What Does 'Normalize' Mean?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr. Varney
  • Start date Start date
Anyway: What is meant by "Normalize" when you see it in your DAW is basically bringing the highest peak up or down to a predetermined level.
You are doing this to keep your music at roughly the same volume as everyone else's or... every other song on the disc.

Wavelab and other software let you determine what that level will be.
Mixcraft and by the looks of it, the one that you are using, do not.
For the sake of finishing your product so that it can play on the same rotation as other recordings without jumping out or being too quiet, you want to choose a level somewhere between 0dB (very Loud) and -03dB (a little too quiet.

Capeesh? :drunk:
 
And for those that don't like reading long posts, normalize *means" standardize. It's just a more technical-sounding term that is used mostly to apply to data (like digital audio, which is nothing more than numerical data.) By itself, it means nothing more than that - standardization.

It's only when one defines the type of standardization they wish to apply by adding more qualifying words to it - like "RMS normalization" or "peak normalization" or "body temperature normalization" that it really takes on any specific meaning.
Jim Lad said:
What is meant by "Normalize" when you see it in your DAW is basically bringing the highest peak up or down to a predetermined level.
Click to expand...
Except when it doesn't mean that. There are several DAWs (if not all?) that also offer some form of RMS normalization.

Also, peak normalization does next to nothing to bring the actual volume of one music track to the same as others. Peak level has very little to do with music volume.

G.
 
Jim Lad said:
You are doing this to keep your music at roughly the same volume as everyone else's or... every other song on the disc.....

Capeesh? :drunk:
Click to expand...

You were doing OK, and then you went ahead and spewed that.

You are referring to compression/limiting.

Capeesh? ;)
 
rayc said:
& when it does that it increases everything including noise.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify: The signal to noise ratio doesn't change. It differs from compression/limiting in that the relationship between the signal and the noise floor doesn't change.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Kind of true; but limiting is really just another flavor of normalization. Instead of saying raise the gain until the highest peak hits 0dB, limiting says raise the gain by an input amount but limit the peaks to the limiter's setting.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know :) I was just trying to help others who might be a bit new and still learning.

I remember when I started out back in the early 80's my head was spinning while learning all the differences.
 
ooooo sting :D


handbag.jpg
 
I wouldn't use the normalize button. I have noticed that when u use the normalize button it adds "artifacts/noise/hissing sound" so I prefer to use the gain instead of normalize. That is my .02 and my preference.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
The problem is not in the definition of the term "normalize", it's in it's incorrectly specific usage within audio editing software.

So kindly put your birch stick away, because I'm not dropping trou.

G.
Click to expand...

The last time i checked this is a forum about audio and audio related subjects. I missed the part where anyone cared what "normalize" means outside of the audio realm. The question was just what does normalize mean in the software. No one minds reading long posts as long as the person posting doesnt go off on some rant, about what a word means in science, history, math, and your IT career. We shall find other forums for that if the urge arises.
 
Guitarshot said:
The last time i checked this is a forum about audio and audio related subjects. I missed the part where anyone cared what "normalize" means outside of the audio realm. The question was just what does normalize mean in the software. No one minds reading long posts as long as the person posting doesnt go off on some rant, about what a word means in science, history, math, and your IT career. We shall find other forums for that if the urge arises.
Click to expand...
Two things, smart ass:

First, it's not a rant when it's an explanation of factual truth. The only rant here is your lame complaint about "long posts". The fact that you even consider any posts in this thread as "long posts" is a dead giveaway. An entire BOOK could be written answering the actual questions posed in both the thread title and the opening post; a couple-hundred word post just scratches the surface. So if any answers that are longer than a useless Twitter tweet bother you, I suggest you borrow that book from the clown that I recommended to him.

Second, the FACT that was pointed out several times that "normalize" means more than one thing even in audio and audio software. Here's what you get when you click on "Normalize" in Sound Forge, just as one example. 0dBFS peak nomalization is only one of many, many ways to normalize that's offered:
sf_normalize.jpg

The simplistic, simpleton idea that "Normalize" just automatically means 0dBFS peak normalization, even when limiting ones self to audio and audio software is JUST PLAIN WRONG. It's just another one of those, "I want this stuff to be easier than it actually is, because I don't REALLY feel like actually having to learn anything" answers that just causes more trouble for the newb down the road.

if you want your questions and answers limited to Tweets from Net2.0 simpletons, go hang out on Twitter or Second Life. I deal in reality.

G.
 
Guitarshot said:
The last time i checked this is a forum about audio and audio related subjects. I missed the part where anyone cared what "normalize" means outside of the audio realm. The question was just what does normalize mean in the software. No one minds reading long posts as long as the person posting doesnt go off on some rant, about what a word means in science, history, math, and your IT career. We shall find other forums for that if the urge arises.
Click to expand...

I think you need a few more posts before you come in here with your dick hanging out trying to tell someone who's been here way longer than you how to do things here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top