Which music player has replay gain?
What is Replay Gain?
ReplayGain is a standard created by David Robinson in 2001 that analyzes the loudness of audio files and adds metadata tags to indicate how much gain (volume adjustment) should be applied to normalize the loudness. The goal of ReplayGain is to allow tracks from different albums or artists to play at consistent volume levels when shuffled together.
ReplayGain was created because the music industry adopted a practice called the “loudness war,” where audio tracks were mastered to be as loud as possible. This resulted in large variations in volume between different tracks. ReplayGain provides a solution by scanning each track and calculating its perceived loudness based on an psychoacoustic algorithm. The loudness measurement is stored as ReplayGain metadata tags, either in the file itself or in a separate database.
When enabled in a media player, ReplayGain uses these loudness values to automatically adjust the volume of each track to a consistent target level as you skip between songs. This prevents the need to manually adjust volume when shuffling between softly mastered classical tracks and heavily compressed modern pop tracks, for example. ReplayGain allows seamless listening at equal perceived loudness rather than equal signal levels.
Benefits of Replay Gain
ReplayGain offers several key benefits for listening to music collections across various players and devices:
It provides more consistent listening volume. By scanning an entire album or playlist to determine an optimal volume level, ReplayGain helps ensure that the loudness is similar from song to song when shuffling between tracks. This prevents jarring volume jumps.
ReplayGain can also help preserve dynamics while leveling volume. The loud and quiet parts within each individual track are maintained through compression/gain adjustments, instead of simply normalizing all songs to the same flat volume. This retains artistic dynamics.
Because ReplayGain tagging is supported across many platforms, the volume normalization works seamlessly across devices and music players. For example, an album leveled using ReplayGain on iTunes will play back at a similar loudness on Android or in a Sonos speaker system. The volume consistency applies across the collection.
Overall, ReplayGain provides key advantages for listeners who want a smoother, more predicable listening experience without sacrificing dynamics within songs. It brings collection-wide volume consistency across the ecosystem of media players and devices.
Music Players with Replay Gain Support
A number of popular music players across platforms support ReplayGain. Here are some of the major players that implement ReplayGain functionality:
iOS/Apple Music: Apple Music has ReplayGain support built in. It uses the ReplayGain metadata tags to normalize playback volume across tracks. Users can enable ReplayGain normalization in Settings > Music > Playback. Source
Spotify: Spotify has supported ReplayGain normalization since 2009. It automatically scans for ReplayGain tags and normalizes volume. The normalization strength can be adjusted in Settings. Source
YouTube Music: YouTube Music automatically normalizes audio volume using ReplayGain and other methods. There are no settings to adjust, normalization happens behind the scenes. Source
Amazon Music: Amazon Music uses ReplayGain along with proprietary audio processing to normalize volumes across tracks and albums. Users cannot adjust ReplayGain settings. Source
Overall, most major music players now support ReplayGain volume normalization to provide a more consistent listening experience. Implementation details vary, but they generally scan audio files for ReplayGain metadata tags and adjust playback levels accordingly, with little required configuration from users.
iOS/Apple Music
Apple Music has built-in support for replay gain through a feature called Sound Check. Sound Check automatically adjusts the playback volume of songs in your library so they have similar loudness levels (source: https://replay.music.apple.com/).
To enable Sound Check on iOS devices, go to Settings > Music and toggle on Sound Check. This will normalize all the songs in your Apple Music library based on replay gain values (source: https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?39561-Replay-Gain-settings-iTunes-Normalization). The loudness normalization level in Sound Check is based on 89 dB SPL using the EBU R-128 loudness standard (source: https://www.beatunes.com/en/itunes-replay-gain.html).
Sound Check is enabled by default on iOS devices, so no additional configuration is needed. Just make sure the toggle is on in Settings to take advantage of replay gain normalization in Apple Music.
Spotify
Spotify was one of the first major music streaming platforms to support ReplayGain volume leveling. According to this article, Spotify used ReplayGain for normalization up until 2020, when they switched to using LUFS instead.
With ReplayGain enabled, Spotify would scan each track and album to determine the optimal volume level. Quieter tracks would be boosted while louder tracks would be turned down, so the overall volume stayed consistent across songs and albums. This prevented you from having to adjust your volume constantly.
You can no longer enable ReplayGain directly within Spotify. However, Spotify still normalizes audio streams to roughly -14 LUFS integrated loudness to provide a consistent listening experience. This loudness normalization happens automatically and cannot be disabled.
For local files, Spotify will respect any ReplayGain tags that have already been added to the files. So applying ReplayGain with another audio program before adding songs to Spotify can still level the local file volumes. But Spotify itself no longer calculates and applies ReplayGain information.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music does not have native support for replay gain. However, it does utilize volume normalization to even out the loudness between songs and videos (https://www.reddit.com/r/YoutubeMusic/comments/joyv9m/volume_normalisation/). The volume normalization approach scans audio and makes adjustments to help balance the volume, so songs don’t seem drastically louder or quieter compared to others.
While useful, volume normalization is not the same as true replay gain and has some drawbacks. For example, it may over-compress dynamic range in some content, lowering peaks and raising valleys excessively. It also does not allow manual adjustment of gain levels. Many users have requested true replay gain capabilities in YouTube Music, but currently it relies solely on volume normalization (https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/110984622/why-is-there-no-automatic-gain-control-playback-normalisation-replay-gain-too-hard?hl=en).
Amazon Music
Amazon Music supports a volume leveling feature similar to replay gain called loudness normalization. According to a discussion on Reddit, loudness normalization on Amazon Music works by analyzing the loudness of each track and adjusting the playback volume to target a consistent perceived loudness, similar to how replay gain functions. This can help balance the volume across tracks and albums so the listener doesn’t have to adjust the volume as frequently (Source).
However, Amazon Music does not have specific replay gain support to read replay gain tags and adjust playback. The loudness normalization feature uses its own analysis rather than reading any replay gain metadata added to the files. So while Amazon Music can normalize volume across tracks, it does not directly support utilizing replay gain information added to files by other software or platforms.
Other Players
Beyond the major platforms like iOS, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music, many other lesser known music players also offer ReplayGain support. While not as widely used, these alternative players help round out the ReplayGain ecosystem by providing options for different operating systems and use cases.
Some notable examples include Clementine, an open source music player for Windows, Linux and OS X. Clementine includes both playback and scanning support for ReplayGain.
On Android, Neutron Player is a popular option cited for its ReplayGain implementation and audio enhancements. For maximum configurability and advanced audio options, foobar2000 is commonly recommended on Windows.
While ReplayGain adoption is inconsistent across less common music players, the feature remains a priority for many audiophile users. Support in niche players helps ensure ReplayGain is accessible across all major platforms.
Enabling Replay Gain
Enabling replay gain is straightforward on most music players. Typically, there is a setting within the app/device settings to turn on replay gain normalization. Here are some tips for common players:
On Foobar2000, replay gain can be enabled by going to Preferences > Playback > ReplayGain and checking the boxes for ‘ReplayGain album gain’ and ‘ReplayGain track gain’ (Source: http://eolindel.free.fr/foobar0.9/Replaygain.php).
For Spotify, go to Settings > Playback and toggle on ‘Enable volume leveling’. This will turn on replay gain for Spotify (Source: https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360000275668-What-is-Replay-Gain-What-are-the-different-Replay-Gain-modes).
On iOS/Apple Music, go to Settings > Music > Audio and enable ‘Sound Check’. This will normalize volume across songs (Source: https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360000275668-What-is-Replay-Gain-What-are-the-different-Replay-Gain-modes).
The process is similar for other players – look for a ‘ReplayGain’ or ‘Sound Check’ option within settings. Device settings may also impact replay gain, so check both the player app and your device settings.
Conclusion
In summary, replay gain is an audio normalization technology that aims to make the volume levels consistent across all tracks in a playlist or music library. It analyzes each track and adjusts the gain to hit a target loudness level. This prevents sudden volume jumps when switching between songs and creates a more seamless listening experience.
The most popular music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music have replay gain enabled by default. This means users don’t have to do any extra configuration to benefit from volume normalization. Other players like Amazon Music and desktop apps like iTunes require manually enabling replay gain in the settings.
For listeners looking for consistent volume levels, using a music player with replay gain support is highly recommended. The technology works in the background to smooth out volume differences, avoiding the need to constantly adjust the volume between tracks. Give replay gain a try to improve your overall listening experience.