What's some good software for normalizing the volume of a batch of mp3s?

Originally Posted by ApOcaLyPSe_1985

Yeah it will still work and it keeps the target volume you set it too. It's a great program, highly recommended.

This is wrong.
If you indicate to write only replaygain tags then the authoring software has to honor this tags.
Thats not the case if you let mp3gain modify the gain-value in the mpeg frames, which does in fact alter the audio data stream, but is a lossless process, when you somewhere store the original gain value. Then gain change works everywhere, but is limited to a single setting (compared to three settings when considering real replaygain feature).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Maico

I tried using MP3gain in the past but it didn't seem to work. What I did would select all the songs that I wanted it to normalize

replaygain is not normalizing. Read again what replaygain does for you. This is a frequent misunderstanding. If you want to normalize your tracks then use a normalizer, not a replaygain tool.

Originally Posted by Maico

so that I could make a mix CD and then used one of its preset options

I didn't know that there even existed presets. What kind of presets do you mean?

Originally Posted by Maico

to normalize all the songs in relation to each other, but it always came out sounding the exact same when I compared the softer songs to the more hard rock songs.

What do you mean? That replaygaining didn't change the output level of the data? Does your player support replaygain tags? Have you thought about direct manipulation of the mpeg stream?

Originally Posted by Maico

What options do you guys use or how to you make it work for you? If you can provide some screenshots that would be helpful too. Thanks.

I use foobar2000 to replaygain tag my files and then play them in audiophile/album mode. Under gentoo linux I use audacious with bmp-mad, also in audiophile mode.

There's nowhere I can't reach.