Hey guys, I made the switch to Linux about a week ago and have mo complaints so far. Except maybe this: I can’t seem to find a way in Linux to get proper loudness equalization like I got on windows.

My issue is that I have a bunch of media, especially shows and movies, that are suffering from way too loud gunshots, explosions, music and so forth and really quiet dialogue. I know this is because sound engineers make the audio fit for cinemas and not my living room, it is a problem nonetheless.

Under windows there is a simple toggle in even the most basic sound cards and settings called loudness equalization, that corrects those perceived differences quite effectively, which Linux is lacking. A bit of web search led me to the term ReplayGain, which seems to be the proper name for it, and I enabled it for my media from within the player apps. However it doesn’t really work like i am used to.

Sounds and language constantly change volume mid sentence, which is very irritating to me. ReplayGain also doesn’t really help avoiding those sudden bursts of loudness, I still blast awake my neighbors on accident when watching a move later at night.

Is there some way to get at that windows audio codec or whatever they use, that works so much better?

Thanks for reading

  • @meleethecat
    link
    31 month ago

    ReplayGain is more about making the volume level consistent between tracks. It’s really good for playlists and mixes because you don’t up with some tracks being too quiet and then some being much louder.