User:Chrisjjj/Normalising for DJing with MediaMonkey

If you are using MediaMonkey for DJing (not something I recommend), the following info might help you.

Normalising volume

To normalise the volume of a track is to cause the track play to back at the same volume as other tracks.

You can normalise volume manually by adjusting playback volume during playback.

You can normalise volume automatically, as follows:

1) Select a single track.

2) Right-click select 'Analyse volume' [1] and wait for the progress bar at bottom to complete.

3) Repeat from 1 for all other tracks.

Each track will now automatically playback at approximately the same volume as the others. A small differences will remain between tracks that have widely different dynamic profiles.

Do not perform 2 on multiple selected tracks. This causes failure, by ignoring any differences between tracks in the selection.

If the above fails to give normalised volume, probably 'Analyse volume' was in the past performed on multiple tracks. This is verifiable by enabling the 'Album Volume' column [2] and seeing it if is non-empty. This can be remedied by using the program Mp3tag to delete the REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN from each affected track.

Normalising gaps

To normalise gaps is to arrange that the period of silence between each track and the next is of constant duration.

The tracks'recordings often have a variable amount of silence at the end, and sometimes the start. Hence when a list of tracks is played automatically, the inter-track gap varies.

The milonga DJ usually wants the gap after dance tracks to be constant at 2-4s duration, and the gap after a curtain to be shorter or absent. Normalisation allows this to be achieved.

MediaMonkey does not allow full normalisation of gaps, either manually or automatically, but does allow partial normalisation that ensures some gap is always present when required.

You can partially normalise gaps manually as follows:

1) Select 'Clear list & play selected only' [3]

2) Checkmark 'Remove silence at the beginning / end of track' [4]

3) Double-click to play the first track. When it completes, playback will stop.

4) After an appropriate delay, double-click the next track.

This does not remove any period before track start filled with noise (e.g. hiss, crackle).

You can partially normalise gaps in a playlist automatically as follows:

1) Ensure 'Remove silence at the beginning / end of track' is uncheckmarked [5]

2) Ensure 'Clear list & play selected + subsequent' is selected [6]

3) In the playlist, after each track, insert a gap track -- a track consisting of a few seconds of silence. Such tracks are available in TLIB, from 02480002928928\1\49 onwards.

4) Play the list as normal.

This does not remove any gaps at start/end of tracks.

Curtains

If curtain ending is manual (by the DJ fading) and starting the next dance track), no special attention to curtains is required.

If curtain ending is automatic (not something I recommend) and the curtains are prepared by audio editing, the desired start and end gap may be included during editing.