I guess this changed with 1.8 but I don't remember reading anything about it in the release notes...

Maybe there was a secret user feedback and research again and they changed it..

There is something weird going on with 1.8 and library analyzing. Besides this (which looks scary enough), I encountered the problem of extreme CPU loading when analyzing new tracks. This was never a problem with my MBP i7, but now it is.

If indeed I have to reanalyze everything to match levels, I guess I'm doomed as in the end I will be left with a dead laptop. So, no re-analyzing for now.

I guess you could always analyze with an older Version (or heck even scratch live maybe?) till serato fixes it and just use the new version when gigging, because fuck tha police y'know?

I know it's a workaround, but at this point it seems that serato fixes one thing and by doing that breaks another at the same time. Pls do me a favor and try that out for me because I didn't have the time to do so yet :)

When I reanalysed, I also got CPU use constantly in the red but it didn't slow anything down, just had to leave the laptop for a few hours until analysis finished, no big problem.

There definitely seems to be some changes though, I'm noticing a lot of variation between track levels even though I've reanalysed the whole library.

Does anyone know if the auto gain level setting affects the analysis? Like, does the auto gain value get written to the file or does the actual real volume get written to the file, and then the software interprets it?

Auto gain is weird. With my SL3 unplugged I still have gain levels reaching red while offline. I don't understand why SDJ can't set all track gains to 12 o clock. Shouldn't that be the default? Cause every track I play is different. What is interesting when my box is connected I have auto gain set to 93 db and I'm finally seeing levels I'm normally used to from SSL.

auto gain is my main gripe with sdj now. not accurate at all.

At least auto gain works for you. It does absolutely nothing on my PC so I have to adjust the gains manually. It's a little annoying when I'm trying to do a fast mix but not that big of a deal.

It is definitely weird. The way it works now, some tracks I have that used to play quieter now play louder and some louder tracks now play quieter. And then there are some tracks that play much louder now. On the whole its not that bad though, just different.

Support told me there have been some changes under the hood, but really, a bit of warning in the release notes would have been nice. Unless I've missed something and its common knowledge...

to me that seems bad and different.

I can deal with the fact that there is a bit of variation between track levels, there always has been anyway. I can also deal with the fact that the tracks that vary have changed, The big problem for me is that some tracks play way too loud.

We should be able to edit the auto gain level for each track! For most tracks it's not necessary, but I think it's a necessary feature that should be added.

Thats actually what master output level does in SSL it adjust the track gains and keeps everything level. Master output level in SDJ acts completely different

That's one thing I really liked about Scratchlive the Master level overrides all track gains. I'm not really sure what it does in SDJ cause it does nothing for the track gains but increases the master volume.

Auto gain in 1.8 seems ok to me on pc,not perfect but no auto gain is.any tracks i load that are going into the yellow to far i just adjust no hardship there,most of my tracks peak nearly to top of the greens.which is fine for me.to be honest unless there are vast variations in track volumes nobody listening is going to remark on slight volume dips

Thats exactly the issue im having! Depending on which tracks are used, the variation in volume, between 2 tracks, can be up to 3 or 4db.

This is exactly what I would expect the auto gain setting applies to, but as you say, in SDJ it doesn't seem to do anything.

I think Serato recently removed the master limiter from SDJ, which is probably why the auto gain seems so erratic now. I think some tweaking need stop be done.

my understanding of ssl master is that it lowers or rises the combined chanel levels,but that wouldnt help you in sdj if your level gains are of as much as 3/4 dec.you would still have variations in levels,master in ssl does not adjust independent chanel levels does it?.never used ssl.i have slight flucuation in levels but nothing like you have..does it happen with only certain file formats or all?

I've never used Scratch Live either, I only just switched to SDJ last year.

I'm noticing that certain albums seem to be affected, for example,if a track is affected then its likely that most of the album is affected too. But of course this doesn't apply to every single track.

I'm convinced that it is the production of some tracks that is defeating the auto gain analysis. The simple solution is to allow us to adjust the auto gain setting on a track by track basis.

yeah autogain is not perfect,most of my files play pretty level with auto gain,a few dont match up.could be production,"The simple solution is to allow us to adjust the auto gain setting on a track by track basis."not sure what you mean by that qoute?.thats what you have gain controls for to compensate for when auto gain is not matching levels

I personally like my tracks hitting just above green in the yellow area. That's how I had it in SSL and the quality was fine however in SDJ I have to manually adjust sometimes to get those levels. With master gain in SSL I could have all my tracks just below peak level. What I do like about SDJ with master level it actually syncs up to your mixers master if you are paying attention to the mixers levels.

i got a reply on twitter that it doesnt work well with different file types and types of files vary in loudness. lets say a 70s steely dan wav file and a 2015 kanye 320 mp3.

which it doesnt. which to me is kinda dumb because if im playing all one or the other, i wouldnt need auto gain as much as i do with to varying file loudness types.

but this is really my only gripe with sdj right now. i can tough it out on the mains manually.

I mean that if the auto gain value for each track was editable, then on the occasions when SDJ gets it wrong, it would be possible to set the desired value just once and have that setting permanently.

Ok so I'll just have to live with these newly introduced 'differences' to auto gain analysis. Its strange because most tracks are registering about the same values on the meters in SDJ. The difference is in the 'perceived' volume of the tracks when they are played out loud but it is also reflected on the mixer meters (these display the difference in volume).

Support did get back to me again but part of their reply was to :

'have auto gain turned on to ensure all tracks are at a standard volume',

I switched off at that point, support aren't going to acknowledge this as an issue even though they have stated that there have been changes.

I suppose if the software meters are at a consistent volume, then the auto gain is doing its job. Weird that I am noticing much more variation now though.

thats what i cant figure out either. one track in the just hitting the red could be +2+5 dbs louder than another that looks exactly the same.

it doesnt work properly, if they think it does, they should make a video, detailing precisely what to do.

Two tracks that may look identical on vu meters but one is louder than the other has always been the case,some tracks are louder sounding regardless of what the vu meters say which are just a guide.nothing to do with auto gain really,if it sounds louder in your headphones then it is louder regardless of what the meters say.no doubt that line levels are hotter in 1.8,i still think auto gain does a decent job but its not fool proof.i know i'm stating the obvious but if it sound to loud in your headphones,then it is..just tweak the gain..vu meters sometimes dont show the true audio strengh or brigtness of a track

I guess the main point I'm trying to make is that this feature was working fine for me until they recently changed it. They have acknowledged that a change has been made, but for me, this change is a step backwards. Even though there will always be some variation when using autogain, the variation is bigger now that the software has changed.

Previously, the analysis went some way towards detecting 'perceived' volume. This is clear from some tracks in my library, that are quiet but used to play quite loudly (autogain doing its job well) but now instead they play really quietly. Ok so the track was quiet to begin with but that's the whole point of having autogain!

If tracks are too quiet with auto gain you can always turn the master level ouput up a bit and the sound will increase but don't go too high cause it will cause distortion at least that's the result I get on my SL3

Ive actually turned the master down a bit to avoid the channels going into the red on the mixer (this has only started happening since 1.8). It seems that certain tracks don't work so well with the newer auto gain analysis.

Thanks for the input!

Also, thanks to the other guys that have replied on this thread, all input is appreciated.

I originally liked how master output level worked in Scratchlive cause it would adjust the virtual decks track gains. SDJ does not perform that way though it's the complete opposite.

had the same problem with 1.8 and now 1.8.1

Before i never really had this problem. Now i have to adjust about 50% of the tracks cause they are way too much in the red.

I understand the meaning of "auto gain" that it automatically sets the gains of all songs on the same level. of course, that´s what an experienced dj knows from playing out for years, sometimes a song with the same level of led hight or level (sorry im german and don´t know to describe correctly) can have a slight difference in loudness, due to mastering or quality of mp3. But having some songs only hit the peak of the green led´s, some are in the middle of yellow and some really deep in red cannot mean a correct working "auto gain".

Yeah i understand what your saying regarding the led..in 1.8 the llne levels ae hotter..but is the audio distorting for you? or is it just a visual thing?.i dont get distortion even if it clips red.if your using controller just set each line gain to peak at top og greens..then its like the levels in 1.78

I dont get lights coming on.my buffer is on max..i dont use jog wheels.i use serato for two hours broadcasting.and that is using hp amd laptop .how far across does the green usb bar go when playing?is there a sandard it should not exceed (not in the red obviusly) before drop outs occur?mine is pretty sble staying at a low fixed level

even when i played around with the buffer (i know that from years ago with Sratch Live, changed it one time and never had that problem again) the red lights shows up again. still no sound drop outs when that happened.

the green cpu bar in the top left corner is maybe on 20 or 30 %, never higher. but i remember that a month ago i saw that bar really high while deejaying (around 80%) which was not understandable cause i was only deejaying with serato vinyl and dicers. not even effects loaded in. still the sound didn´t drop out. with my older laptop and not even that powerful laptop i never had such problems

Hello homies

I dont work for serato, but a few words on how 'auto gain'is typically calculated and peak loudness vs *percieved loudness*...

Generally, these things work by finding the absolute loudest peak in a recorded file, and then 'normalizing' the volume of the entire song by taking that peak, raising the volume of that sample (and all other samples so that it hits 0.0dBFS - the rest of the file is brought up to level proportionately.

So, what happens if, say a track recorded off vinyl has one big loud pop somewhere on the track - but the rest of the song is much lower? The software is normalizing the tune using that loudest pop as its reference as to how much it can raise the level of the file before running into clipping. So, that song is likely gonna be a hell of a lot lower than, say something that has been processed, where its a digital, fully mastered file where (9-times out of 10) the entire song is already smashed up against a brickwall limiter anyways.

To make matters worse, a modern track is gonna be like I said above - hyper-compressed, super loud, smashed up against 0.0dBFS - or MORE, and something, recorded even 10 years ago, may be peaking at the same level - but the median percieved loudness is way. way lower. The irony, of course is that when both the hyper loud,, and the really soft versions are stacked up against one another, but played at the same *percieved* loduness, the softer one with more dynamics sounds way, way better.

Serato cant go about 0.0 because it'll clip. Serato cant impement a brickwall limiter and loudness maximizer process because.. well I sure as shit dont want serato limiting my songs. If they have also removed a final brick-wall processer on the back end, then Id say all of the things I discussed above would yield exactly the type of issues you guys are encountering. I would strongly encourage you to forget about auto gain, and use your ears and that knob for mixes that will sound a lot better with a little practice.

That is all. :)