Low Volume

[Paula]

HI Forum-

I use my MZ-NH900 primarily for classical music. I will often use Simple Burner to copy CD's on to an MD for portable listening/study. Other times I'll download classical tunes from Sony Connect. Either way, often the volume of the soft parts are too low to hear, even at full volume, when on a train, plane, or bus.

Anything I can do here?

I can't see any method to "normalize" the contents of a MD, or normalize during transfer, and I don't know if that would help, anyway.

Renders the thing useless at times. Can't get any work done on a plane or bus.

I am thinking of getting some better headphones (perhaps the Shure sound isolating earphones - they also need to be comfortable enough to sleep in, so I can use a meditation tape to convince myself to sleep on airplane, so I can perform well after corssing many time zones - and these fit the bill, I think.) Hoever, I would like to know if there is a software solution here. (BTW, I do not have the Automatic Volume Limiter System turned on.)

Thanks.

[Christopher]

Where was the unit purchased? What headphones are you employing?

[Paula]

Where was the unit purchased? What headphones are you employing?

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Using some older sony phones that came with a walkman. Bought it at amazon.com. It's not that the unit is defective, it just seems to be the nature of classical music (wide volume range) vs. background noise. Which is why I'd like to try to "normalize" the music on the minidisc, as one can do when creating a CD.

[Christopher]

I'd definitely look into other headphones/earphones, regardless. Why not take a peek at our sub-$100 recommended headphone list?

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8592

Anyway, amazon.com. Is that the US or Europe flavor?

[A440]

You could copy your CD tracks to your computer and use an editing program like Audacity to Normalize volume, then send the tracks to your MD.

But Kurisu is right: the headphones that come with any walkman or other portable are never worthy of the sound that comes out of the machine. You'll thank yourself if you get better ones.

You want isolation? Splurge and get canalphones like the Shure E3 (demure gray) or E3c (fake iPod white). Unlike dinky earbuds, the Shures are extremely musical headphones once you figure out which of the many earplugs that come with them fit best for your ears. I wear them on the subway to listen to music at normal volume, and you can sleep in them too.

[Paula]

I'd definitely look into other headphones/earphones, regardless. Why not take a peek at our sub-$100 recommended headphone list?

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8592

Anyway, amazon.com. Is that the US or Europe flavor?

←

US amazon.com. Actually, I just ordered the Shure EC2 phones. They have a 30 day money back guarentee, and I have a flight later this month, so the timing was perfect.

But still, there SHOULD be a way to normalize when creating an MD, even if there ISN'T a way. You can do so when creating a CD - why not with an MD??

[zerodB]

SonicStage and Simpleburner will often transfer the tracks at low volume.

That is why I prefer real time recording. You can get the optimal volume out of your unit.

Your other option, is as A440 suggested - rip your CDs to WAV and then normalise using other software. You can then either import your music back into SonicStage or burn a "virtual CD" for use with Simpleburner.