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captainknut
Avid Contributor I
October 21, 2020
Answered

Volume normalisation on Sonos?

I just noticed that my Sonos system adjusts the volume automatically between loud and quiet songs. I haven’t noticed this before. It is extremely annoying, and especially noticeable when I play an album where the songs run into each other. The system also inserts a little gap between the songs. ALSO extremely annoying. I tried playing the same music files on another player, and there is no difference in the volume and no gap between the songs on that player, so it’s not the files that are ripped that way, it is the Sonos system that plays around with the volume. Like I said, I’ve never noticed it before. What has happened? Where do I turn it off?

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    Corry P
    Corry PAnswer
    Sonos Staff
    February 11, 2021

    Hi @captainknut 

    Sorry for the delay.

    Sonos does not apply 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. 

    I would say that normalisation was applied to the tracks by the CD ripping software (if you even ripped the tracks) on a track-by-track basis. This may be called “peak search" or similar in the options, if not "normalisation”. If this is the case, other (non-Sonos) players may read the recorded metadata (labelled ITUNNORM when ripped by iTunes) and apply it, thus rendering the tracks to the same volume and making it appear that Sonos is varying the volume when it isn’t. iTunes uses a different normalisation algorithm so the effect is different (not varied) when playing there.

    I recommend re-ripping the albums affected (or just one, to test), making sure that normalisation is not activated in the ripping software. If you don’t see the option, it may be an idea to use different software - maybe the community can suggest some?

    If you can find a program that will strip the ITUNNORM tag from your tracks, that will also suffice, and presumably be much quicker and easier - maybe someone here can suggest software?

     

    Edited: technical clarification

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

    esp278
    Trending Lyricist I
    October 21, 2020

    Hi

    I've been experiencing the volume change problem on our new shop installation, agreed very annoying. There is a “volume normalisation” slide/button in settings which I hoped would work but I couldn't get it to work. It seems somehow connected to the “only play local” (or words to that effect) slide but I haven't been able to find a working combination. You might give them a try. 

    captainknutAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    October 21, 2020

    Where in the settings do you find that slider? I can’t find it.

    esp278
    Trending Lyricist I
    October 21, 2020

    “Playback/Offline mode” and “Normalize volume” and both in the Spotify settings. The cog in the top right of the screen.

      esp278
      Trending Lyricist I
      October 21, 2020

      There is also “Gapless playback” feature in the same Spotify settings you might try.

        controlav
        controlav
        Lead Maestro
        October 21, 2020

        Wow there are huge threads of folks demanding volume normalization, and here you are complaining that you have the feature. You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

        Sounds like this is a Spotify-only feature.

        Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
          esp278
          Trending Lyricist I
          October 21, 2020

          Agreed. However having the feature in Spotify and getting it to work while playing music through Sonos is the problem. It's certainly not intuitive.

          Kumar
          October 21, 2020

          Does it even work through Sonos? How do you make that happen?

          And even in Spotify it doesn't work that well for playlists.

          esp278
          Trending Lyricist I
          October 21, 2020

          I've been trying to get it to work through Sonos, to no avail unfortunately and agreed, it doesn't work that well in Spotify.

          captainknutAuthor
          Avid Contributor I
          October 22, 2020

          “Playback/Offline mode” and “Normalize volume” and both in the Spotify settings. The cog in the top right of the screen.


          I’m not playing from Spotify. I’m playing my own music files from my NAS.

          captainknutAuthor
          Avid Contributor I
          October 22, 2020

          So, to clarify:

          This is NOT a question about Spotify, this is a question about Sonos.

          I’m playing my own music from my own local NAS. The only player involved is the Sonos Controller. I can find nothing in the Sonos Controller to turn on or, more importantly, turn OFF volume normalisation.

          Imagine how annoying when you’re listening to an album where songs run into each other, let’s say The Beatles’ Abbey Road (or any progressive rock album ever made), and having the volume jump up and down between the seamlessly interconnected songs.

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