what is normalization, exactly?

[decibelle]

What exactly is one trying to accomplish through normalization? I was wondering if this has anything that is applicable to an album I recorded where one of the channels is not as loud as the other, according to the display.

Thanks,
Ellen

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

When you normalise a recording, VinylStudio scans through the audio to find the loudest section(s).  It then adjusts the preamp sliders to boost (or cut) this to the level you set on the radio buttons.  Then, when you save your tracks, this preamp setting is applied to the saved files, making them all of uniform loudness if you apply Normalisation to your recordings consistently

-1dB is the recommended setting and this means 'as loud as it can go'; well, almost:  0dB is the loudest but runs the risk of slight clipping, not, I think, that you would hear it.

You can elect to normalise each channel independently and this should, in theory, correct any balance imperfections in the recording.  Channels can differ in level for legitimate reasons however (it is a stereo recording after all) so I would only recommend this where such an imbalance is severe enough to be audible / annoying.  You can also correct any channel imbalance manually by adjusting the preamp sliders.

HTH.

[sbartnikowski]

Still a little unclear on normalization.  If I use -1dB, see occasional all red in the playback level indicators in the loudest passages of a particular side.  -3dB seems to work best from the playback level indicators (getting a gain of 1.58....).  On the cheap computer speakers, it is difficult to determine if there is clipping at -1dB (although I can hear the difference in volume levels).  Is the occasional all red ok?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

VinylStudio has a proprietary algorithm to ignore transients when normalising.  This can lead to occasional clipping when normalising to 0dB or -1dB so if this bothers you, normalise to -3dB.  That said, you can't normally hear it.

[bjornvinyl]

My experience is that about 40% of my recordings need to be normalised to -6dB to avoid clipping of the waveform. This is based on 20+ (so far) recordings analysed with the Dynamic Range Meter plugin in foobar2000 running in Crossover (Win XP bottle) on Mountain Lion. I recorded to 24bit, 48 kHz AIFF with VinylStudio 8.5.3. Some (clipped) tracks were also opened in Audacity which confirm that there are transients which reach 0dB after normalisation at -1dB and -3dB.

Paul maintains that you will not normally hear this, which may be true. However, I prefer to be on the safe side and listen to the best possible recording of my precious LPs. We have discussed this previously through mail and Paul has said that the next version will contain an option to normalise based on the true peak values of the waveform.

That said, I really appreciate VinylStudio and especially, in these circumstances, its non-destructive corrections, which makes it easy to renormalise.

Best regards

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

Yes it will.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Update: VinylStudio V8.5.4 has now been released with this change incorporated - i.e. you can choose whether or not to ignore transients when normalising.  Download from here:

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/download.aspx