normalize or gain

[fumunda]

What is the difference between these two, they both do the same thing almost, which one would you use on something that is recorded with too low of an amplitude?

[bullyboy]

dude,............
read your manual,..........
then post if you don't understand,.....

please,.......

btw,........
gain raises level by user specified amount,........

norm raises level till the highest peak in your program material reaches "o",.....


read,.......read,........read,.........@!#$@#!#

[fumunda]

Oh, okay felchy boy, uh, I mean Big Bully Boy, the manual barely talks about both these plugs, you must be a pro, yeah a professional sperm burper!!!! So read read read Guido Sarduchi.

[Barnabas]

I always try to gain in multiples of 6 dB (6, 12, 18, etc). The computer does less math and rounding off numbers since 6 dB doubles the sound. 3 dB multiples would be OK too. If you normalize, it might round off the digits a lot just to get that perfect maximum sound.

Try it both ways and then listen to the results. It will be most noticable on soft passages, like a soft string part, or a reverb decay.


------------------
Chris Droessler
www.barnabas.com Barnabas MultiMedia

[Noiz2]

Originally posted by bullyboy:
dude,............
read your manual,..........
norm raises level till the highest peak in your program material reaches "o",.....

Well I to often tel people to Read The F..... Manual...sounds nicer as RTFM. However along with being rude your responce is wrong...
Normalize does not raise the highest level to "0", it raises it to a level you set.
Personaly I almost always use Gain for the folowing reasons.
1)I can see in advance what my peak is now and pick how high I want to move it.
2) you can gain to more than "0" - well not actualy it will clip at "0" , for certain effects a little clipping is usefull.
3) I have bad memories of the realy nasty things Normalizing has done to my sounds in the past (its probably fine now but the memories linger).
Hope this helps.
SK

[fumunda]

Thanks you guys for your insight, that is all I was looking for was some interesting discussion which you guys were cool enough to contribute (except for bullhead the buffoon sperm swallower)

Thanks guys!

[bullyboy]

yo,....!!! cheesehead,.....!!!!

well,....
at least we now know you might understand the difference,.....

and,.....point taken,.....

but let's see if the insults can become a little more creative,.....

btw,.....
normalize is always safest,.....
and more exacting,.......

over,.... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[bullyboy]

for certain effects a little clipping is usefull.
3) I have bad memories of the realy nasty things Normalizing has done to my sounds in the past (its probably fine now but the memories linger)


what,....????

anything hitting digital zero is ugly,...
and absurd,......if you mean soft clip or saturation,.....that's a different story,...

pray tell,....
what nasty things could normalizing have done,...????

and yes,.....
"by the amount specified by user"

[Doug Ring]

I use Gain if I'm compiling tracks to sit together in a sequence, like an album or whatever. You then have a simple way to make quiet songs quiet, which isn't always easy with Normalize.

[JSage]

I have always thought of "gain" as something one would use to an individual track within a mix since you are dealing with increasing the amplitude by Xdb to make the track fit within the mix. I have always considered "normalize" to be something that is done to a final bounced track since you are dealing with bringing the whole piece as close to digital 0 without going over. Perhaps within the mix you only need a db or 2 on a track to give you what you want. Normalizing would be inappropriate in that situation. One other thing, I very rarely use normalizing, I much prefer limiters (+L1, TC|Master X) but when I do, I never normalize to 0, I make my settings -.01db, 98.3%. I find that going to 0, especially with bass heavy material, adds a little distortion. Better to be safe than sorry [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img].