[Ardour-Users] After normalize, clipped but sounds OK

[t_w_ at freenet.de]

Ben Powers wrote:

> I normalized the region according to the quiet section by shortening it to the quiet
> section and then normalizing, and finally expanding it to full length. The whole
> region, including loud parts, was therefore normalized as if it only contained quiet
> parts.

Not a good idea. I'm not sure how Ardour handles what would be clipping via
normalize, though.

> Now I have a region looks like its intensely clipped, to alleviate the effect of the
> clipping, I automated the gain way down. When I play it back, it sounds ok to my
> untrained ears, but I can't escape the feeling that even though the meters arent
> peaking except for on the claps (which I'm fine with) the sound will come out
> badly in the final mix. Are my fears unfounded?

If the waveform is clipped, gain automation doesn't change a thing about that.
If you have clipping, you can hear it (a tiny bit of clipping can be subtle, though).
If you zoom in on the loud part, are the peaks flat (squared)?


You could use a compressor, cut the region in 2 and normalize independently 
(likely to sound artificial) or use a gain curve on the region.

Or you don't normalize at all an just keep the dynamics. Gain sliders make
normalization superfluous in most cases, anyway ;)


--
Thorsten Wilms



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