There could be a function in Emplode to analyze the average volume of a song and then make a proposal for that attribute, but the user would be able to manually change it, or not have it set at all.

Yup, that would be the perfect solution, for all the reasons you mentioned.

One important issue with it, though... (Oh, Mike, are you still reading this thread?)

You suggest that Emplode analyze the song. I disagree. I believe the analysis should run in Linux on the Empeg itself (and be triggered by Emplode during the synch process). Reasons:

1) There's no MP3-decoding code in Emplode (as far as I know), they'd have to write a decoder into Emplode before it could do it. On the Empeg itself, the decoder is already there.

2) When you upgrade to the software version that contains this feature, it would be able to scan all the songs that you've already uploaded to the Empeg. You wouldn't have to re-scan the files as they exist on your computer. For some people, the MP3s in their emplode might not have a 1:1 correspondence with the ones stored on their computer. I know that I personally have altered the directory structure on my computer since uploading the bulk of my songs to the Empeg.

3) The normalization values could get written directly to the Empeg's music database immediately as the scan was progressing. More efficient than uploading these fields after-the-fact.

4) If it was done as part of (or at the end of) the synchronization process, then it becomes totally transparent to the end-user.

Mike? Comments?