Good day,
I have an issue which I hope you can help me with. I compile songs from different sources into mp3 for my personal use. However, there are times when some songs are louder or even softer than others.
I use Adobe Audition CC and I have used the match loudness option. However, that does not always work. I have seen people suggest using a limiter, but I am not sure how that solves the problem.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hi Ryan,
There are several ways to get the Loudness of each song equal. I do this in Adobe Audition. When a song is loaded into AU (Adobe Audition) then go to Effects->Amplitude and compression->Normalize (process), In the popup screen you can set the maximum of the loudness, I always set it to -1 db. Click apply and the track is selected and do the job for you. If you have a lot of tracks that you need to normalize then use the batch Process function(Under menu Window->Batch Process. If you do not see in the dropdown list your preferred settings you can make your own by recording the process you like. You can start a recording under Favorites->Start recording Favorite. When the recording is started, just do the steps on one track, when ready stop recording, give it a clear name and after that you will find your recording back in the drop down list of the Batch process. Hope this is helpfull for you. Have great recordings!
Greetings Paul
Hey…thanks for quick response. When I do the batch process, which option do i choose?
Standard in Audition there are options like normalize to -0.1db and -3 db. So that is why I made my own option normalize to -1 db, because -0.1 is to less and -3 db I found that to much. If you want also to -1DB normalize you have to record it with the record option under Favorites menu. It is more simple than you think… 
, Just load a music file like a mp3 or wav or whatever you use to work with. Click Start recording favorite, when the recording is started go to effects → choose amplitude and compression → choose normalize. In the popup change the value to -1 db, press enter and click apply. Then stop the recording. Give your recording a name like -1db normalize process (Or what will be clear for you.) Now open several files into audition, say 10 files to start. Open the popup window for batch processing, choose from the drop down your newly recorded session . select all the files from the files window of audition drag them into the batch window. If you do it the first time open the export settings, set it where you want the files to be copied and if the original files should be kept, overwrite or deleted.
A good explanation you can find in this youtube movie: Quick Tip: How to Record a Favorite in Adobe Audition - YouTube
Always make first a back-up of your files before starting (especially the first run/time) the batch process. See and learn what is going on …
Thank you. I shall try this.
Some really good tips here.
Matching Loudness will give the save overall volume to the ear but that can be quite different for classical music vs EDM music for example. EDM would be made much quieter overall than classical because of heavy compression used on EDM music.
A Limiter set to -3db and Match Loduness would likely be the sweet spot in most cases.
Thanks a lot. I will try this.
Hi Mike, Absolutly thru! Classical music needs a total diffrent approach. In the beginning when I start recording music most of them where popular, after that I also start for Classic music. Could not use the same settings. 
So I tried several settings and also finished at -3 DB for Classic Music. So I use -1Db for popular and -3Db for Classic .
For song libraries, basic limiting or compression such as built in to DAWs will likely not be pleasing to the ear for most situations. Doing this in a sympathetic way requires quite sophisticated audio processing such as the ‘Optimod’ used for radio stations. You can use audyllic.com to use a genuine Optimod to process audio.
However, for music libraries, the best thing to do is run it through a tool that will analyse how ‘loud’ a track sounds on average. Older songs tend to sound quieter than newer tunes, a 60’s song next to a modern one will sound much quieter, even though the peak levels may register the same.
A great tool is MP3 Gain and its WAV version - WAVGain - see here https://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ you can run the whole library through it and tracks will segue much better without the need to adjust the volume… Its ideal for radio station libraries as it means you can set the processing in the ‘sweet spot’, when I was setting up radio station libraries 10 -15 years ago, this was one of my ‘secret sauces’!