strikingtwice Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 So i was normalizing some stuff in sound studio to bring into a sound effect in logic. It gives you some options. Peak volume (easy), independently for each track or together for all tracks(i just the latter, so the sound stays in proportion), and then another, Peak or RMS (average power level). When I do peak, the file is normalized to the highest peak as expected, and doesn't play back insanely loud. When i tried it on RMS, the file was clipping (in sound studio no less) left and right, and was super loud. This isn't a sound studio technical question, obviously i wouldn't be posting that here, but i'm asking the question, what would be the point of that type of normalization? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas007 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I would believe that is meant as a sort of compression, but requiring to ease down the faders down to -6db or lower, i am saying that with reserve, as I haven't used it myself and read at many places gripes against it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strikingtwice Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 atlas, gripes against it in terms of sound studio or rms normalizing in general? I use the RMS compression in logic quite often, but of course there is more control and real time preview with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I'm not familiar with sound studio... does it offer a ceiling for normalizing? As in, can you normalize to -10 dB FS? If you can, then an RMS normalize makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strikingtwice Posted January 19, 2013 Author Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yes David it does offer an adjustable ceiling. So if it gets rms normalized to -6, then it isn't really normalized is it? I understand that rms is like a compression but why would it be clipping playing back out of the software? Seems weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas007 Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I thought that RMS would stand for "root mean square", which would be some kind of average level measurement, by comparison with the peak level. Isn't? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eriksimon Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Well, RMS is always lower than peaks (just insert Logics' Level meter and look at the peak vs RMS levels), so normalising RMS to 0 dB simply means you'll be clipping all the peaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I thought that RMS would stand for "root mean square", which would be some kind of average level measurement, by comparison with the peak level. Isn't? It is, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yes David it does offer an adjustable ceiling. So if it gets rms normalized to -6, then it isn't really normalized is it? I understand that rms is like a compression but why would it be clipping playing back out of the software? Seems weird. Not weird, as Erik explained: RMS being an average level of your signal, if you set the average to 0 dB FS then a lot of the signal will end up clipping. Therefore RMS normalizing only makes sense below 0 dB FS. Compression and normalizing are completely different animals: normalizing (both RMS and peak) changes the gain of your entire audio file equally, changing its level but keeping its dynamic range intact. Compression constantly compares the signal level to its threshold setting, and adjusts the gain accordingly in real time, changing the dynamic range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shivermetimbers Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 ... So if it gets rms normalized to -6, then it isn't really normalized is it? It is possible to set the Normalized value to something other than 0dB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rone2him Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Well shiver me timbers... another nestled nugget uncloaked by the LPH crew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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