EasyAC normalizes MP3s on a track basis?!

[markf]

I mostly rip classical CDs. If I wanted to adjust the loudness of each CD, it should be done on an album basis, not per track! But apparently, without any visible notification, EasyAC has been applying Replay Gain settings to all the MP3s it generates, on a per-track basis.

This completely ruins the relative dynamics of tracks in an album, and DEFINITELY should be defeatable by the user.

How can I prevent this from happening? (apart from not using EasyAC, please)
and
How can I "undo" these settings on the hundreds of MP3s I've already made without having to re-rip or re-encode all of them?

Can we PLEASE have an expert-mode tool for adjusting this sort of thing? The existing "advanced options" tool doesn't cover much of what is done in the background.

Thanks -- Mark F.

[korth]

LAME usage
Only encoding options are used in the LAME encoding options box using the "advanced options" tool (you can't control input/output filenames or tagging from that box).
see --noreplaygain option

ReplayGain analysis does _not_ affect the content of a compressed data
stream itself, it is a value stored in the header of a sound file.
Information on the purpose of ReplayGain and the algorithms used is
available from www.replaygain.org/

see also wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=ReplayGain
wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Lame

[markf]

What does this have to do with Easy Audio Copy? I have only -V2 as "LAME encoding options" in that box. The description of -V2 doesn't say anything about replaygain being applied. Are you saying that I must explicitly turn replaygain off?

I've used Andre's other program, Exact Audio Copy, for many years, with LAME, and haven't noticed this problem there. I used Audacity just this morning to make a recording and exported it as both WAV and MP3 -- it uses LAME (version 3.99.3), and didn't have this problem. Foobar2000 uses LAME to convert FLAC files to MP3, and it doesn't have this problem.

Given that I don't want to have replaygain applied to my files when I play them, even if I add the --noreplaygain switch going forward, how do I undo the replaygain values that have been applied to files already created?

*sigh*

[korth]

Only plausible reason I can think of in response to your claim of applying per-track ReplayGain.
The LAME encoder (lame.exe) performs ReplayGain analysis on the input data and writes to the header by default. Easy Audio Copy doesn't normalize. The audio is passed to the encoder. You can disable ReplayGain analysis by adding the  --noreplaygain switch to the LAME encoder options.

from LAME usage

By default, LAME performs ReplayGain analysis on the input data

from wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=ReplayGain

LAME
Method: Header (mp3infotag)
Notes:

Tags added during encoding; not supported by any player yet; Track Gain only

Few (if any) players actually read the essentially obsolete ReplayGain information in that header anyway.

here's some more stuff you won't read:
sourceforge.net/p/lame/mailman/message/35995666/
lmgtfy.com/?q=remove+replaygain+header+added+by+lame+encoder&s=g

[Admin]

Easy Audio Copy does not apply replayGain (if not manually specified in the advanced options).
You can verify the used command line parameters by opening a log file from an extraction.
Press <Windows>+R keys and type %temp% <Enter>. An explorer window with the path of the temporary directory should open.
In it look for files starting with easyaudio-xxxxxx of type LOG file. Open it with notepad and search for the text lclo
In that line the command line parameter is shown. The following is from an extraction of Easy Audio Copy on my computer:
lclo --cbr -b 320 -p "t:\SystemTemp\EasyTemp\EACT38e9dd2a-79a1-46f5-bc87-02ad9948bf51.wav" "t:\SystemTemp\EasyTemp\EACT4c3e85e3-1b77-48fd-9025-dfe48282872d.mp3"
So, basically only --cbr -b 320 is passed (which is just CBR 320 kbit/s). The tagging is done afterwards by Easy Audio Copy, but also doesn't contain any replaygain information (as EAC doesn't determine or write ReplayGain information).
Therefore either LAME gets additional parameter/settings from elsewhere, or the replayGain isn't really applied.

You could use the tool MP3Gain ( mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php ) to revoke any ReplayGain modifications (at least if applied lossless). Check whether the loudness of the files actually change...