Show HN: Headroom – Loudness normalizer and Key+BPM playlist sorter for DJs
a day ago
- #Playlist Sorting
- #DJ Tools
- #Audio Normalization
- headroom is a CLI tool that normalizes track loudness and bakes gain adjustments directly into audio files, making them compatible with CDJs, as Rekordbox's Auto Gain does not survive USB export.
- rbsort sorts playlists by Camelot Key and then BPM within each key group, enabling harmonic mixing on CDJs, a feature Rekordbox lacks in its single-column sort and Serato cannot export to USB.
- The tool supports multiple audio formats including FLAC, AIFF, WAV, MP3, AAC/M4A, using lossless methods (e.g., mp3rgain for MP3/AAC) or high-quality re-encoding via ffmpeg at 256 kbps or higher.
- headroom preserves Rekordbox metadata (cue points, tags, etc.) and automatically backs up files before processing, while rbsort outputs sorted playlists to a separate XML file without modifying the original.
- Features include a default -0.5 dBTP True Peak ceiling (tunable), platform support for macOS, Linux, and Windows, and it is free and open-source, distinguishing it from paid alternatives.