Hi all --
I've been using Sonos for several years now, mostly playing music randomly across playlists. I've only discovered recently the advantages of playing music accounting for replaygain values in such cases. Yes, I know I'm late. For those who don't know well what is replaygain and how it works (I was one of them a few weeks ago, so there should be some around), have a look there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain. Basically you will stop adjusting the volume between each track as the average track volume will be the same across your library.
I calculated the replaygain for all my tracks and played them through Winamp. Works great! The issue is that traditional replaygain values are not (yet -- hopefully) recognized by Sonos. I searched for a while and figured out how to make things work. I thought that the time I spent on looking for this should be saved for some of you, so here are the instructions below: (Have in mind that none of this will alter your music in anyway, the only things that are done in the process is adding some information within the track metadata and everything is reversible!)
1) Use foobar2000 to calculate the replaygain values for your tracks using this procedure: http://eolindel.free.fr/foobar0.9/Replaygain.php. Personally, I used "Scan selection as albums (by tags)". Have in mind though that for now Sonos will only recognize track again and not album gain. Have in mind also that by default foobar2000 recognizes albums according to album name + album artist + track date. For those of you who might have different dates for a same album (e.g. various artists albums) you can modify how foobar2000 recognizes albums in File>Preferences>Advanced>Tools>ReplayGain Scanner>Album grouping pattern.
I scanned my whole library of 20,000ish at once. It took me only 1.5 hours on a good laptop.
Now you have replaygain values that would work with most music players but not with Sonos. We're only on step away from making it work.
2) Use mp3tag to add a new field in your track metadata, based on the previous (track) replaygain values, that will be recognized by Sonos. To do so, follow this procedure and begin at step 6: http://trevinchow.com/blog/2009/10/2...use-in-itunes/. The author of the previous tutorial also describe an automated procedure (http://trevinchow.com/blog/2010/01/0...00-and-mp3tag/) but I personally prefer to do things step by step to understand what I do and not mess with my library. Adding the extra field in my tracks metadata at once on my 20,000ish tracks took me about 10 minutes.
3) Updates your Sonos library and you're done!
I've tested many other approaches and it is the only one that worked. I've conducted many tests on several songs before running the whole thing on my whole library: it works and is all reversible.
I hope you will enjoy not adjusting the volume anymore between each song, just as I do.
-cheers-
I've been using Sonos for several years now, mostly playing music randomly across playlists. I've only discovered recently the advantages of playing music accounting for replaygain values in such cases. Yes, I know I'm late. For those who don't know well what is replaygain and how it works (I was one of them a few weeks ago, so there should be some around), have a look there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain. Basically you will stop adjusting the volume between each track as the average track volume will be the same across your library.
I calculated the replaygain for all my tracks and played them through Winamp. Works great! The issue is that traditional replaygain values are not (yet -- hopefully) recognized by Sonos. I searched for a while and figured out how to make things work. I thought that the time I spent on looking for this should be saved for some of you, so here are the instructions below: (Have in mind that none of this will alter your music in anyway, the only things that are done in the process is adding some information within the track metadata and everything is reversible!)
1) Use foobar2000 to calculate the replaygain values for your tracks using this procedure: http://eolindel.free.fr/foobar0.9/Replaygain.php. Personally, I used "Scan selection as albums (by tags)". Have in mind though that for now Sonos will only recognize track again and not album gain. Have in mind also that by default foobar2000 recognizes albums according to album name + album artist + track date. For those of you who might have different dates for a same album (e.g. various artists albums) you can modify how foobar2000 recognizes albums in File>Preferences>Advanced>Tools>ReplayGain Scanner>Album grouping pattern.
I scanned my whole library of 20,000ish at once. It took me only 1.5 hours on a good laptop.
Now you have replaygain values that would work with most music players but not with Sonos. We're only on step away from making it work.
2) Use mp3tag to add a new field in your track metadata, based on the previous (track) replaygain values, that will be recognized by Sonos. To do so, follow this procedure and begin at step 6: http://trevinchow.com/blog/2009/10/2...use-in-itunes/. The author of the previous tutorial also describe an automated procedure (http://trevinchow.com/blog/2010/01/0...00-and-mp3tag/) but I personally prefer to do things step by step to understand what I do and not mess with my library. Adding the extra field in my tracks metadata at once on my 20,000ish tracks took me about 10 minutes.
3) Updates your Sonos library and you're done!
I've tested many other approaches and it is the only one that worked. I've conducted many tests on several songs before running the whole thing on my whole library: it works and is all reversible.
I hope you will enjoy not adjusting the volume anymore between each song, just as I do.
-cheers-