Normalize audio when master to cd?

[TDub]

Hey Guys,
I have my final "mastered" versions of songs, and want to put on CD to send for duplication. When i do that through Nero, for example, should i click the Normalize box? I believe this just ensures all volumes are level, but wanted to make sure it doesn't negatively impact sound.
thanks

[albee1952]

I say "NO" to normalize. First off, level matching is part of mastering, so it should already be taken care of(according to yours or the mastering engineer's taste) and you don't want Nero out-thinking you. My 2 cents only, but I NEVER use normalize. I prefer to choose my levels by ear(mostly). I master in Wavelab and it allows lots of ways to analyze the signal. I can see the peak level of any tune and simply adjust GAIN according to how much headroom is left. Final "level' is determined by how much mastering limiter I apply(waves L2 being my limiter of choice).

[flautista]

You could loose the natural dynamics of music, at the present people just want to sound as forte as possible.Recording is just a way to preserve music not the music it self, music are musicians.

[GTBannah]

i'm with Albee on this. I would use my eyes on the RMS and Peak levels, and my ears on the sound. Along with those, I'd use soft limiting with the limiter of choice.

[Keybeeetsss]

No

[markblasco]

I don't know if Nero does something different, but traditionally, "normalizing" an audio file would raise up the volume until the highest peak in the audio file is just below the 0 point. This would get it as loud as possible without overloading. Since you have already mastered your songs, this should have been done as part of the mastering process. If not, you might be better off going back to your mastering session (if you did it yourself) and making sure your levels are loud enough. If you paid someone else to master your songs, they should have done this in the process.

Normalizing will NOT reduce your dynamic range. All it does is turn up the volume.

The main issue you will have is that the tracks may be normalized to different levels, and therefor wouldn't sound correct when played together. In mastering, all of your songs should have already been adjusted so that they sound the correct level when played back to back.

If you are mastering yourself, my suggestion when it comes to levels is this: Put all of your mixes into one session, and line them up as you want them to be on the album. Start adjusting the levels of each song until they all sound good together, and you aren't overloading the levels. Once this is done, you can put a limiter on the master output, and dial that in to get the output as high as you can without peaking, and with as much transient control as you want. This way you know the relative volume of each song will stay the same.

[TDub]

Appreciate all of the responses, guys! This helps a lot!

thanks