Program foobar2000 is music player with a lot of functions including normalizing multiple MP3 audio files at once. Remember that this program is setting the volume according the Perceived volume and not the actual volume!

For video tutorial check Walkthrough Video with aditional info to this page.

Briefly about the music volume

Music contains the sinus like waves and the volume is the average volume between quietest and the loudest part. We know 2 volume types where first is actual volume and second is percived volume. Perceived volume is what human ears can hear which is not the same as the actual volume. In the Resources section, you can get way more info about music volumes etc..

Download and install foobar2000 program (Windows)

Open your prefered web browser and visit https://www.foobar2000.org/. On the page click Download tab and under Latest stable version click needed version 32-bit | 64-bit | ARM. If you do not know what you need, check Is your windows 32 or 64bit? 4 ways to determine. When you download executable file (example: foobar2000-x64_v2.1.5.exe) and open/run it. On new window:

  1. Click Next button.
  2. On license Agreement page read the text (if you want) and click I agree.
  3. Select Standard installation and click next. If User Account Control window pops up just confirm it with click on Yes button.
  4. Under Destination Folder you set where the program will be installed and you can change it by clicking Browse button. When you are done click Next button.
  5. If you want you can select what components you want to be installed. Now click Install button.
  6. Desktop program shortcut icon is created. If you want to open the program after instalation is finished, make sure checkbox near the Run foobar2000 is selected! Now click Finish button.

First program launch and music files import

When the program foobar2000 if opened for the first time in the quick Apperance Setup window you can select prefered program Main layout, Colors and Playlist Layout (check the video bellow for more details). Now import the music MP3 by dragging the music files from a folder on your computer into a foobar2000 playlist OR in the program menu click File and Add files….

Analyse/scan volumes of multiple MP3 music files

  1. Select all the music from the playlist you want to analyse.
  2. Right mouse click on the selected files.
  3. Go to ReplayGain.
  4. Click on the Scan per-file track gain.

In the new window you see list of music files, under the Track gain column you see how much louder (+) or quieter (-) than 89db (decibels) where bigger the difference is, larger volume difference between files is. If you want to insert current ReplayGain values into MP3 file info click Update File Tags button othervise click Cancel button.

Normalize volumes of multiple MP3 music files

BEFORE you do anything to your audio files you will modify first do a backup for example duplicate folder with your music files so when you edit original you have copy in case anything goes wrong!!!!

  1. Select all the music from the playlist you want to normalize.
  2. Right mouse click on the selected files.
  3. Go to ReplayGain.
  4. Click on the Apply gain to file content….
  5. Click Start button to normalize music files volumes. More files you have, longer it will need to finish the process.

In the Apply gain to file contents - Setup window you can set ton of stuff but I suggest you select:

  • Select Apply track ReplayGain.
  • Set Target volume level: to 89db.
  • Select Make files louder or quieter .
  • Check the Lower adjustment to prevent clipping according to peak information in case if any part of the music is louder than 98db (that means clipping) program will automatically lower the music volume bellow the selected Target volume level: but if unchecked too loud parts will be still there but I think most of music players will just cut off too loud parts.

After the normalize

Now you can Analyse/scan the files again to check current sound volumes.

Guide in other languages

Walkthrough Video