Is there a way to equalize sound when making your own CDs from files (see details)

Asked by Caravanfan (13513

) December 31st, 2022

I have a friend who has several hundred CDs, perhaps low thousands, and has been collecting them for 40 years. He doesn’t do Spotify or Apple Music or anything—he likes supporting bands with purchase of physical media.

Anyway he and his wife (they’re my age—old) are going through the process of organizing all of them and figuring out what they want to keep and what they want to dump. The problem is that there are CDs where they only like maybe one or two songs.

What they want to do is create mixed CDs like mixed tapes with different files. The problem is that in many of the songs (mostly prog rock and classic rock) the volume difference and dynamic range are very different. So they’re constantly turning the volume up and down.

The question is, is there software where they can rip the CD files, and then create their own CDs but the software can equalize the volume in such a way where its relatively constant?

Now, I don’t know if there is an answer to this. The recording engineer of Caravan is a buddy of mine and I asked him and he didn’t know. But I figured I’d ask Fluther before giving up.

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8 Answers

Does this help? https://www.soundguys.com/best-eq-apps-73891/

I’m just not sure the link will help you in burning the songs onto a new CD at the levels they want, or just help with the playback once recorded?

I put my CD songs into iTunes and then create playlists I burn them onto CD’s or put the playlists in my phone to playback, but I don’t think iTunes has the capability to level the sound from its original. If it does I don’t know about it. It looks like some apps on the link I posted work with iTunes and other playback software.

I’m a Zumba instructor and the APP we can use does level sound and level volume from song to song so instructors don’t have to worry about the volume during class, but I don’t use the app much. I do know other instructors who like the feature. Similar to what I said above, I’m not sure we can use it to burn a new CD that would be already equalized.

JLeslie (65402

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What software are you using to rip the CDs? What format are they being converted to? There is usually an eq gain setting somewhere. It may be under “filters” if they’re being saved as mp3s there is software like mp3 gain you can use.

Blackwater_Park (8562

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@Blackwater_Park Well, it’s not me, it’s a friend. I know he has itunes, and what he wants to do is burn it to a format that a CD player will read. And he knows how to equalize the song. He’s just wondering if there is an automatic way to to it.

@JLeslie Thanks.

Caravanfan (13513

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iTunes/Music has a feature called Sound Check. In iTunes, you just check the box in the burn-to-CD menu. Here is one reference: https://www.macworld.com/article/198574/rip-and-burn-cds.html

kevbo1 (1608

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There is a piece of free software called Audacity which has a ‘normalize’ function under the ‘effect’ menu, but I’ve never used the function myself. It might be what you’re looking for.

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

NovDel (609

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Thanks guys!

Caravanfan (13513

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Audacity is great software, I use it all the time.

Blackwater_Park (8562

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