We present high accuracy measurements of gain, loss, and transparency energy in long-wavelength semiconductors based on a hybrid approach using the fundamental relationship between the gain and the spontaneous emission spectra. Independent measurements of optical gain, transparency energy, and loss show the accuracy and validity of this technique. These results are compared with those obtained by the non-Markovian gain model with many-body effects under the spontaneous emission transformation method. It is found that the hybrid approach for the gain spectrum alleviates many of the problems related to the poor signal to noise ratio in the amplified-spontaneous emission near and below the band edge. The theoretical spectra compare well with the measured spectra for both the transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations.