Quote:

Thanks again Bob.
Hi Noel,
I had a look on Goldwave but I couldn't find a normalise option. I have version 5.25 (2008). Do you have a later version?



Keith:

Goldwave 5.51 became available today - my system notified me automatically this afternoon.

As for "normalize", it's called "maximize" in GW (which I've been using for about six years now).

To get files to "sound similar" in overall volume, I use two methods:

1. Adjust the wave files, and listen to them simultaneously - a good tool for this is Window Media Player - I run it, then while doing something else, I kind of listen to the songs in the background. If a song is too loud or too soft, it jumps out at me, and I adjust accordingly.

2. Now I can usually look at the wave files in GW, and by looking at the overall waveform, I can tell if a file will knock my ears out. For this, the files must be of similar length so that the waves (which are fit into the width of the screen) are "scrunched" together a similar amount. The larger a file is, the more scrunched it will be, and hence it will look more like an over-compressed file.

If a file has had the crap compressed out of it, I can spot it immediately without listening to it for one second. Files that appear solid green and red (green = left, red = right channel), are heavily compressed and will sound louder even if the maximum is the same as a less compressed file. This is the old TV station trick - compress the ads so that the maximum volume is no more than the main program, but the compression increases the overall loudness or "punchiness".

Keep in mind that I'm usually dealing with piano solo music, and this doesn't "fill up the wave" the same as music with numerous instruments (hope you can understand this).

Essentially, if a wave fills up the screen, then it's likely been compressed quite a bit, and will sound louder than a more open wave that has the same maximum volume. An over-compressed file will have all the wave peaks at or near the same level (this of course destroys dynamics, so IMO compression should be applied carefully). I've said it before on this forum, but a few of the songs posted over the years for review here seem to be compressed "quite a bit".

As an aside, I usually maximize my piano stuff to -0.3 dB which is pretty close to max, but that's after I've done everything else. For classical piano (Chopin has some horrific ranges of volume) put to a CD for listening in the car, I first maximize to zero, then compress in GW with the following parameters: Reduce peaks no attack or release, Multiplier -6dB, Threshold from -4dB to -6dB, depending on the height of the spikes above the rest of the song. I don't want to compress anything but the extreme peaks or the result will be distortion. IMO, this is a good thing to keep in mind: compression = distortion.

I also compress my own stuff, using the same approach (the Chopin files are from the internet - I can't play at that level).

Glenn