Modifying levels in iTunes

[aazura]

The restaurant where I dance seems to have a problem with my CDs -- they aren't loud enough. I guess it's just mine (the other dancers's CDs are plenty loud) -- they need to crank up the volumn way more for my CDs. It seems to be this way for ALL of my CDs, not just certain songs. I know there's a way of changing volume levels in music software, but I can't for the life of me find or figure it out. I use iTunes and also have Peak LE for editing. Any techie help out there that can explain this to me??

[steffib]

Have you tried: Info (Apple-key + i on a Mac) -> Options tab -> the volume adjustment slider? I never had to play with that myself, so I can't say how it works - but that's what I would try.

Good luck!

[Lauren_]

I don't know of anything specifically that would affect the volume, but I've learned over the years that the two most important things when burning CDs are the media itself (some brands won't play at all in some equipment, some play badly, CD-RW are useless for music) and making sure that I'm burning audio CDs rather than data. I do that in itunes under preferences - advanced - burning, and there's also a box to turn on 'sound check' which regulates the volume of songs across the CD.

That's my whole knowledge bank on CD burning with itunes!

[rickfink]

Dear Aazura,

Raising the volume using Peak LE is pretty easy. When you have openned your song in Peak go up to DSP on the top of the screen, open it and go down to Change Gain. When the new window comes up you will see that you can raise or lowwer the volume. Try raising it in increments of 3 or 6db and see if that works for you.
Once you find the volume you like save the changed version and import it into iTunes and burn yourself a copy. See how that plays compared to your old copy.

Take care, Rick Fink

[jewelbellydance]

I have this problem too - my CD's burnt off i-tunes play too softly. I always tell my venues to crank it right up, or will bring my i-pod and superdooper stereo with me as I know that's loud enough (probs then of getting someone to press play on an ipod when they don't know how to use one...!!!). I am going to try the abovementioned suggestions, but I really wish there was a surefire way to ensure our music was played loudly and correctly at gigs. It's an eternal frustration.

[karlaa]

I just found this thread in a search this morning -- I have the same issue with my iTunes CDs playing too softly at restaurants. I don't have sound editing software, but I think I have another solution.

After mucking about with Sound Enhancer and changing volume settings in Get Info, my husband suggested unchecking the Sound Check option. I resisted because that feature is supposed to keep all songs at a similar volume (so your audience isn't blasted out of the seats when your delicate veil gives way to a thundering drum solo). But after trying everything else, I tried the Sound Check option and -- voila -- clear, loud music on my home stereo. And there were no major discrepancies between songs.

Here's how, on the PC:

In iTunes, go to Edit . . . Preferences . . . click Advanced tab . . . under that, click Burning tab.

On the list of Burning options, you should see Sound Check. Uncheck it and try burning your playlist to disc, then see how that disc volume compares to a regular disc on your home system.

Hope this helps!

[deelybopper]

Uncheck Sound Check If that is the answer...I am going to be soooo annoyed Thanks for the tip karlaa.

D

[dilek]

i had the same problem, now I use Media Player, and same CD plays differently from place to place. I think in ITunes, you need to go to Burn and click on the device (hardware) and one of the option should be Level adjuster for all songs. That is what Media Player does.

[HubicRuzz]

Can't say I've used itunes to that level of customisation.

So the music you use was purchased from itunes? If you can get the music into Audacity, which is free, you should be able to crank up the volume and export it.

[ozma]

When sound quality counts I make sure to import the songs from the original into iTunes as AIFF files instead of MP3. I then burn the cds from those and replace the iTunes AIFF files with regular MP3 for regular listening pleasure (AIFF takes up more space because it isn't compressed the same amount as MP3)