mp3rgain
Lossless, reversible MP3 & AAC volume normalization with ReplayGain analysis — a memory-safe Rust CLI that replaces mp3gain and aacgain.
Lossless, reversible MP3 & AAC volume normalization with ReplayGain analysis — a memory-safe Rust CLI that replaces mp3gain and aacgain.
This page is designed to help you find out whether mp3rgain is good and if it is the right choice for you.
mp3rgain is a modern, memory-safe Rust rewrite of the classic mp3gain/aacgain. It performs lossless, fully reversible volume normalization by rewriting the globalgain field in each frame (and the AAC scalefactor gain) — no re-encoding — so the adjustment plays back at the right level even on devices that ignore ReplayGain tags: car stereos, DJ gear, portable players, PA systems. It also runs standard ReplayGain 1.0 track and album analysis. Drop-in flag-compatible with mp3gain on the command line, available as an embeddable Rust library, and shipped as a single static binary for Windows, macOS, and Linux (x8664 + arm64).
Listed in
Gain adjustment
Lossless `global_gain` / AAC scalefactor rewrite — no re-encoding
Reversible
Yes — full undo with `-u` (mp3gain-compatible tags)
Supported Formats
MP3 (MPEG-1/2/2.5 Layer III), AAC / M4A incl. HE-AAC base layer
Loudness analysis
ReplayGain 1.0, track & album (89 dB reference)
mp3gain / aacgain compatible
Drop-in CLI — identical flags (`-r -a -g -d -u -k -s` …)
Platforms
Windows, macOS, Linux — x86_64 and arm64
Library / API
Embeddable Rust crate (`cargo add mp3rgain`)
Batch Processing
Recursive (`-R`), parallel (`-j`), dry-run (`-n`), `--skip-errors
Language / binary
Rust — memory-safe, single static binary, no runtime deps
License
MIT (open source)
Installation
Homebrew, winget, AUR, Debian/PPA, MacPorts, Docker (GHCR), Cargo
mp3gain and aacgain were the go-to tools for lossless volume adjustment, but both stopped being maintained — aacgain around 2009 — and neither builds cleanly on modern 64-bit or Apple Silicon systems, while aacgain still ships old C code with unpatched CVEs. mp3rgain is a ground-up reimplementation in Rust that preserves their exact behavior (1.5 dB gain steps, undo tags, full flag set) on a memory-safe footing and brings it to current platforms. Lossless AAC bitstream support landed in v2.0, and the project now ships via crates.io, Homebrew, winget, AUR, Debian/PPA, MacPorts, and Docker.
mp3rgain rewrites the actual gain inside the audio bitstream — the global_gain field in MP3 frames and the scalefactor gain in AAC/M4A — instead of only writing ReplayGain tags. The change is lossless (no decode/re-encode) and fully reversible with -u, so the volume plays back correctly even on hardware that ignores ReplayGain tags: car stereos, DJ gear, portable players, PA systems. It's a modern, memory-safe Rust rewrite of the classic mp3gain/aacgain, and the core is also usable as an embeddable Rust library.
The classic tools have aged out: mp3gain is effectively unmaintained and its bundled C code carries old CVEs (patched only downstream), and aacgain has been abandoned since ~2009 and won't build on modern 64-bit systems or Apple Silicon. Among modern CLIs, rsgain and loudgain only write ReplayGain tags, and FFmpeg re-encodes (lossy). foobar2000 can rewrite AAC file content but is Windows-GUI-only with no undo. mp3rgain gives you lossless, reversible, file-content gain on the command line — cross-platform, scriptable, CI/Docker-friendly — while staying drop-in flag-compatible with mp3gain/aacgain so existing scripts keep working.
People who need volume baked into the files rather than stored as tags: DJs (Rekordbox/CDJ, Serato, Traktor) and anyone preparing tracks for tag-blind hardware (car audio, portable players, smart speakers, retail/PA systems); music archivists and self-hosted library curators; and developers running batch or headless normalization in scripts, cron jobs, Docker, or CI. Also Rust developers who want to embed lossless gain adjustment as a library.
Rust — compiled to a single static binary with no runtime dependencies. ReplayGain analysis decodes audio with the Symphonia library (pure Rust); MP3/AAC gain is applied by direct bitstream manipulation, not via FFmpeg or any C library. Parallel batch processing uses rayon. The companion GUI (mp3rgui) is built with egui/eframe.
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