Normalization

[GothicV]

I understand the theory behind it, I just don't understand how to properly use it.

If I were to use the Audiosuite Normailizing tool on a kick drum track to make all the kicks relatively the same volume for example, would I use it on the whole track at once, or on each kick (or group of kicks)? Does it search and amplify everything to a uniform volume, or raise the volume of a track so that everything stays the same, but the highest peak is at the limit I specify? I was checking the digirack plugin guide and thought I would ask, also I read an interview somewhere that said this one guy normalizes everything, and I don't seem to understand why you would want to do that unless you record everything incorrectly?

[oedipus_complex]

If you were to normalise (yes, we spell it with an 's' in Australia) to 100%, it would uniformally amplify the selection until the largest amplitude peak had reached 100%. In a perfect world you shouldn't need to normalise, as you'd record your signal perfectly hot enough so that this automatically happens....but you'd have to be pretty accurate.....

[Matt Whritenour]

but then wouldn't u raise the noise to floor ratio by normalizing?

[kitana_one]

I Normalize everything. I always set the Max value to 95% and then I adjust my volume levels in the mixdown. You'r noise floor does go up but if it's recorded properly then it won't make much of a difference. I haven't noticed too much Noise in my rig. I sohould look for some t ype of analysis system to measure my levels.

I use Custom Mogami cables with ferrite beads applied to get rid of any unwanted noise,.. and my rig sounds pretty crystal,.. but it also depends on the machine the sounds are coming from. Some are noisier than others.

I still do it anyway just to get everything as loud as possible and leave myself 5% headroom. I just preffer to maximize my sounds before slapping FX, EQ, or mixing the levels. But then again I mostly make Electronic dance music, Video Game Music and some other stuff that's pretty distorted anyways,.. so most of the general theories of standard engineering are halfway out the window.

[TheLP]

Im pretty sure it normalizes every thing to the same volume....

[dpdemo]

Normalization takes the peak amplitude in the selected region(s) and sets it too whatever value you select - say 95% or -1 dB. It then applies that gain scale factor equally to all of the region(s).

As far as noise goes, it WILL amplify the noise, but by the exact same amount as everything else. Therefore, it shouldn't change the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). I'm not quite sure if the SNR degrades when amplifying dither right at digital black, though...

I just did a session a couple of weeks ago and just made sure I had plenty of signal when tracking - I tried to keep each channel's peak to within 1 bit (6 dB) of full scale. I won't need to normalize anything in the mix.

[GothicV]

as stated in my earlier post, sometimes if I am doing drums I won't hit the kick as hard as I need to on certain hits and I tought that normailzing would be the answer... but it looks like I would just need to find those hits and normalize each one (or group if there is a small group) throughout the track and then consolidate. Is this correct? Or at least a decent way to get around it? Compression isn't always the answer...

[kitana_one]

as stated in my earlier post, sometimes if I am doing drums I won't hit the kick as hard as I need to on certain hits and I tought that normailzing would be the answer... but it looks like I would just need to find those hits and normalize each one (or group if there is a small group) throughout the track and then consolidate. Is this correct? Or at least a decent way to get around it? Compression isn't always the answer...

How are you recording your drums? Are they in one track? If they are I would strongly suggest recording them on seperate channels, ie: Kick, Snare, Clap, Hats, Toms, and etc. all on seperate tracks. Then you will have the flexibility adn controll over the indivually EQ and Normalisation for eacj one... then you adjust your track volumes via the faders. If you run out of available tracks you can always bounce your drums to disk and then re-import them to use as loops that you can edit and sequence.

Normalisation boosts or dampens the selected waveforms volume level by amplifying it according to it's highest volume peak to whatever level you indicate.

[albee1952]

Be forewarned. Normalizing everything to max before clipping is NOT a good practice. If you take 24 tracks that are slamming hot(but not clipped) and mix them together, you will clip your mix buss, and PT will not give any indication. I know ProTools has built in some headroom, but you can still end up with a crunchy final mix. If you are recording 24 bit, you have plenty of headroom to allow for recording levels that average around -12 to -8. Its unfortunate that ProTools metering is not high-rez. I have done several mixes keeping the record levels in that range with very clean and quiet results. To get an idea of what I mean, try setting all your tracks to output to a buss. Then create a new stereo audio track with its input set to the same bus. Put it in record and watch the meters as you add bring up more and more channels. I know this is a worst case scenario but internal headroom will eventually run out if you're not careful. Normalizing to fix a soft drum hit or word on a vocal track does work great and I use it often for that kind of fix.

[kitana_one]

Oh I know what you mean. I always check my main output levels as I'm doing a mix. Usually it will be fine and as I add more and more channels of audio I have to bring down the volumes of my groups,.. which is fine with me. I work in a manner of sculpting. I record many different versions of tracks and carve away at them like sculptures of raw noise. I do admit that I have a very unique approach.

I'm always working on my mixing skills and no matter how experienced you are there's always something to learn.I generally preffer to work with normalised tracks. That way I have complete control over my volume levels.

Your advice is good tho. Definitely good for someone who's not used to working the way I do. Everyone has their own techniques. My advice is almost worthless without your help as well. Maybe I should have mentioned that you have to watch the overall output,.. I thought that was a given tho.


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