Putting MP3 files onto MP3 player

Hi, been looking into this for a few days and would be grateful for any input. I bought a new mp3 player and put some mp3 files on there, however the volume not quite high enough even at full volume except for one file which happens to be too high. Looked into this a discovered clipping, noticed clip level of that particular file higher than others. I am basically looking for the best method of placing mp3 files onto an mp3 player. Ideally with a piece of software that enable me to place the best quality and volume on my machine. Big thanks to chaslang i will run your guide when back on my home pc. Help really appreciated. Sam.

PS, Does anyone a good piece of software for diagnosing hardrives, have a maxtor 250gb sata 1.5 gb/s external hard drive that i get a deviced unable to start problem with win xp. Maxtor's website not the most helpful. Cheers, Sam.

 

Maxtor's diagnostic tool PowerMax

There are no bad ways of copying a MP3 file to your player. The computer just copies the file. No matter how you do it or with which software, the same file will end up on your player.
What you want to do is normalize the volume of all MP3 files in your collection before copying them to your player. You can use MP3Gain to do that.

 

Yes but does normalising increase the volume. For eg I have one file at 97db no clipping good and the others at say 91 clipping, not quite loud enough.

 

Normalizing means you tell the program how loud the MP3 should sound, after which it will increase or decrease the volume accordingly. In MP3Gain this is the "Target normal volume". If your MP3 is still too quiet, increase this value.
Note: normalizing again and again without changing this value has no effect. The normal volume is absolute and not relative to your MP3 file.

MP3Gain FAQ