NORMALIZING TRACKS WHEN EXPORTING IN ABLETON

[subindex]

any one use it ?

[press]

no i wouldnt. i may normalize samples. but i wouldnt normalize an entire mix. im not 100% on why its not a good idea but ive read enough about production that i understand this is generally not a good idea. it will mess with dynamics. if i had to make a tune louder id rather do a gain boost.

[psychonaught]

no i wouldnt. i may normalize samples. but i wouldnt normalize an entire mix. im not 100% on why its not a good idea but ive read enough about production that i understand this is generally not a good idea. it will mess with dynamics. if i had to make a tune louder id rather do a gain boost.

yerp

im not totally sure on the technicalities of it but i think it leaves your track squashed and dynamicless. if you want your track to be as loud as possible whilst still sounding good aim to mix your tracks down louder. then after that most people will apply a limiter, such as waves L2 maximizer to bring the volume up even more. however be curful as over limiting/compressing will make your track sound like shite.

[subindex]

ye l2 max is dope k thank 4 help guys

[murk_dweller]

i haven't really noticed it do much of anything

that being said, i don't use it

[slothrop]

no i wouldnt. i may normalize samples. but i wouldnt normalize an entire mix. im not 100% on why its not a good idea but ive read enough about production that i understand this is generally not a good idea. it will mess with dynamics. if i had to make a tune louder id rather do a gain boost.

yerp

im not totally sure on the technicalities of it but i think it leaves your track squashed and dynamicless. if you want your track to be as loud as possible whilst still sounding good aim to mix your tracks down louder. then after that most people will apply a limiter, such as waves L2 maximizer to bring the volume up even more.

Technicalities:
Normalizing basically takes the sound and increases the volume so that the loudest peak is at zero db rather than whereever it normally would be. This has no effect whatsoever on the relative dynamics.

Limiting turns down the peaks and turns everything else up to make the quiet bits louder. This squashes your dynamics if you do it too much.

The downside to normalizing, AIUI, is that if you record to a fixed-point format at low volume and then normalize then you're effectively bitcrushing your tune - although the equivalent of reducing it to 8 bit would require you to turn it down to 1/256 of the usual volume, I think. Half volume would be 15 bit, unless you're using a higher quality (eg 24, 32 bit) format. Still, it's best not to do this if you don't have to.

Everything in your DAW is floating point (I think this is true for almost all DAWs these days) and maybe 24 / 32 bit so applying gain to something within the DAW won't make any audible difference.

I'm not sure whether the Ableton normalize works with the internal representations or the wav. If it's the former it should be exactly the same as turning up the volume within the DAW.

If it bothers you, just try doing a mixdown and normalizing it and another mixed down to be as loud as you want it anyway and do a blind test to see which you prefer...

[subindex]

omg never herd any1 as cleaver as you ty

[sharpaudio]

My understanding is that it adds gain to the entire audio file until something reaches exactly -0dBu. So if your recording is just too quiet, (like anything prior to 1980) it will sometimes help, but if any part of the music is already close to clipping, or at the limit, normalizing will do absolutely nothing at all.

What you probly want to do is compress your final mix lightly to create more perceived loudness but watch out for unwanted distortion and only dither at the very last bounce when you convert down from 24bit to 16bit. That will add a noize floor to the music at all frequencies so your sounds will perform better when it gets amplified by some real bass bins.

[subindex]

only dither at the very last bounce when you convert down from 24bit to 16bit..

what i dont understand i just mae a tune then render @ 16 bit? is this bad/

[slothrop]

My understanding is that it adds gain to the entire audio file until something reaches exactly -0dBu. So if your recording is just too quiet, (like anything prior to 1980) it will sometimes help, but if any part of the music is already close to clipping, or at the limit, normalizing will do absolutely nothing at all.

Yes.

The only situation I can think of off the top of my head where I'd actually use it is bouncing a track that I really don't want to apply limiting to but want the output file to be as loud as possible for (eg) putting on the internet.

Like you say, sensible amounts of compression and (in my case at least) generally better mixing, are what actually makes the tune 'sound louder'.

I'm just a neek so I get pedantic when people say normalizing reduces the dynamic range and suggest limiting instead because it doesn't.

[lysdexic]

i'd never use normalization on the main bounce, makes more sense to limit to get level for unmastered gear. but i'm starting to think about using it on channel bounces before mixing. i know a lot of cubase and logic producers normalise samples as they're writing, makes it a lot easier to mix as you're writing.

and tbh i'm tired of trying to match db levels by eye/guesswork with phrases made of edits when setting a compressor.

[rizmlokz]

no i wouldnt. i may normalize samples. but i wouldnt normalize an entire mix. im not 100% on why its not a good idea but ive read enough about production that i understand this is generally not a good idea. it will mess with dynamics. if i had to make a tune louder id rather do a gain boost.

yerp

im not totally sure on the technicalities of it but i think it leaves your track squashed and dynamicless. if you want your track to be as loud as possible whilst still sounding good aim to mix your tracks down louder. then after that most people will apply a limiter, such as waves L2 maximizer to bring the volume up even more. however be curful as over limiting/compressing will make your track sound like shite.

woahhh.. wait.. Do waves plugins work in ableton??? :]

[amphibian]

I do it when uploading to SC.etc. for feedback, otherwise it's too quiet.