Qobuz Volume Leveling [Implementation Underway]

Please add (or continue to request) volume leveling data from Qobuz.

I’ve asked the same of Qobuz support.

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It can only be added if Qobuz supply it, and they don’t currently. If they did Roon would apply it like they do for Tidal, they have said as much all ready. Ball is in Qobuz court.

Actually, below is from Roon last February regarding Qobuz not having Volume Leveling data-

No word since that I can find. Is there something official from Roon and/or Qobuz on this? For those of us using or considering Qobuz via Roon, it would be helpful to know if the Volume Leveling is being worked on is simply not going to happen.

I, for one, can tell you it is irritating to use Radio for music discovery only to be suddenly blasted by a Qobuz track several dB louder.

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They have said in another thread that it’s down to Qobuz to supply it as they are not doing so and don’t for their own apps as they dont support volume levelling. It works for Tidal as they supply this metadata. Roon cannot perform analysis on streams so this metadata needs to be provided by the supplier. They have brought it up with them nothing more can be done

Yeah, this could be a deal breaker for me. Since Qobuz doesn’t have their own radio-like feature, Roon is the only way to get this functionality with Qobuz. The lack of volume leveling makes it almost unusable. It could drive me back to Tidal and the MQA borg.

As I stated in my first post, I’ve contacted Qobuz requesting this data be added.

However, it seems since Roon downloads the entire track from Qobuz (and Tidal) right out of the gate, analysis could be run on it and leveling data created on the fly. Many of us have EXCESS cpu for playing music. I certainly wouldn’t mind a 1-3 seconds of latency while this processing occurred prior to playback. Even better, fetch the next track sooner so that the processing can occur in the background.

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So you want the fast interactive experience of Roon with Qobuz to change for everyone because some people want volume leveling? Because it would not be just 1 to 3 seconds of latency. The entire track would have to be downloaded then analyzed. So the delay would depend greatly of the speed of the Internet connection and how fast Qobuz’s server were at the time.

Was thinking the exact same thing.

Why the confrontation tone. Of course I would not want to compromise anyone’s experience.

I would want it to be a choice and have it linked to volume leveling being enabled or not. I I should say, it appears the entire track is downloaded, or a good chunk of it, currently before play begins, in a burst, up to ~30Mbps on my connection in less than a second.

That said, I find Qobuz to be much less responsive than Tidal, probably related to my geolocation and the limited infrastructure buildout Qobuz has completed so far in the US.

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I am sorry. I didn’t know I couldn’t point out that others would be affected by your feature request.

24/192 tracks can be over 300MB in size. That’s a long time at ~30Mbps. About 1m 23sec if everything is perfect. 16/44 tracks would load in about 8 seconds for you. My Internet connection is about half yours. So it would take twice as long on my end.

I don’t think Roon is going to add all these configuration options to the interface.

Well, I guess that’s why it’s a ‘feature request’

Hello @Larry_Post, reading through this thread, and some of the objections raised, I wonder if an alternative approach is possible where, over time, Roon builds up a database of the required volume levelling info for Qobuz tracks (based on EBU R128 loudness data)?

This could, in my naive thinking, be computed ‘at leisure’ during the first time a (any) user plays the track, and sufficient spare analysis capacity is available on this user’s core. The computed gain adjustment data could be added to Roon’s metadata set for the track, so from then on the gain adjustment info is available for all to benefit from.
If you are unlucky enough to be the very first Roon user to play the track you are no worse of, but at least the delayed playback issues raised above would not materialise.

Anyway, @CrystalGipsy indicates that the analysis is a no-no for streamed data, so perhaps the whole idea doesn’t fly. :thinking:
Possibly there are non - technical (legal/contractual? ) issues to be addressed with passing the computed gain data back to Roon’s infrastructure from a user core, not sure about that. But I struggle to see clearly why either Qobuz or users would object.

It does seem a lot simpler if Qobuz did the calculations and made the data available for each track. A one-off bulk / batch job and then going forward a pretty trivial process for all new ingest. So you contacting Qobuz was definitely a good thing to do. :+1: I bet Roon and Qobuz have discussed this, but end user requests can make a difference.

Anyway, just thinking out loud.

Oh, and like you I can’t see a reason for the confrontational tone in some posts. Best ignore.

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Excellent idea, it would be a win-win except for the first to play a track but as time marched on this would be less and less probable that a single individual would be ‘unlucky’ but rarely.

I can imagine there are significant technical challenges to computing much of anything on streaming content. It would likely have to be saved locally temporarily and this may cause the providers’ lawyers fits.

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This doesn’t fly. The Roon Core needs to get the data from Qobuz BEFORE the track plays. Roon’s servers never see the full tracks when you play them from Qobuz. Your computer does not keep the tracks local and cannot perform tasks analyzing the tracks after playback. Even if the Roon Core were changed to keep tracks around, which may not be contractually allowed, your local Roon system would have to analyze the track and send data back to Roon’s servers.

Look at all the complexity and possible contract changes that would have to take place to get volume leveling for tracks that don’t have that information from Qobuz.

When you look at the technical and legal requirements, this whole idea becomes too cumbersome to implement.

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Here is what I know for certain:

  1. Tidal provides Roon with metadata for Volume Leveling.
  2. Qobuz does not provide that metadata.
  3. Qubuz files can be bigger than Tidal.
  4. Some suggest the larger files in Qobuz presents a huge issue regarding effective Volume Leveling.
  5. There exists various “end user” opinions on the matter.

What I DON’T know is whether point #4 an issue for Qobuz Volume Leveling within ROON, and if so, how much of an issue does it represent. I am not an expert. Therefore, I have a humble request:
Let’s ask the true experts. @support, what is the truth here? Is Qobuz Volume Leveling possible, and if so, when might it happen?
Finally, I also contacted Qobuz asking if they had plans to provide metadata required for Volume Leveling, but have yet to receive a reply.

The file size has nothing to do with volume leveling. At least not directly. It’s only an issue if you want the volume leveling calculation to happen dynamically. That’s not going to happen, so…

Nobody was asking for for volume leveling calculations to happen dynamically. Because clearly that’s not technically feasible.

At any rate, the best, most obvious solution is for Qobuz to provide the data, like most every other streaming service.

That is pretty much what the OP wants.

[Moderated] I was simply asking about volume leveling for Qobuz and back of the envelope thinking of ways to achieve it short of being (ideal) supplied by Qobuz. I don’t care much how it gets done but without it and can’t see sticking with Qobuz. It’s a deal breaker for me.

[Moderated].

I appreciate the moderation, my other comments weren’t helpful and I usually ask myself before posting if my comment is helpful or not…

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Where did the op say “dynamic” volume leveling?