NAME
vorbisgain - calculate the replay gain for Ogg Vorbis files
SYNOPSIS
vorbisgain [ -acCdfhqrsv ] [ -g album gain ] input_files ...
DESCRIPTION
vorbisgain calculates the ReplayGain values for the named Ogg Vorbis
input files and writes back the result in the form of tags (comments)
in the file. These values can be used by a playback program to maintain
a uniform sound level during play. (See http://www.replaygain.org/ for
more information.) vorbisgain uses a default target level of 89 dB,
rather than the 83 dB recommended by the ReplayGain standard, when
calculating the gain to apply. (Some players include a pre-
amplification setting with which the target level can be changed.)
vorbisgain input files must be Ogg Vorbis I files with 1 or 2 channels
and a sample rate of 48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 32 kHz, 24 kHz, 22050 Hz, 16
kHz, 12 kHz, 11025 Hz or 8 kHz. If an input file contains multiple
streams (i.e., it is chained), the streams must all have the same
format, in terms of sampling frequency and number of channels.
All streams in a chained file are processed, but the ReplayGain tags
are only written to (or removed from) the first stream.
OPTIONS
-h, --help
Show command help.
-a, --album
Activates album mode, in which the album gain (sometimes called
the audiophile gain) is calculated in addition to the track gain
(sometimes called the radio gain).
-g n, --album-gain=n
Sets the album gain value to use. Default is to calculate it, if
-a is specified. Implies -a in the sense that the album gain tag
is written. This is a relative value, in dB, specifying the
change in volume that should be applied.
-c, --clean
Remove any ReplayGain tags from the specified files. If a file
does not contain any ReplayGain tags, the file is not modified.
-C, --convert
Convert old format ReplayGain tags to a new format (see section
TAG FORMAT below for details). If a file does not contain all
ReplayGain tags that are needed for a conversion, the file is
not modified. The album peak tag is only created if -a is
specified, and the album gain value is then checked for
consistency. Otherwise any album gain is converted without any
checks.
-d, --display-only
Display the result only; do not write anything to disk. This
applies to all options.
-f, --fast
Only calculate the gain for files that do not contain all replay
gain tags needed (the album gain and peak tags are only
considered if -a has been specified).
-n, --no-progress
Only display results, but don’t show progress in percentages and
times. This can be useful if the output is piped into other
programs.
-q, --quiet
Do not display any output while processing. Only error and
warning messages will be printed.
-r, --recursive
Enter directories (recursively) and search for files, if
directories or file patterns are specified. Note: Only
available if vorbisgain was configured with --enable-recursive.
-s, --skip
Silently skip any non-Vorbis files found. Vorbis files that
can’t be processed for some reason are skipped as well, though
not silently. Default is to stop when such files are
encountered.
-v, --version
Display the version of the program.
EXAMPLES
Simplest version. Calculate the track gain and peak only.
vorbisgain somefile.ogg
Note that the following examples are only possible if vorbisgain was
configured with --enable-recursive.
Calculate the album gain and peak, in addition to the track gain and
peak, for all .ogg files in the directory "music" (and all
subdirectories). All files in one directory are treated as belonging to
the same album. Files that already have ReplayGain tags are not re-
calculated. Note the quotes, as they cause the shell to not do any
filename globbing:
vorbisgain -a -f -r "music/*.ogg"
Calculate the album gain. The files specified before the directory
"album" are treated as one album, the files in the directory "album" as
another album and the remaining files as a third album:
vorbisgain -a -r a.ogg b.ogg c.ogg album d.ogg e.ogg f.ogg
Remove all replaygain tags from a collection of oggs:
vorbisgain -c -r "music/*.ogg"
TAG FORMAT
vorbisgain creates tags like these (when in -a mode):
REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN=-7.03 dB
REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK=1.21822226
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-6.37 dB
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=1.21822226
Gain specifies how much the volume should be changed before playback,
in dB. Peak is the maximum sample value of the file before any gain
has been applied, where 1.0 means "full sample value" (32,767 when
decoding to signed 16 bit samples).
Earlier versions of vorbisgain (before 0.30) created the following
tags:
RG_RADIO
RG_PEAK
RG_AUDIOPHILE
When -c is used, RG_RADIO is converted to REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN,
RG_PEAK to REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK, RG_AUDIOPHILE to
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN and REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK is calculated as the
maximum of all RG_PEAK tags in the album.
AUTHORS
Program Code:
Gian-Carlo Pascutto <gcp@sjeng.org>
Magnus Holmgren <lear@algonet.se>
ReplayGain Analysis Code:
Glen Sawyer <glensawyer@hotmail.com>
Frank Klemm (http://www.uni-jena.de/~pfk/)
Man Page:
Magnus Holmgren <lear@algonet.se>
BUGS
None known.
SEE ALSO
http://sjeng.org/vorbisgain.html
Home page for VorbisGain. The latest version, and a Windows
executable, can be found here.
http://www.replaygain.org/
Contains detailed information about ReplayGain and how it is
calculated.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/
Discussion forum for audio compression and related issues,
including Ogg Vorbis and VorbisGain.
NOTE
The version of vorbisgain packaged for Debian differs in two ways from
the upstream version. First, it does not retain the modification time
of the input file: if tags are changed in a file, the mtime will
change. Second, it does not try to process wildcards in filenames.
This makes it impossible to say "process all foo*.ogg in all
subdirectories", but also avoids problems with filenames that actually
contain wildcards. Without this change, "vorbisgain *.ogg" in a
directory with a file that contains a question mark would result in
that file being treated as being in a different album.
2004 Jan 3 vorbisgain(1)