I’m using Deezer 4.17.1 on Windows 10. There is an ‘Equalise volume’ toggle switch in the audio menu under the audio options.

I think this is what they are referring to?

I can find no further info out about it at all.

But it was turned on as default for me, and when I turned it off the sound quality was *much* better for me. If you are using the Windows app I strongly recommend turning off ‘Equalise volume’.

Yes, that's it @jordanmcclements. Is your quality setting set to HQ? It normalises the volume for tracks, it could be an impression on quality.

My audio quality is ‘Better 320kb/s’. It sounds a lot better to me with ‘Equalise volume’ turned off.

That's interesting to know @jordanmcclements. Once our desktop app gets updated, I'd like to hear your feedback - to see if anything changes 

I’m still interested in the answer to the original question.  For example, which of the following is the Windows Desktop “Normalize Audio” feature using?

• Amplitude-normalization
• Loudness-normalization(?)
• Gain-boost with limiter
• Gain boost with compressor
• Other

It seems it’s using stock-standard amplitude-normalisation. And as a result it’s highly ineffectual.  For example, play the below 4 x tracks and you will find that Morningstart by Baroness is significantly “louder”. Yet if I turn off “Normalize Audio” the “loudness” is fairly equal.

That said, actually given they’re all similarly-”loud” perceptually, maybe you’re actually using a loudness-normalisation method that isn’t very effective? Because I would assume the amplitude is already normalised after being compressed, in the mastering process (they’re all relatively-modern recordings).

It certainly doesn’t appear to be using compression or limiting, so to answer the original question, I don’t think you will experience unexpected variances in volume throught a track - it seems to apply it equally across the entire track (so it’s not like a TV or home theater system that flattens-out the volume dynamically and creates unexpected shifts in volume as the compressor tries to keep up).

Hi there @teqteq 

I've asked our devs and they came back to me to explain that it's a loudness normalization (as we target -15 dB LUFS) but indeed, this may change in the future. I've passed your feedback to them, thank you very much!

Hi there,

just to add some questions:

• As you target -15 dB LUFS, do you also increase the loudness for quieter tracks?
• Is there a album normalization, when playing songs in album mode, so that all songs are in relative loudness to each other?
• Is there a track normalization, so that all tracks in a playlist or using Flows play at the same level?
• Oh and: Are there differences between Flac/HiFi and MP3/HQ?

I’m asking because I think that the normalization seems to be a bit inconsistent sometimes, especially if compared to your competitors (A,S,T ;-)).

Hello everybody,

Shouldn't there be official technical information about this matter, easily available for the Deezer Community, and all users? It's a hugely important matter.

Is there?

I'm a Sound Engineer and I'm gonna need some numbers...

Hi there, this is not a popular request, but I can pass it on to our developers again. :)

That would be just wonderful...

Gonna have to second this. I absolutely can not leave an option on that may or may not mess with the dynamics of what I am listening to.

Seems like nothing happened regards this in almost 10 months now.

Thank you for supporting the discussion @David.Kubaczek 

Thanks for mentioning this. I turned it off in my system and I agree. Sounds much better with it turned off. 

Well, still no response from Deezer. Great support.

What are you looking for, Marcus?

Does the audio normalization benefit you, do you prefer using it, do you prefer the sound quality either way? If deezer published a comprehensive numbers analysis, would it affect your decision?

I don’t use it on any of my streaming services because I don’t feel a need, and if there are any drawbacks, I avoid those.

There is one thread on this topic in two years, with 18 replies (including yours), and 7 of those are mod replies. That’s out of ~7 million users. It’s safe to say that it’s justifiably not a priority.

G

Many people say, and I was that guy, who said that if Volume Normalization is off - music is better.

It is, because it is much louder.

I listen nowadays Volume Normalization on.

I’d wish Deezer had it much like Spotify has it:

Premium listeners with them can also choose volume normalization levels in the app settings to compensate for a noisy or quiet environment

• Loud: -11dB LUFS
• Normal: -14dB LUFS
• Quiet: -23dB LUFS

This is really needed to Deezer too, as I found out on mobile I need much more power from earpieces and this I use only Loud option when at home Normal is enough. On Deezer I don’t know the details, but it do sound great VN on, but you need to make your volume up a bit. This is what I recommend.

It’s created to deal with loudness war only.

What's happening is you're hearing w/o VN the tracks played louder than usual, and at louder volumes our ears perceive sound differently. This is because of an effect called the Fletcher Munson curve.

I have the same problem with volume normalization turned on. Some songs are very quiet, others are very loud. For example: Life Cried - Burnt To Ashes is crazy loud in comparison to other tracks (with volume normalization turned on). Very strange. The song is not very dynamic, so with integrated LUFS over the entire song, it should tend to be more quiet than more dynamic songs. In a dynamic song, the louder parts must be even louder to balance the quieter parts, such that the desired LUFS value will be satisfied. What could be the reason for this?

For those who visit this thread and are still looking for some answers.

I have been trying out the normalization and have some observations:

the 3 songs I used all differ from overall loudness.

Salt - The devil Wears Prada peaks at 0dB and is squashed like a tomato run over by a dump truck. no dynamics. Turning on normalisation will adjust the volume of the whole track by -9dB

Brother Moon (Live) - Gungor also peaks at 0dB but has significantly more dynamics over all turning on normalisation will adjust the volume by approx.. -4 or -5 dB thus peaking higher after normalisation than song one.

Let There Be (Live) - Gungor again peaks at 0dB this time the song stays quiet for a long time before at the end building in energy. this song only got lowered by -4dB keeping the quiet part intact.

song two and three are from the same album and follow after one another. although only an opinion I feel comfortable saying I could not hear a difference between the two songs. not one of them stood out as louder or quieter. (which could be the work of the mastering engineer from the album or Deezer loudness matching songs on albums)

I wish I could provide more data by running the audio through an audio plugin which analyses dynamics. but I would have to change my setup to do that.