Normalization vs. Compression

[Khompewtur]

Yo phunky phat phresh g money werdaz!

I have a question.

What's the difference between normalization and compression?

I'm in the context of CakeWalk 8 and I don't see any compression options so i dunno where the hell issit?

But anyways i use normalization and it make small sound much big but sometimes red light come on that is suck.

ok u tell me now

 

[dachay2tnr]

Normalization finds the highest peak in your track and raises that to whatever setting you are normalizing to (usually 0 db). It also raises the rest of the track by the same amount. So, for example, if the highest peak in your track is -2db, normalizing to 0db will raise everything in the track by 2db. If you normalize to 0db (or something less, like -0.3db) you should not be getting any "red lights", since by default all material will be below that point.

Compression, on the other hand, squashes (compresses) your peaks, and reduces the dynamic range of the material (the difference between the lows and the highs). How much of a reduction will depend on the threshold setting (where the comrpession kicks in) and the amount of compression you use. Doing this generally allows you to raise the overall volume of the track more than you can do by just normalizing (since your peaks are now lower, you have more room to go up). Using the example above, if your highest peak is -2db, you might be able to knock that down to say -6db by compressing the track, then you can apply 6db gain to bring the peak back up to 0db. So your track volume has been increased by 6db, as opposed to the 2db that normalizing would have given you.

In both cases you will also be raising your noise floor by an equivalent amount. However, if you have decent signal to noise ratio to start, this probably won't be a problem.

 

[mixsit]

I've never used Normalization. I could see it being used to get the two track master up to max level, but would you also do it to the multi tracks?