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Plex via Sonos App - Sound Normalization

  • 28 February 2023
  • 6 replies
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J
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Hi, I like using Plex to play music from Synology NAS server, via my Sonos app on my Sonos devices. The only problem I have is that volume between tracks is not normalised.

I don’t have this issue when playing via Plex on my MacBook, or playing via iOS with sound check enabled. I use iVolume to normalise all levels which I think is embedded within tracks, but for some reason Sonos is ignoring this data.

Is this a limitation of the Sonos software, or am I missing a setting somewhere?

 

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Best answer by Corry P 1 March 2023, 10:12

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6 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @John160 

Thanks for your post!

Sonos does not apply/compute volume normalisation to files from your Sonos Music Library, but Sonos does alter the playback level using the ITUNNORM or REPLAYGAIN_TRACKGAIN tags in the embedded metadata for the file.

When it comes to services, however - and this includes Plex - it really depends on whether those tags are passed by the service to Sonos players or not.

If you have less than about 65,000 tracks in your library, you could point Sonos’ Music Library to the NAS and skip Plex - if the tags are present, Sonos will apply the normalisation.

Add your music library to Sonos

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
Userlevel 1
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Hi, thank you for the informative reply - much appreciated. I use Plex instead of pointing the Sonos library to the NAS, as it’s the only way I’ve been able to get playlists from my mac Music library onto the Sonos app. I guess Plex isn’t sending volume data to Sonos - hopefully it improves in the future. Until then I’ll be changing the volume after every track.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @John160 

If you tell Apple Music to export the playlists to an xml file, and then place that file in the main directory of your music folder, Sonos will import the playlists as part of the Music Library scanning process.

It does need to be done manually each time the playlists change, however.

For what it’s worth, if the music folder is stored on a computer that has the Sonos app installed, the Sonos Library Service will do this for you automatically.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
Userlevel 1
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Hi, thank you for the suggestion - I found that info on the web before and tried it - it doesn’t work for me. Sonos doesn’t import the playlist. Hence why I tried the Plex route.

I don’t know if it’s something to do with the legacy update from iTunes to Music. My music library for Apple Music seems to be in the folder NAME/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries and the music is in NAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

I’ve just installed Sonos on my mac, but again it’s not showing any playlists from Apple Music either. 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

@John160, you’ve hit the nail on the head.

The iTunes application used to store the playlists in an xml file located in the music folder, but the newer Apple Music application does not. The Sonos Library Service (installed with the Sonos app) will now therefore find those playlists and export them to a file that the speakers will then find when they scan the directory. With a NAS involved, there is no background service to do this (though you could map a network drive in Windows that points to the NAS - I don’t know macOS well enough to know if you can do something similar with it, but I would presume so).

The file is question is called “iTunes Music Library.xml” and it’s default location is Music/iTunes/ - you may need to delete/rename it to force the Sonos service to update it.

I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports, and to remotely connect to your computer and assist.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Ken_Griffiths

Just to also add here, there are Apps in the iOS App Store that can read the .xml files exported from iTunes and will allow export of the individual playlists to .m3u or other formats, which can be read by Sonos if placed in the library path or root.

One App from the iOS App Store I use is ‘MusicStreamer’ (screenshot attached). I’m not in anyway affiliated to the App and it’s not free, so I’m only mentioning it here as an option to perhaps explore, as it can also read/index a users music library in situ (using SMB v2) across the LAN and it allows the creation/export of playlists direct from the App, which can be stored/seen by Sonos. There is a bit of a learning curve to use it (as with many Apps) but it’s not overly difficult, so maybe look into that as another option to generate playlists for use by Sonos.

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