Volume normalization
It has been a year since this request. Has it been implemented?
It’s been a lot more than a year since this request was made. People have been asking for it since the beginning of Sonos. The fact we don’t have it yet gives you an idea how much interest Sonos has in fixing it.
Any update on when we can expect volume normalization, which has been discussed and requested from Sonos for years, yet is still nowhere to be found? This seems like a basic feature these days (iTunes had it a decade + ago), and it is still very sorely missing from Sonos’ app. For people who, like me, have created playlist from a number of sources (streaming services, iTunes), not having volume normalization is a real pain. Tx
+23
How many requests do we need for Sonos to give priority to this?
There are, what, five million Sonos users. 1% of that would be 50k users. I don’t see 50k requests on this forum, or even 50.
How many requests do we need for Sonos to give priority to this?
There are, what, five million Sonos users. 1% of that would be 50k users. I don’t see 50k requests on this forum, or even 50.
Not really an answer to my question but thanks for your insight. Let’s assume your numbers are accurate, are there features that reach anywhere close to 50k requests?
The point is that
- loudness variation between music sources exists
- we have all invested heavily in Sonos equipment
- Sonos is in a position to create active compressor/limiter software that can address this
- Is Sonos responsible? No! Can they mitigate this? Yes...
Sonos needs volume normalization. Even services that have it such as Spotify pandora and Apple Music are not normalized when playing on Sonos.
+1
Spotify tracks with old tracks make quite a mess of low and high volumes
+23
If Sonos detects the minimum and maximum during a certain service, they can start the new service with the same minimum and maximum. The user can change if he wants, but the change of service will not be detected by the neighbours!
Um Sonos don’t have a time machine, so they have no idea what the volume for a given stream will be in the future. Normalization can only be done when all track volumes are known in advance (eg local library) or metadata is present from the service provider (which it isn’t). There is certainly no way to do it between disparate source (eg TV and Spotify). Same problem with ads on broadcast TV, for example.
M
Hi
Please check this thread for some answers:
I used Foobar to apply ReplayGain tags to all of my FLAC files years ago...so apparently and for whatever reason, SONOS ignores them while all other players that support ReplayGain honor them without fail.
Last night, I found something called Roon which fully supports SONOS Streaming and has (so far) performed flawless Volume Leveling across our little SONOS universe. So, problem solved.
Thanks for the response.
PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RIDICULOUS
UNACCEPTABLE
BASIC USER OPTION FUNCTIONALITY
COME ON SONOS - RESPOND
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why would this butcher music? If the only thing this does is play around with gain, from one track to the next?
In the decade+ of using Sonos, I have never once thought I needed my music normalized. You can’t please all the people all the time, I guess.
That just means your music listening habits are different from the people who would love to have this feature. Lucky you. :)
This has recently become a serious issue for me, so much so that I am considering getting rid of my Sonos system.
Suddenly, over the last few weeks, the volume levels across songs on Apple Music when played via Sonos are all over the place. This began happening soon after the mysterious “this song is encoded incorrectly” error messages began (these have now mostly stopped). Something, somewhere, must have changed.
As a customer, it doesn’t matter to me if Sonos is at fault or Apple Music is at fault – at the end of the day, I just want it to be usable.
Sonos needs to figure this out, because it works fine when I play Apple Music via a BT speaker, or my headphones.
Yes ridiculous that this option is not present - that’s why I use Logitech Media Server (LMS) with Sonos (UPnP bridge). Music volume is normalized (this is an option in LMS), the mobile site for controlling is excellent (Material Skin) and it contains a lot more apps. Also a big advantage is that you can control a huge local music library. I know this is not a path most people are willing to take - but sometimes you need to take drastic measures :)
we have the same problem. we have the sonos connected to amps for music in the gardens and the beach. it is crazy that the volumen goes way up from one song to other. an there is no way to fix it.
We would absolutely love to see Volume Normalization added to Sonos. You could add a “normalization speed” setting - i.e. how responsive is the normalization. Clearly it should be fast if there is a sudden big boom -- but if it goes quiet you don’t want to amplify it too much unless it stays quiet for a long while.
You’re talking about using an audio compressor.
This thread is all about normalisation, where the track carries a tag identifying how to preset the volume so as to achieve the same average loudness as other tracks. The dynamic range is unaffected.
Sonos has never introduced a compressor, and in my opinion never will. It’s simply not aimed at commercial settings such as yours. You could try using an external compressor, feeding audio into your Sonos system via a Line-In connection.
Where radio is concerned, it has to be getting done at the radio station then, not in the receiver. If the analogy applies, Spotify has to do this, and not Sonos.
Hey
can you tell us what did the department needed for this functionality respond when this issue was reiterated with them? What are the limitations and reasons why the normalisation doesn’t exist yet? How is this feature prioritised - near top of the backlog or somewhere down the line?
Thanks!
Sonos needs volume normalization. Even services that have it such as Spotify pandora and Apple Music are not normalized when playing on Sonos.
HOW is this functionality not built in yet? Everything else I own has normalization, but when I run things through Sonos, kiss it goodbye. It’s maddening on a TV to switch between streaming services, have your ears blown out, and scramble for the volume. Please fix this.
+20
Thanks for the additional feedback, everyone. No further news to share at this time but we will be sure to reiterate the need for this functionality with the necessary department. Thank you.
Can someone from Sonos please give an update on this? Clearly the technology is there if you can use a workaround with Airplay! It’s embarrassing that you can have a better streaming experience with a low end product than Sonos. Streaming music is the primary function of Sonos and it is failing!
iTunes was doing this 20 years ago. Unbelievable with all the tech to tune my speakers and stream services that Sonos can’t crack a simple volume normalization on a playlist. Pathetic.
Be careful what you wish for! If you want the best audio quality then you probably don’t want to be using any automatic gain boosting or limiting. Probably fine for background music, but I would imagine it would be a poor compromise on hardware and software like Sonos which streams content from lots of different sources. Spotify know in advance what they are streaming as they benchmark every song as they encode it and send the volume data along with the music file. Sonos would no doubt have to use a very blunt instrument to achieve the same result with many different sources.
Please stick to factual truth, what you are expressing is wrong as for spotify volume normalization. Metadata files do not impact the audio quality rendering.
Why would this butcher music? If the only thing this does is play around with gain, from one track to the next?
Well said. The spotify audio metadata files do not lose any bit of audio data. All info are avail online, kindly refrain from expressing false opinions and stick to facts to build this thread on solid grounds.
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