@andrewilley Yes, I think it's important to respect the volume levels within a recording (within a track), which the artist(s) and the recording team have intended and have agreed upon. If they have wished for a section of a track to be quiet and another part very loud, then that must be respected as the experience they wished to provide. To equalise both the quiet and the loud parts so that they are of roughly equal volume would be to corrupt the intended listening experience. People who listen to music in their cars and who therefore wish all quiet sections to be loud, so that they can be heard above the car's motor, simply have to acknowledge they are listening in an environment which is far from ideal, and they will have to reach for the volume knob - which ought not to be a great difficulty for them.
There is a form of "normalisation" which I believe is possible. It is to pre-gauge or pre-measure the volume range within an entire track and move that entire range either up or down in volume so that it's central level is the same as that of all other tracks in a collection. By this method, a track of loud music which has been processed so that it is reproduced at a low volume will be raised in volume, while a track of music which is very loud overall will be lowered in overall volume. The result is that one is not continually reaching for the volume control, to raise the volume of a track the soft passages of which are so quiet that they can barely be heard and the loud passages of which are simply not truly loud, or to lower the volume of a track the soft passages of which are rather loud and the loud passages of which are excessively loud.
The "Samsung Music" app and the "VLC" app seem to achieve this kind of normalisation. I wonder how they do it. Other apps may achieve it too.
I hope the splendid Poweramp, which I love for other reasons, can achieve this as well.
@andrewilley Yes, I think it's important to respect the volume levels within a recording (within a track), which the artist(s) and the recording team have intended and have agreed upon. If they have wished for a section of a track to be quiet and another part very loud, then that must be respected as the experience they wished to provide. To equalise both the quiet and the loud parts so that they are of roughly equal volume would be to corrupt the intended listening experience. People who listen to music in their cars and who therefore wish all quiet sections to be loud, so that they can be heard above the car's motor, simply have to acknowledge they are listening in an environment which is far from ideal, and they will have to reach for the volume knob - which ought not to be a great difficulty for them. There is a form of "normalisation" which I believe is possible. It is to pre-gauge or pre-measure the volume range within an entire track and move that entire range either up or down in volume so that it's central level is the same as that of all other tracks in a collection. By this method, a track of loud music which has been processed so that it is reproduced at a low volume will be raised in volume, while a track of music which is very loud overall will be lowered in overall volume. The result is that one is not continually reaching for the volume control, to raise the volume of a track the soft passages of which are so quiet that they can barely be heard and the loud passages of which are simply not truly loud, or to lower the volume of a track the soft passages of which are rather loud and the loud passages of which are excessively loud. The "Samsung Music" app and the "VLC" app seem to achieve this kind of normalisation. I wonder how they do it. Other apps may achieve it too. I hope the splendid Poweramp, which I love for other reasons, can achieve this as well.