> > What I mean by destructive is the outfile replaces the > > infile. With Ardour undo can revert but the original > > file is destroyed Nothing to stop you copying the file and normalizing the copy, of course... > Somebody else noted, I think it was Jan, that there is 'rms'-normalization > also. In my mind that sounds more destructive. If we're talking about the command line normalize program, its default action is RMS normalization. It sets the level so that the average RMS value is -12dBFS. It also "limits" (I'm not sure exactly what this means in the context) any samples above -6dBFS (50% full scale). Depending on how 'peaky' the file is, varying amounts of peak material will be thus limited. It has the option of peak normalization, which is a very simple operation of scaling every sample up by a constant value chosen so that the biggest peak is exactly 0dBFS. That's non-destructive in the sense that no dynamic range compression happens - the only impairment is the usual rounding errors inevitable with any audio processing. However I suspect that what the original poster wanted is far more sophisticated than either of these, and the comments about multiband compression and the dangers of squashing out all the dynamics are much more relevant. Other techniques that help (where possible) are: - compressing the individual tracks before or while mixing - cascaded compressors with different settings, as simulated by the "super nice" mode of the FMR Audio RNC (Really Nice Compressor!). By applying slow and gentle compression first, then successively faster and harder stages, you can get higher compression with less audible pumping than a single compressor. Personally I'm quite happy with running an album through normalize and leaving it at that, but I'm definitely not in the pop music business :-) -- Anahata anahata@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tel: 01638 720444 http://www.treewind.co.uk Mob: 07976 263827
