Loudness Correction option

[Karma Komodo]

Loudness Correction is a feature that adjusts the frequency response of the audio signal according to the human perception of loudness at different sound levels. It is based on the concept of equal-loudness contours, also known as Fletcher-Munson curves, which are a set of curves that show how sounds of different frequencies and at different sound pressure levels have to be boosted/subdued in order for the human ear to perceive an equal loudness level across all frequencies.

This means that at low volume levels, the bass and treble may sound weak or dull, with the midrange dominating the spectrum. Loudness Correction can boost the low and high frequencies depending on the volume to create a more balanced and natural sound.

- Loudness Correction can be implemented as an option in the equalizer settings, with a toggle button or a slider to enable or disable it, or to adjust its intensity.
- Equalizer APO has an open source implementation that can be referenced here https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/filters/loudnessCorrection/ 

I am aware of 2 previous topics that probably refer to a feature request similar to this:

and

However these topics are quite old and not very detailed, so I wanted to explain the request better. If I'm breaking any rules please let me know.

[andrewilley]

This is already in the Frequently Requested Features list under the more generic title of Dynamic Normalise. It is also possible that the Compressor feature in the PA-EQ app will be incorporated into the main app at some stage.

But, while useful in certain real-world situations, it is somewhat counter to PA's main aim of being an accurate audiophile player, as any such dynamic compression features do their job by mangling the sound. ReplayGain is already supported by the way, if your audio files have the right tag data, which is a way to adjust the peak point in any given track against a reference level by applying a uniform gain to the whole track.

Andre

[w3wilkes]

On 6/15/2023 at 2:17 AM, andrewilley said:

ReplayGain is already supported by the way, if your audio files have the right tag data, which is a way to adjust the peak point in any given track against a reference level by applying a uniform gain to the whole track.

Now what we need is "Smart ReplayGain" so that we don't have to manually go into settings and change to Album gain if playing multiple albums and then manually go into settings and change to Track gain if playing a playlist of tracks from different albums.

[andrewilley]

29 minutes ago, w3wilkes said:

Now what we need is "Smart ReplayGain"

Yes, I agree that would be quite useful. Hopefully Max can squeeze that into a forthcoming release as it's a pretty "low hanging fruit" sort of task.

Andre