Mixed in Key has a plugin that will "improve your entire music collection, and make every file sound great" - go on then, if you say so

To be honest, the only way we thought we could improve our music collections was to add more obscure Depeche Mode B-sides, but Mixed In Key says it has something else that will do the job. And we're intrigued. 

Yes, Mixed in Key's new Platinum Notes 10 claims to "Improve your entire music collection, and make every file sound great".

Of course, the company is not really talking about improving the quality of the artists you are listening to – although AI will probably have a solution to that particular problem next week – but the quality of the actual audio files. And this could be (almost) as great.

We don't know about you, but listening to our extensive collection of tunes going back too many decades, we get terrible variations in volume, depending on what kind of compression was in vogue at the time of the original recording. TWe also have to deal with the fact that we ripped our CDs at the lowest possible quality to save space, and so now listening to the MP3s can literally take your head off, so harsh do they sound. 

So can Mixed in Key's Platinum Notes 10 solve these problems? Yes. And no. 

Platinum Notes 10 will certainly solve that first volume problem as it's all about making sure volume levels are consistent between tracks. And with pitch matching features, Mixed In Key has clearly got DJs in mind. 

The process seems fairly easy according to the tutorial video below. You set up some preferences - like output location for your processed files and their format - load in a bunch of music files, and hit the Process button. 

Obviously, the processing time is dependant on your computer and the number of songs you choose, but you can also select how the processing takes place – as in the amount of processing dedicated to PN10 - and how many songs are done simultaneously. 

You can also choose from templates to give the resulting files a different balance or character, depending on where DJs will be playing them. There's a Festival template, for example, that is designed to give the processed files more of a presence on a big stage.

Platinum Notes 10 costs $98 and works with all major music formats (including MP3, WAV, AIFF, APPLE Lossless, OGG and FLAC).

More information from Mixed in Key.