How to Increase Volume on a CD With Ripping
By Jason Artman
Recent music albums are often recorded and mastered with the intent of generating as much volume as possible so that the tracks stand out on the radio. Unfortunately, this can result in jarring volume differences when new music is played alongside older songs on an MP3 player. Use iTunes to rip your CDs and increase their volume for a more uniform listening experience.
Launch iTunes. If you do not have iTunes on your computer, download and install it using the link in the "Resources" section of this article.
Click "Edit," then click "Preferences."
Click the "Advanced" tab, then click the "Importing" tab immediately below it.
Click the drop-down menu next to "Import Using," and choose "WAV Encoder." You can return to this menu and change this selection to "MP3 Encoder" or the format of your choice to compress your songs later. To maintain the best possible audio quality, the volume of your songs should be increased while they are in the WAV format. Click "OK."
Insert the audio CD into your computer. A window will appear asking if you want to import the CD into iTunes. Click "Yes." If a window does not appear, click the CD icon on the left side of the screen, then click the "Import CD" button on the bottom right. Allow a few minutes for the process to complete.
Click "Music" on the left side of the screen after the CD is imported. You should see the tracks in the main portion of the iTunes window. If you do not, click the "Date Added" column to sort your tracks by when they were imported into iTunes, then scroll to the top of the list of tracks.
Click the first track of the CD. Hold the "Shift" button on the keyboard, and click the last track. All of the album's tracks should now be highlighted.
Right click on one of the tracks, then click "Get Info." Confirm that you are making adjustments to all of the tracks simultaneously by looking at the top of the window that appears. It should say "Multiple Item Information."
Move the "Volume Adjustment" slider at the bottom of the window to the left to increase the volume. Be careful not to raise the volume too much; raising the volume by 25-50 percent will result in a noticeable difference.
Tips
- Many utilities are available for ripping CDs, and the majority are able to adjust the volume of the resulting WAV files. iTunes was used for article due to its popularity. Other CD ripping programs may have menu options differing from those described here.
Writer Bio
Jason Artman has been a technical writer since entering the field in 1999 while attending Michigan State University. Artman has published numerous articles for various websites, covering a diverse array of computer-related topics including hardware, software, games and gadgets.