Tips and Tricks for the Normalize function?

[grannis]

 

(Process->Apply Effect->Normalize)

Looks like it should be useful for smoothing levels on a clip or track, but I can't quite figure it out and can't find the doc on it.

 

[Will.]

3 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

actually -6 to -12 is "increasing" the headroom by 6db (lowering the level of the peaks is going to quiet all things). going from -12 to -6 is "reducing" the headroom (moving the peaks up and everything else is going up as well). 

No yoy dont create headroom. You'rw just lowering the volume. This means every plugin you run through still runs the risk of distorting. 

4 hours ago, Chaps said:

Normalization does nothing to affect the dynamics of an audio track, just increases or decreases the 'volume' in relation to the loudest peak of the audio. If I normalize an audio track that peaks at -6 dB to -12 dB I am actually increasing the headroom without changing the dynamics in the audio. Personally, I like all my audio tracks to be about the same volume before I start mixing them.

As a mastering engineer I will send the track right back to you cause I will run some issue in the mastring process to it. You cant normalize everything whether increase of decrease you are not creating headroom rather you're just lowering the overall volume.