foo_input_usf volume tag by VGMStreamer at 10:29 PM EST on December 30, 2020
Hi! I just had a quick question. USF sets have a "volume" tag available in the Winamp 64th note plugin that can be used to raise or lower the volume of the USF set and it works as intended. In the past I've used this to lower the volume of USF sets that clip in some places before transcoding to other more compatible formats. I have noticed that the foo_input_usf plugin ignores this tag and outputs files to the same volume regardless. I much prefer using Foobar2000 for this sort of thing and so I'm curious if this is this a bug, an intentional design choice, or perhaps am I overlooking a configuration option somewhere?
Thank you for any help or insight and I apologize for bother you guys over such a trivial question!
I had a similar question previously, what you can do is install the separate m-TAGS component to foobar, which will allow you to create extra metadata for file types that don’t normally allow them. Once you’ve created the separate m-TAGS, then you can apply replaygain data to it, and they will export as desired!
That is very handy! I've been doing something similar (transcoding to FLAC and applying replaygain there). but this saves the transcoding process in those situations. Thank you!
My biggest concern though is the clipping in some files (although it isn't very common). It seems to only be an issue in louder sets and even then it's only on a few tracks and mostly in places that aren't particularly noticeable (such as on drum beats). It's a major problem, but there are too many USF tracks to test them all individually and so I'm curious if reducing the volume during emulation would help prevent that
If so, I could just apply a general tag to the louder sets to prevent the issue before transcoding. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if it'd make a different, though.
Once you've got all the m-TAGS created for whichever USF set you're using, go to convert the files, then under the "Processing" tab look for "ReplayGain", set the source mode to "album" and processing to "prevent clipping according to peak" and export the files. :)
My foobar2000 xSF plugins intentionally ignore the user-configurable VOLUME tag and only set or display the ReplayGain tags. No, you do not need to use m-TAGS to set ReplayGain tags on your files.
I suspect VGMStreamer is talking about the clipping issues in the recently uploaded Mario Artist Paint Studio MINIUSF sets. Yes, it is true that foo_input_usf understands RG tags, but it only applies them after the damage is done. A global setting for volume (as implemented in the foo_input_vgm component) would be greatly appreciated.
Yes, that is correct. Applying ReplayGain with those settings does help prevent any further issues but it doesn't help tracks that have already been clipped.
It definitely depends on the USF set though. Some are very quiet whilst others like Mario Arist Paint Studio are good examples of the problem, as are certain tracks in the Tetrisphere and Banjo-Kazooie sets.