From: RaeNye <raenye_at_netvision.net.il>
Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 18:39:33 +0200

I'm using foobar2000 for RG, although I hate its interface.
It is configurable/customizable/scriptable, nevertheless.

But surely it'll be nice to have a linux program for it!

P.S.
My playlist contains albums as well as one-hit-wonders from all decades, so
we're in the same aural boat.

-----Original Message-----
From: rockbox-dev-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se
[mailto:rockbox-dev-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se] On Behalf Of john
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 12:54 PM
To: Rockbox development
Subject: Replaygain: Creating tags the easy way

Hi!

We all know, that replaygain is a fantastic feature, more or less exclusivly
given to all rockbox users. In fact, when I did some research on the
required tools for creating the neccessary tags in the
mp3 files, I came along a lot of sites of big consumer electronics magazines
that gave tips or recipes about this. Even the journalists that were able to
distinguish between giving replaygain information via tags versus
manipulating the mp3 stream, they all made one
mistake: They listed some players that can read replaygain tags like
foobar2000 and clearly stated that there does not exist one single portable
mp3 player with that feature. I then realized how exclusive I may feel by
using rockbox, if a really need that kind of satisfaction. Maybe better
writing some letters to the editor...

Hmm, I got a little off topic know. Actually I could not find any program
for calculating the replaygain and applying the track and album gain tags.
The best solution seems to be foobar2000, but this has some disadvantages:

Graphics application: I would rather like some tool for batch programming.

Closed source: No chance to extend the working behaviour.

Windows only: I would have to use it at work or cross fingers and try it
with wine.

Actually I started with the foobar2000 with wine approach, until I realized
that this gets quite some work to install and at least semi-perfect results.

For linux there seems only to exist mp3gain, but this does not write album
and track gain tags, but changes the mp3 frame gain. Thats definetly not
what a lucky rockbox users wants.

Then I did some calculations: How much effort to change mp3gain, so it does
write the neccessary tags? It already provides an option for track or album
gain, but obviously can only apply album or track gain, as only replaygain
tags give you the possibility for both in the same file.

How much effort for getting foobar2000 to work, including total costs of
ownership?

I guessed the mp3gain will give me a lot better results in the long run (no
delicate mouse pushing all the time I add some files to my library, just
starting a bash script). But just before starting digging deeply into the
source code, one thing made me hesitate:

Am I the only human beeing on this planet using rockbox and linux and does
have a desperate need for replaygain? Does no one else mix some tracks from
the 70's with current pop music in a playlist and listen to full albums as
an entity the other day? Is just everyone using foobar2000?

I hope someone can give me a hint, whether I should go ahead and extend
mp3gain or if I did just miss the required rockbox companion program.

Thanks for your answers, have a nice day, John
Received on 2006-05-21