Neil,

Yes. With caveats. To me it depends on the mix.

I use Audacity always as the next to last step in my process.

I do the best job of mixing that I can in the step before that, carefully watching my meters, and doing the best I can with EQ, also using compressors on certain tracks like bass and drums (or others if they need it.)

Then I will open the export in Audacity. I am looking for a .wav file that looks smooth and curvy (like a, well, wave) and not jagged or ragged with many spikes or transients. I am sure you know the picture I am talking about--it looks more like the image of a drum .wav than a song .wav---it looks "shredded." (The screenshot below gives you an idea of what a mix that needs compression and normalization will look like.) If I see that, I know I have no other choice but to compress and normalize. So I use a mild compression in Audacity (1.5:1), then normalize to -0.7.

Then I will use negative amplification to "trim the hair" of any remaining spikes that will reduce my headroom.

If it does not need compression at this phase, I will normalize it to -0.7 in Audacity before going further. My point is, if it is ragged you have to both compress AND normalize. If the mix looks elegant to the eye, all you to do is normalize, and yes, that is normal.

From here, I proceed to mastering in something like Ozone, or another tool, depending on the genre.

I NEVER boost to 0 dB with the next to last step .wav though. I always want to go into Ozone with a -0.7 mix so the effects used in the mastering tool (you have to have one) have room for transient shaping, maximizing, Eq-ing, etc. That is where you set your threshold.

I sometimes set the threshold to -.1 but most of the time -.2. I just don't think you have to max it out.

For the type of stuff I do, I find you begin to lose nuances when you max it to the limit and I would rather people hear dynamics.

I do not want to compress at the next to last phase unless I have to, because mastering tool presets add compression and I do not want compression times compression. But, if you start with a ragged .wav as your export, you have little recourse because it will be next to impossible to control your dynamics or loudness in the mastering phase before you clean things up a bit.

In the best of all worlds though, I try and mix so that I do not need to do this Audacity compression step before mastering, but it does not always work out that way.

Hope that makes sense.


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David Snyder
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