Any difference in Audacity Amplify effect and MP3 gain?

[RajVO]

Any difference in Audacity Amplify effect and MP3 gain?
Which one is better, if there is any difference?
Thanks.

[annise]

One suits some people, the other suits others .

Anne

[mightyfelix]

I think I remember reading somewhere that MP3gain can sometimes cause your audio to be clipped in places, which is not something that you want. Whereas the amplify effect in Audacity won't let that happen (unless you check the "allow clipping" box, which is just... You shouldn't).

I don't know for sure, though. I don't use MP3gain myself. I think I used it for the first few sections I submitted, but then started relying only on checker and the amplify effect.

[moniaqua]

Any difference in Audacity Amplify effect and MP3 gain?

As addition to what is already said, amplify is inside, MP3Gain is external. Some prefer to do all with one program, some prefer to take different ones. It is just a matter of taste, I guess.

[RajVO]

One suits some people, the other suits others .

Anne

So, it's only a personal choice.

[RajVO]

I think I remember reading somewhere that MP3gain can sometimes cause your audio to be clipped in places, which is not something that you want. Whereas the amplify effect in Audacity won't let that happen (unless you check the "allow clipping" box, which is just... You shouldn't).

I don't know for sure, though. I don't use MP3gain myself. I think I used it for the first few sections I submitted, but then started relying only on checker and the amplify effect.

Yes. There's no option to allow / not allow clipping in MP3 gain, explicitly.
Is there any way to see the amplitude (of 86 to 91 or so decibels) in audacity, before feeding the file to checker itself?

[RajVO]

Any difference in Audacity Amplify effect and MP3 gain?

As addition to what is already said, amplify is inside, MP3Gain is external. Some prefer to do all with one program, some prefer to take different ones. It is just a matter of taste, I guess.

Right. But MP3 gain is automatically bringing the file to the specified range.
Is there any possibility to automate the amplify process (using a chain or so) in audacity too?

[mightyfelix]

Is there any way to see the amplitude (of 86 to 91 or so decibels) in audacity, before feeding the file to checker itself?

Yes and no. ReplayGain (I mentioned that in the other thread where I replied to you) works within Audacity. But it doesn't give you a measurement in decibels. It gives you the difference between your recording and the standard. So it would return a result such as "-1.2 dB". Which would mean that your recording needs to be reduced by 1.2 dB to get it to 89. You can also use ReplayGain to automatically amplify or de-amplify your recording to where it needs to be, and again, it's all within Audacity, without needing to use an external program.

As far as your question regarding chains, well, there I can't help you. I've never used chains and I don't know how they work. I'd be interested in learning, but thus far, I've been too lazy... And just a tad frightened.

[moniaqua]

Is there any possibility to automate the amplify process (using a chain or so) in audacity too?

ReplayGain (which seems to be basically the same as MP3Gain, only as plugin) does it if you choose Normalize there, not Analyze. I only do not like to use it because it doesn't care about clipping - not good for my reading

[TriciaG]

Last I heard, MP3Gain doesn't change the volume of the wave forms themselves. It adds something to the metadata that says, "make this file sound X dB louder/quieter" and the MP3 players see that and adjust.

Amplification/normalization in Audacity changes the wave forms themselves.

It used to be that some MP3 players couldn't read the info provided by MP3Gain, so it was better to use tools inside Audacity. But I think nowadays, MP3 players can read it, so to the end user, there is no difference.

[RajVO]

Is there any way to see the amplitude (of 86 to 91 or so decibels) in audacity, before feeding the file to checker itself?

Yes and no. ReplayGain (I mentioned that in the other thread where I replied to you) works within Audacity. But it doesn't give you a measurement in decibels. It gives you the difference between your recording and the standard. So it would return a result such as "-1.2 dB". Which would mean that your recording needs to be reduced by 1.2 dB to get it to 89. You can also use ReplayGain to automatically amplify or de-amplify your recording to where it needs to be, and again, it's all within Audacity, without needing to use an external program.

As far as your question regarding chains, well, there I can't help you. I've never used chains and I don't know how they work. I'd be interested in learning, but thus far, I've been too lazy... And just a tad frightened.

Good inputs.
Yes. There's a conflict involved in Laziness and wasting time.

[RajVO]

Is there any possibility to automate the amplify process (using a chain or so) in audacity too?

ReplayGain (which seems to be basically the same as MP3Gain, only as plugin) does it if you choose Normalize there, not Analyze. I only do not like to use it because it doesn't care about clipping - not good for my reading

Oh! when at all the Normalize effect needs to be used?

[RajVO]

Last I heard, MP3Gain doesn't change the volume of the wave forms themselves. It adds something to the metadata that says, "make this file sound X dB louder/quieter" and the MP3 players see that and adjust.

Amplification/normalization in Audacity changes the wave forms themselves.

It used to be that some MP3 players couldn't read the info provided by MP3Gain, so it was better to use tools inside Audacity. But I think nowadays, MP3 players can read it, so to the end user, there is no difference.

True. It would be better to use the tools inside audacity, to have more control.
But a bit of learning curve is involved!

[moniaqua]

Is there any possibility to automate the amplify process (using a chain or so) in audacity too?

ReplayGain (which seems to be basically the same as MP3Gain, only as plugin) does it if you choose Normalize there, not Analyze. I only do not like to use it because it doesn't care about clipping - not good for my reading

Oh! when at all the Normalize effect needs to be used?

Sorry, I missed that. Normalizing is amplifying to a certain level. So you need it for example to get a too soft recording louder (if the peaks allow, or with clipping if there are too high peaks. But clipping doesn't sound nice).

[TriciaG]

Clarification:

Normalizing is amplifying the recording so that the biggest waveform is at a certain level. So if you had a very quiet recording with one loud click that causes a spike in the wave form, normalizing would adjust the volume such that that one spike would be at the level you specify (X dB under maximum/clipping).

Amplifying is... amplifying the recording a specified amount, regardless of peaks or wave forms.

I amplify instead of normalize because it tells me more about what the final volume of the recording will be. If ReplayGain or MP3Gain says "adjust the volume by 3.0 dB", I know if I amplify, I can do it by 3.0 dB. Normalize doesn't tell me how much it's changing the volume, other than that the peak wave form will be within X dB of clipping.

In the ReplayGain plug-in, I think calling it "normalize" is the wrong term. What it's doing is actually amplifying to get you to the desired level, just like using Effect/Amplify would.