Re: Batch normalising wav files

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Jörn Nettingsmeier wrote:
On 12/24/2010 02:53 PM, Q wrote:
Hello

I'm wanting to batch process a bunch of wav files, normalising them all
to -0.3 dBFS.

that's high! you will almost certainly get distortion in the analog
stages of cheaper playback equipment with a signal that hot. think
inter-sample peaks.

I got the impression most masters were peak normalised to 0 dBFS these days and less frequently to slightly under to avoid playback issues. The original files were all done to 0 and Rezound showed a pink clip line in one or two of the files, which is why I opted for slightly below for the ones I processed.

Anyway, playback on cheap equipment will not be an issue for these files -- they won't be played on music players.

Out of interest, how high can intersample peaks get above the highest peaks in a file?


I thought I could do this with normalize/normalize-audio, but it doesn't
look to be possible. The man page suggests that simply analysing the
file and raising the level so the loudest peak is 0 dBFS isn't
normalising, which is news to me:

depends. that's peak normalisation. what you probably want is loudness
normalisation, which adjusts the levels so that the perceived loudness
is constant across tracks.

No, peak normalisation is what I'm after; this isn't a CD collection I'm processing.


in a presentation i heard recently, the presenter played a metallica
single, in direct comparison to pink noise at full scale. the metallica
mix was significantly louder. go figure...


I'd rather listen to pink noise any day!

" --peak
Adjust using peak levels instead of RMS levels. Each file  will be
adjusted so that its maximum sample is at full scale. This just gives a
file the maximum volume possible without clipping; no normalization is
done."

that is a funny definition of normalisation.

I get the impression that the term normalisation has taken on another meaning among non-music producers to mean replay gain normalisation for whole albums or music collections. Doesn't replay gain either peak normalise the loudest track and raise all the others by the same amount (to preserve inter-song dynamics), or in some case do loudness normalisation? Personally, I don't bother with such things, volume knobs are what we evolved fingers for!


That would be okay, except I want them normalising to something other
than full scale.

Is there a quick and easy way to do this?

like julien suggested, use a standard peak normalizer and then attenuate
by 0.3dB )(if you are sure that's what you want to do).

When you put it as simply as that it's blindingly obvious! I can't believe it didn't occur to me and one extra step when batch processing is not a big deal at all. Blame the cold weather and a brain freeze!

Thanks again

Q
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