MP3 Tagging and MP3 Volume Equalisation

Missing/incorrect MP3 tags and MP3s that play either too loud or too soft are a problem. As luck would have it, there are some excellent, free software that can sort out your MP3 tags and problems due to MP3 tracks having different volume levels.

MP3 Tagging
My criteria are for a MP3 tagger that is simple to use, has a clean interface, is powerful, will fetch missing tag details off the Web and is free. In my quest for the "perfect" tagger, I have tried many. Some were too basic and limited in function while others offered way too much functionality, for me at least. Finally, I found the pot of gold, named appropriately - MP3Tag

MP3Tag is The universal tag editor and more. It is a powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit metadata (ID3, Vorbis Comments and APE) of common audio formats. It can rename files based on the tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists and more. The program supports online freedb database lookups for selected files, allowing you to automatically gather proper tag information for select files or CDs.

MP3Tag's Home Page


Evening out MP3 Volume Levels
As I often listen to MP3 playlists, I have the need for an application that ensures that the volume level of tracks from different albums is constant. MP3Gain solves that problem.

MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts MP3 files so that they have the same volume. MP3Gain does not just do peak normalisation, as many normalisers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the MP3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.

MP3Gain's Home Page