Volume normalization

Hi @GuyADye 

Please check this thread for some answers:

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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.

Hi @GuyADye 

I just looked up Roon as I had never heard of it - it looks pretty good. Thanks.

Another way around the issue may be to remove the ITUNNORM tag from your files.

Either way, glad to hear you’re not scaring the family any more!

We use Sonos in our retail outlet.  It’s generally fantastic.

BUT sudden surges or drops in volume are very inappropriate in a retail setting - we want a constant level of (gentle) background music to build a calm retail atmosphere.

Big booms are the most disruptive, but major drops in volume are also unwelcome.  If it goes too quiet, it is really noticeable and adds a kind of tension to our space where previously there was a nice feeling of calm.

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.

Or best of all, the system could “listen ahead” to a stream and determine the optimal level of normalization so there is never any sudden change in sound pressure.

Many Sonos products even have a microphone built in (for Alexa).  Surely added some kind of sound-level monitoring is not a massive engineering problem, but I see that this issue has been open for several years.

Would be great to see this solved.

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.

In a retail setting, I would think there would be streaming services available that not only have the appropriate license for commercial use, but handle any normalization or compressing that would be needed.  I’m guessing though.

Thanks for comments.

1. Yes, well aware of compressors (I have a recording studio and have been recording & sound-engineering since the 1980s).  This would be a solution but it is self-defeating: the whole point of getting Sonos was to go wireless and to get rid of cables, wiring and sprawl.  We want a one-box solution.
2. re. Licences - we pay for all the relevant public performance licences in the UK so this is all in order.

I brought it up not to question whether you had the right license for public performance, but that perhaps the answer is with a streaming service that caters to your needs better.

In such a use case a well curated playlist that addresses this issue in its making is the answer. Up front investment of time, but it will get the job done.

There are many business-specific music services listed at https://www.sonos.com/en-us/business - hopefully they offer normalization.