I've tried in vain to solve this problem, not sure if there is a solution yet.

Some of my mp3's are around 100db recorded level, and that matches the volume of the radio, when used with the MINI iPOD adaptor. Most of my mp3's however are in the 80's, and are therefore significantly quieter than others and the radio. In fact the level is not loud enough to hear at highway speeds witht he windows down on some fo them (with H/K system).

I need to find a way to raise the volume of those that are currently too low.

Using iTunes, I found soundcheck. This unfortunately does exactly the opposite of what I need, lowering the volume to find a more common denominator level.

I tried MP3Gain, which in theory does exactly what I want - allows you to set a new level for the mp3. The problem is it doesn't actually alter the mp3 track, it mearly adds a tag to raise the volume by a certain amount. The problem is, whatever player you use has to support this tag feature. Currently the iPOD only supports it using the headphone out, not the lineout, so it has no effect for the MINI adaptor.

Does anyone know of a utility to actually raise the volume of the MP3 itself, without degrading the track? I realize it means the track will need to be opened, recoded and recorded again and will take quite some time - but it's the only way I can see. I just have not been able to find a good answer so far.

HELP!

 

There's an easy fix to this although, it's a tedious one as well. In iTunes, pick a song that you need to increase the volume of and "get info" on it. After the dialogue box opens up you should have 4 tabs to choose from. Click on "Option" and in that window should be a volume adjuster. Set it to whatever volume is in line with the other songs and then update your iPod. The setting will transfer to your iPod and you should no longer have the problem of uneven volumes. Also, if some songs are too "hot" (i.e. loud) you can lower the level on those. I just tested this on my iPod recently because I had some songs I ripped from a dvd into my Powerbook and the levels were way too low so, I just increased the volume to 100 and i don't have the problem anymore of it being too soft.

Good Luck!

 

I completely misread your question. Sorry. I realized that you were using the line out and not the headphone jack and as a result, my response is of no use. Again, sorry.

 

Yeah, I already tried that, along with everything else I can find - so far nothing effects line-out level :(

 

I don't know about ipods, but could you raise the levels on the EQ?

 

The EQ is not for volume changes, nor would it do that.

I found the answer to be Sound Forge v.8. It has a normalize feature to do exactly what I want, and it does batch operations. I know what my computer will be doing overnight! Each file takes about 45 seconds to open, scan, normalize and re-encode/save. 5000 to go...

 

Solution:

You must get Sound Forge v8 with crack and mp3 plugin v2 crack (use your favorite p2p for both). Install SF and the cracks per instructions. In iTunes, select your whole library and right click, convert ID Tags. Choose 2.2, as the standard 2.3 gives errors when opening a track in SF (only applicable to mp3s you ripped using iTunes. Other rippers don't seem to have this problem). Next use Windows search to find all you mp3's and copy them to a single folder somewhere (a new folder on the desktop works nicely). Open Sound Forge, Tools, Batch, and make a new batch run. Add the new folder you copied everything to, add the normalize function, and choose average RMS level, leave everythign else alone. This will make all tracks peak to 100%, with VERY minor rolloff, everything still sounds great, and no clipping! Add a save choosing Same as Source for all. Run the batch. Each track takes about 1 min to open, batch and save.

 

Did You Try Adjusting The Level Of The Aux Input On The Radio. I Know That On My Aux Adapter I Can Raise The Level Up 5 Notches.
If You Go To The Little Note Icon On The Radio And Start Scrolling Through Eventually You Will See The Aux Level. And You Can Adjust It With The Volume Control.

 

The iPod adaptor does not use the AUX input, it comes in a the CD Changer input, and there is no level control.

 

If you have a real EQ on the iPod then you could set all the levels to 6db higher (arbitrary number). You would still have the same EQ settings, but the volume would be higher.

That is of course considering the iPod has a parametric EQ. I am going to assume that this is not the case though based on your statement.

 

Even if it did have a peq, rasing all the points even to the same level does not raise the level evenly. There are always anchor points at +-0.

In any case, if you read the post the point was to make all the files equal, not to simply increase the lineout level.