NAME

       loudgain - loudness normalizer based on the EBU R128 standard

SYNOPSIS

       loudgain [OPTIONS] FILES...

DESCRIPTION

       loudgain   is   a   loudness   normalizer   that   scans   music   files   and  calculates
       loudness-normalized gain and loudness peak values according to the EBU R128 standard,  and
       can optionally write ReplayGain-compatible metadata.

       loudgain implements a subset of mp3gain's command-line options, which means that it can be
       used as a drop-in replacement in some situations.

       loudgain will not modify the actual audio data, but instead just write ReplayGain tags  if
       so  requested.  It  is  up to the player to interpret these. (In some players, you need to
       enable this feature.)

       loudgain currently supports writing tags to the following file types:
       FLAC (.flac), Ogg (.ogg, .oga, .spx, .opus), MP2 (.mp2), MP3  (.mp3),  MP4  (.mp4,  .m4a),
       ASF/WMA (.asf, .wma), WavPack (.wv), APE (.ape).

       Experimental, use with care: WAV (.wav), AIFF (.aiff, .aif, .snd).

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Show this help.

       -v, --version
              Show version number.

       -r, --track
              Calculate track gain only (default).

       -a, --album
              Calculate album gain (and track gain).

       -c, --clip
              Ignore clipping warnings.

       -k, --noclip
              Lower track/album gain to avoid clipping (<= -1 dBTP).

       -K n, --maxtpl=n
              Avoid clipping; max. true peak level = n dBTP.

       -d n, --pregain=n
              Apply n dB/LU pre-gain value (-5 for -23 LUFS target).

       -s d, --tagmode=d
              Delete ReplayGain tags from files.

       -s i, --tagmode=i
              Write  ReplayGain  2.0  tags  to  files.  ID3v2  for MP2, MP3, WAV and AIFF; Vorbis
              Comments for FLAC, Ogg, Speex and Opus; iTunes-type metadata for MP4/M4A; WMA  tags
              for ASF/WMA; APEv2 tags for WavPack.

       -s e, --tagmode=e
              like '-s i', plus extra tags (reference, ranges).

       -s l, --tagmode=l
              like '-s e', but LU units instead of dB.

       -s s, --tagmode=s
              Don't write ReplayGain tags (default).

       -L, --lowercase
              Force  lowercase  'REPLAYGAIN_*'  tags (MP2/MP3/MP4/ASF/WMA/WAV/AIFF only). This is
              non-standard, but sometimes needed.

       -S, --striptags
              Strip tag types other than ID3v2 from MP2/MP3 files (i.e. ID3v1, APEv2). Strip  tag
              types other than APEv2 from WavPack/APE files (i.e. ID3v1).

       -I 3, --id3v2version=3
              Write ID3v2.3 tags to MP2/MP3/WAV files.

       -I 4, --id3v2version=4
              Write ID3v2.4 tags to MP2/MP3/WAV files (default).

       -o, --output
              Database-friendly tab-delimited list output (mp3gain-compatible).

       -O, --output-new
              Database-friendly new format tab-delimited list output. Ideal for analysis of files
              if redirected to a CSV file.

       -q, --quiet
              Don't print scanning status messages.

RECOMMENDATIONS

       To give you a head  start,  here  are  my  personal  recommendations  for  being  (almost)
       universally compatible.

       Use  loudgain  on  a  »one  album  per  folder« basis; standard RG2 settings but lowercase
       ReplayGain tags; clipping prevention on; strip obsolete tag types  from  MP3  and  WavPack
       files; use ID3v2.3 for MP3s; store extended tags:

           $ loudgain -a -k -s e *.flac
           $ loudgain -a -k -s e *.ogg
           $ loudgain -I3 -S -L -a -k -s e *.mp3
           $ loudgain -L -a -k -s e *.m4a
           $ loudgain -a -k -s e *.opus
           $ loudgain -L -a -k -s e *.wma
           $ loudgain -I3 -L -a -k -s e *.wav
           $ loudgain -I3 -L -a -k -s e *.aiff
           $ loudgain -S -a -k -s e *.wv
           $ loudgain -S -a -k -s e *.ape

       I've been happy with these settings for many years now. Your mileage may vary.

       For  easy  mass-tagging, there is a bash script called rgbpm included with loudgain, which
       follows above recommendations. You can make a copy, put  that  into  your  personal  ~/bin
       folder and modify it to whatever you need.

BUGS

       loudgain  is  maintained  on  GitHub.  Please  report  all  bugs  to  the issue tracker at
       https://github.com/Moonbase59/loudgain/issues.

AUTHORS

       Matthias C. Hormann mhormann@gmx.de
       Alessandro Ghedini alessandro@ghedini.me

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2019 Matthias C. Hormann mhormann@gmx.de (versions > 0.1)
       Copyright (C) 2014 Alessandro Ghedini alessandro@ghedini.me (v0.1)

       This program is released under the 2 clause BSD license.

                                          September 2019                              LOUDGAIN(1)