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Posted by CrayC on Jun-10-2007 19:14:

Normalising

Can anyone explain exactly (in technical terms) what the normalisation process when applied to a wave file is actually doing? I know the result is it makes the sound as 'loud' as possible but does anyone know how it does this?

CrayC

Posted by DJ RANN on Jun-10-2007 19:31:

basically normalizing is the process where the maximum amplitude level is calculated so that the highest peak will reach 0db. Then this ratio is applied to the whole sample/selection to make it louder.

Be aware this also raises the intrinsic niose within a recodring and you are better off doing a gain change rather than normalizing.

Posted by purefocus on Jun-10-2007 21:54:

quote:
Originally posted by DJ RANN
basically normalizing is the process where the maximum amplitude level is calculated so that the highest peak will reach 0db. Then this ratio is applied to the whole sample/selection to make it louder.

Be aware this also raises the intrinsic niose within a recodring and you are better off doing a gain change rather than normalizing.

...But when you normalize something, you ARE making a gain change. You're just specifying the new maximum signal value rather than the actual amount of gain change. The noise floor does increase (assuming an increase in gain), but so does everything else - i.e. the signal to noise ratio doesn't change.

In the vast majority of cases normalizing is pointless and only degrades your signal by requantizing it. Assuming the audio in question is unmastered and 'raw', the maximum signal peak may have very little to do with the average/perceived loudness. Don't normalize unless you have a very good reason to

Posted by DigiNut on Jun-11-2007 02:43:

Eh, weird replies... normalizing and gain change are essentially the same thing (normalizing being a specific amount of gain to get the peak at a particular level, generally 0 dB). As for raising the noise by raising the gain - yeah, but what do you think a mastering compressor/leveler is doing with make-up gain?

Eventually, at some point during the production process, you're going to have to raise the gain. Generally, yes, you'll want to do this on an entire mix as opposed to a single sample (especially a recorded one) because the full mix already has a high SNR. Sometimes there are good reasons to normalize or increase the gain of some individual element, though.