Freeware MP3 volume Normalizer?

Have you ever turned your computer speakers loud enough to hear some of your favorite .MP3s in another room -- only to come rushing back to your computer to turn the volume down because the next song playing is just too loud?

That's what happened to me today. And with that in mind, I pondered whether or not there existed a freeware program that could normalize the volume of all my MP3s.

As usual, I headed over to Google for the answer. I searched for "freeware mp3 normalize" and managed to find a fantastic little program called MP3Gain. From the Webattack.com web site:

" MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume. The program does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do, but instead attempts statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. The changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless, there is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding. "

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/index.php

Excellent.

I downloaded the file onto my computer and installed it. In the main MP3Gain window, I had an option to choose which folder of MP3s I wanted to change. I opted for my Dean Martin folder and MP3Gain loaded in all the songs.

At this point, I couldn't figure out what to do next and ended up right-clicking over top of one of the MP3 filenames, where MP3Gain gave me the option to "Apply Track Gain". From there, I figured that I needed to highlight all of the files in the MP3Gain Window and then Apply the Track Gain... which ended up doing the trick with a normalized volume level of 89.0 db.

Overall, the application was relatively straight forward and did exactly what I wanted it to. Highly recommended!