Hi BM.

I used to normalise my audio files to 0 dB using BIAB as I imported them into Reaper. (It sounds like you've already found the setting, if you haven't, though, and you want BIAB to normalise each file individually, you can find the setting under "Audio | Export song as audio file". Doing this worked fine for me.

Then I read somewhere that it's better to leave a little bit of 'headroom' in audio signals so that audio effects could be applied without causing distortion or clipping. "Headroom' means to normalise to a value that is slightly less than 0dB. The book I read at the time recommended –0.3 dB. As a consequence, these days, I export all tracks from BIAB as they are and usually normalise to –3.0 dB in Reaper (which is well below the –0.3 dB I read about).

What normalising does is to increase every aspect of the sound by the same amount. When you normalise to 0 dB, the software scans the audio and looks for the loudest sound (this is the one with the highest peak). For example... Let's say this highest peak has a reading of –2.5 dB. To normalise this peak to 0 dB means that the wave will need to be lifted up by 2.5 dB. The normalise function then uses this information to increase every component of the wave in this example by 2.5 dB. This keeps all aspects of the wave in the same relationship with one another, it is just that the overall volume has increased.

I hope this helps. I'm pretty sure that there will be a number of replies to this question as everyone will have their own views on the topic.

Regards,
---Noel


★ my latest song: How Do I Love Thee? (vocals by Synth V’s vocaloid, Natalie)

Last edited by Noel96; 01/04/25 11:00 PM. Reason: correct the numbers (thanks Matt)
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