 years (!) it has been asked for?

+1

Essential option for Music Lovers. Symfonium already integrates it locally into the app. Cmon Emby....

[RLanger7228 73]

On 6/10/2024 at 5:50 PM, ryancey said:

Thanks but unfortunately most of my lib is FLAC, seems like MP3Gain doesn't support it

I did a quick internet search and there is free software (AUDACITY) that the AI search said could adjust the native volume of FLAC files, individually & for a folder full of files.  I haven't explored this yet, but you may if you are interested.

[RLanger7228 73]

I, too, would like to request some form of volume normalization for music on Emby.  I started this post separately, but was pointed here for the discussion.  Here is my post again:

Since I recently got a large chunk of FLAC, MP4 (Apple lossless) & MP3 music files, I have been enjoying adding new songs to my many playlists.  I must say that Emby seems to do a nice job of "prioritizing" the new additions so they are popping up often, but not exclusively.

However, some songs seem to have different native volume levels, requiring me to adjust the volume on my player/speaker to better accommodate a "level" listening volume. I remember having this problem with iTunes when importing new MP3 files (from converted CDs).  I used to have software (MP3 Gain) that would "listen" to a group of files & adjust the native volume of each file to a specific target decibel level I selected (called Radio Mode).  Of course, it wasn't perfect, but it worked well enough & fixed the real highs & lows.  The Apple Music player itself also offered volume normalization that worked pretty well within a certain range.  A quick internet search shows that Audacity (free, though other options were also offered) can accomplish the purpose similar to MP3 Gain for FLAC files (and I assume MP4), though I would have to experiment a bit to verify that it will work for this purpose.  The latest version of MP3 Gain for Mac I could find is: v2.5 (Using MP3Gain 1.5.2 with AACGain 2.0.0) -- 2021-02-09.

It would be nice if Emby could offer a built-in "radio mode" option when streaming, that would augment or diminish the native volume of individual songs so the output would be nearly level, at least enough to avoid having to manually adjust the output volume on my bluetooth speaker.  It should be an option, not automatic, because certain albums (especially classical) have different volumes as part of the "art", and may be preferred in those instances.  However, for the bulk of most recreational streaming, a somewhat constant volume output level would be preferred.  You could add a "RADIO MODE" button to pages that allow streaming of groups of songs (like Playlists, Albums, entire Folders, etc), especially when shuffling.

 

[chowbok 132]

2 minutes ago, RLanger7228 said:

I did a quick internet search and there is free software (AUDACITY) that the AI search said could adjust the native volume of FLAC files, individually & for a folder full of files.  I haven't explored this yet, but you may if you are interested.

Audacity would actually edit the FLAC files to boost or lower the volume. That's not really feasible on a large library. metaflac will actually analyze FLACs and apply ReplayGain tags to them, and it's a command-line tool so it could easily be done in bulk. 

Of course, this is all academic until this is implemented.

[ManiacDC 8]

1 minute ago, chowbok said:

Audacity would actually edit the FLAC files to boost or lower the volume. That's not really feasible on a large library. metaflac will actually analyze FLACs and apply ReplayGain tags to them, and it's a command-line tool so it could easily be done in bulk. 

Of course, this is all academic until this is implemented.

Not feasible and not preferred, as then your audio data has been edited and is no longer the original data. ReplayGain is just metadata that's applied on the playback side, so definitely preferred.

[RLanger7228 73]

3 minutes ago, chowbok said:

Of course, this is all academic until this is implemented.

When I was converting CDs to MP3s, I would run MP3 Gain on the group of new files (targeting a specific decibel level) before I imported them into iTunes.  This made all my music close enough in volume to not be not dependent on the player, thus not requiring Emby to implement this feature.  My new problem is that I acquired close to 1 TB of new music, problematic in adjusting the native volume of so many files at once.

The AI search I found said Audacity could perform this on a group of files at the same time ("across your entire library" was the phrase it used).  Granted, I haven't tried yet, but it did sound promising.

[chowbok 132]

2 minutes ago, RLanger7228 said:

The AI search I found said Audacity could perform this on a group of files at the same time ("across your entire library" was the phrase it used).  Granted, I haven't tried yet, but it did sound promising.

Listen to me. Audacity is an editor. It actually changes audio files. It does not do what is being asked for here. "metaflac" is the application that actually writes ReplayGain tags to FLAC metadata. If AI is telling you different, then you probably didn't phrase your question correctly.

[thekingpin 29]

Ffmpeg (which Emby already utilises), can be used to adjust Replay Gain Meta data, I'm not sure why it cannot be integrated into emby. 

[Luke 42077]

4 minutes ago, thekingpin said:

Ffmpeg (which Emby already utilises), can be used to adjust Replay Gain Meta data, I'm not sure why it cannot be integrated into emby. 

It can.

[thekingpin 29]

6 minutes ago, Luke said:

It can.

Did you mean to say "It Will"

[Luke 42077]

Can you provide a sample track containing this metadata? thanks.

[chowbok 132]

3 minutes ago, Luke said:

Can you provide a sample track containing this metadata? thanks.

Here is a small FLAC and MP3.

03 - Wasp.flac

[Wildhor 2]

Is there any news on this topic? I've been waiting for this option for a long time.

[Wildhor 2]

Ich habe ein Programm geschrieben mit dem man die LUFS ohne Qualitätsveranderung angleichen kann.Audio Normalizer.exe

[ryancey 55]

@LukeCan you give us a timeline please ? Is this being worked on ? Anything blocking you that we should be aware of ? Can we still expect this feature ? Thanks

[Luke 42077]

I don’t have an eta but it’s something we can look at in future updates. Thanks.