Volume differs A LOT in itunes, help please!

Question

The volume on a lot of my songs in itunes differs so much there´s almost no point in having them there at all. It really bugs me when i want to use my ipod nano (2nd gen), but it´s been checked twice and there is nothing wrong with it. It must be in itunes. Som songs are so loud they almost blow my ears out. But most songs are so low, on the highest volume setting, that i can barely hear them at all. There´s nothing wrong with the cds i´ve uploaded the songs from, and i have a good computer. And everything just gets even lower with soundcheck, but still differs in volume. Shouldn´t i be able to hear my music without having to adjust the volume all the time, or sit completely still in a silent room to hear anything?? Does anybody know what might be wrong?
Sincerely, gozen2

Answer 1

It could also be a simple case of different CDs in your collection being mastered at different levels. This has become quite a problem in the past few years, since most music that comes out now is mastered to sound "loud" all the way through, at the expense of dynamics.
This video explains what I'm talking about better than I can: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ
If this is indeed what the problem is, sound check isn't making a difference because it's only measuring the peak level of every track. Tracks that have been mastered properly (so the quiet parts of the song actually play back at a lower volume than the loud parts) are going to sound quieter than tracks that have been mastered to sound loud all the way through.
I don't have a solution, just thought I'd add my two cents.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/loudness_war