How to update or remove WMP's volume-leveling info

[Qiu Quan]

Once I liked Windows Media Player's support on volume-leveling, and I
updated all my mp3 files with volume info by searching and adding them
again.

A few days ago, I had all my mp3 files re-processed using a utility called
'mp3gain', which analyzes and modifies mp3 files permanently, in order to
yield volume-normalized music files. I turned to 'mp3gain' because
permanent file change seemed a little more useful to me, esp. for ease
with other players including portable devices, and it seems to be the one
method solving everything.

But there's one thing unsolved, the volume-leveling info that WMP uses.
WMP is still using the original info to produce the sound, although the
mp3 files are already modified. Now, the result is WMP's volume control is
actually doing wrong controls.

Are there some ways to remove WMP's info on volume-leveling, or let it
regenerate that info? Thanks in advance!

[Galen]

Post by Qiu Quan
Once I liked Windows Media Player's support on volume-leveling, and I
updated all my mp3 files with volume info by searching and adding them
again.
A few days ago, I had all my mp3 files re-processed using a utility
called 'mp3gain', which analyzes and modifies mp3 files permanently,
in order to yield volume-normalized music files. I turned to
'mp3gain' because permanent file change seemed a little more useful
to me, esp. for ease with other players including portable devices,
and it seems to be the one method solving everything.
But there's one thing unsolved, the volume-leveling info that WMP
uses. WMP is still using the original info to produce the sound,
although the mp3 files are already modified. Now, the result is WMP's
volume control is actually doing wrong controls.
Are there some ways to remove WMP's info on volume-leveling, or let it
regenerate that info? Thanks in advance!

Under the enhancements section > crossfading and auto volume leveling > turn
it off... I'm not 100% certain but it's likely that if you turn it off and
then re-enable it it will have refreshed the data though you may wish to
turn it off, close the application, turn it back on, and then enable it
again if you want it. It sounds like you've already done so with your other
application so you can just turn it off. (Under the Now Playing tab > click
the arrow buttons to navigate to the enhancement section.)

Galen

[Qiu Quan]

Thank you, Galen! But I think I have to describe my problem more
specifically. Sorry for not having made it this clear in my first post.

Quite a few months ago, I used the command "File > Add to Library > By
Searching Computer", ticking the checkbox "Add volume leveling for all
files (slow)". After a long wait, all mp3 files were added WMP specific
information about volume statistics. Since then, WMP was able to control
the volume once I selected "Turn on Auto Volume Leveling" in the
Enhancements pane.

A few days ago, I came across with a utility called 'mp3gain'. It is
claimed to be using a well-designed algorithm known as 'replaygain'.
(Foobar2000 also implements this algorithm.) It writes mp3 files
permanently so that no matter what player is used the files will be
played normalized. (Compared to this, WMP's and foobar2000's idea are
of the other kind, that is, writing the volume info as their own
application-specific tags, respectively, not compatible with each
other.) I was excited at this feature, actually. Then I processed all my
mp3 files with mp3gain.

But Windows Media Player is still believing its old volume information
regardless of the fact that the mp3 files are already modified, even
though their timestamps are changed as well. This makes volume-leveling
for my mp3 files in WMP problematic.

Indeed, turning off "Auto Volume Leveling" for WMP works quite well.
However, I have some wma files which cannot be processed with mp3gain
and I have to enable WMP's volume control for them. So this is the
dilemma. :S

This is why I want to update the WMP specific volume info for those mp3
files.

[Galen]

Post by Qiu Quan
Thank you, Galen! But I think I have to describe my problem more
specifically. Sorry for not having made it this clear in my first post.
Quite a few months ago, I used the command "File > Add to Library > By
Searching Computer", ticking the checkbox "Add volume leveling for all
files (slow)". After a long wait, all mp3 files were added WMP
specific information about volume statistics. Since then, WMP was
able to control the volume once I selected "Turn on Auto Volume
Leveling" in the Enhancements pane.
A few days ago, I came across with a utility called 'mp3gain'. It is
claimed to be using a well-designed algorithm known as 'replaygain'.
(Foobar2000 also implements this algorithm.) It writes mp3 files
permanently so that no matter what player is used the files will be
played normalized. (Compared to this, WMP's and foobar2000's idea are
of the other kind, that is, writing the volume info as their own
application-specific tags, respectively, not compatible with each
other.) I was excited at this feature, actually. Then I processed all
my mp3 files with mp3gain.
But Windows Media Player is still believing its old volume information
regardless of the fact that the mp3 files are already modified, even
though their timestamps are changed as well. This makes
volume-leveling for my mp3 files in WMP problematic.
Indeed, turning off "Auto Volume Leveling" for WMP works quite well.
However, I have some wma files which cannot be processed with mp3gain
and I have to enable WMP's volume control for them. So this is the
dilemma. :S
This is why I want to update the WMP specific volume info for those
mp3 files.

Well, it's kind of the long route but it's okay if you have broadband I
suppose. How about if you uninstall (and this is a bit more work than you
wanted) the update to WMP 10? You can do so via the add/remove > show
updates and removing it. Then you can do the whole installation and initial
startup again. I googled and looked and didn't see any way of doing what
you're asking so that's about all I can think of.

Galen

[Qiu Quan]

Thank you! I'll give it a try.

Post by Galen
Well, it's kind of the long route but it's okay if you have broadband I
suppose. How about if you uninstall (and this is a bit more work than you
wanted) the update to WMP 10? You can do so via the add/remove > show
updates and removing it. Then you can do the whole installation and initial
startup again. I googled and looked and didn't see any way of doing what
you're asking so that's about all I can think of.

[Ziggycarmichael]

Qiu,

I have been having exactly the same problem - I use WMP10 and have used
Mp3Gain on some mp3's that were already in my WMP10 library only to
find they were subsequently too quiet. After a fair bit of searching I
have found the solution. The auto volume-leveling feature in WMP10
works by analysing each song and adding two values to the ID3v2 tag of
that song, namely PEAKVALUE and AVERAGEVALUE. After running MP3Gain on
a song that is already in the library these values will be incorrect.
Thus, uninstalling WMP10 will not work as the values are stored in each
song, not WMP10's database.

The solution is to remove the ID3v2 tag from each song using the
freeware program Mp3Tag (www.Mp3tag.de). In the settings under tags,
make sure to only check the "Id3v2" box in the remove section to make
sure that only the Id3v2 tags are stripped and not the Id3v1 tags too.
This will strip out the PEAKVALUE and AVERAGEVALUE tags and will cause
WMP10 to re-analyse each track and create new correct values for the
Mp3gain-ed tracks. The drawback of this approach is that you loose all
of your Id3v2 specific information and it is pretty labourious.

I hope this helps.

Ziggy

Post by Qiu Quan
Thank you! I'll give it a try.

Post by Galen
Well, it's kind of the long route but it's okay if you have broadband I
suppose. How about if you uninstall (and this is a bit more work than you
wanted) the update to WMP 10? You can do so via the add/remove > show
updates and removing it. Then you can do the whole installation and initial
startup again. I googled and looked and didn't see any way of doing what
you're asking so that's about all I can think of.

--
Regards,
Qiu Quan

[Ziggycarmichael]

In regard to my previous post, you need to also "save" tags in Mp3tag
after initally removing the Id3v2 tag for this to work. So to clarify -
remove Id3v2 tags using "remove tag" option and then "save tag". My
guess is the "save tag" option creates a completely new id3v2 tag.

[J LaSala]

Hey there. Has there been any more progress how to go about monkeying with
the PEAKVALUE and AVERAGEVALUE ID3v2 fields for use with WMP10? While your
remove/save trick does do the trick, Ziggy, it's really a shame to throw the
baby out with the bathwater. I'd really love to strip these values from
some (but not all!) of my mp3s but not at the expense of losing all of their
tag data! Is there no program out there that will edit just these valuable
fields alone?

Thanks in advance.

[B***@live.ca]

Yea i came here looking for specifically how do i remove the auto volume leveling from an mp3 song that windows media player creates leveling for but none of this tells me anything since the auto volume leveling seems to be attached to the song not the player so even deleting all the tags and even using a different program the songs sound like crap now the volume is constantly jumping up and down all by itself with no tags and leveling off or on it doesn't matter. So how do i remove the auto volume leveling for real?? (Windows 10) Its almost as if it purposely is trying to force me to delete all my music and redownload it all just because i clicked 1 thing?? Microsoft needs to get its sheet togeather almost everything of theres i touch lately doesn't work properly including there OS win10.

[B***@live.ca]

I found the issue with windows media player and its crappy leveling issue it is the graphic equalizer making it sound like crap not the volume leveling. After turning off the graphic equalizer the songs sound consistent again so there equalizer is broken and causes the volume to jump up and down regardless of all the other settings. Microsoft is the next EAgames there getting that bad lol.