Good tip!

Thanks,

Marc
www.clayeyecenter.com

Well, there is normalizing to an audio file's peak values and then there is normalizing to a file's average (RMS) values. What humans perceive as "loudness" is a function of the average levels. "Normalizing" two (or more) audio files by setting their peak values to be equal is absolutely worthless.

Mixing audio is far more "art" than it is science. However, I usually set the average levels in Sound Forge by scanning the files for their RMS levels and then use the Waves L2 limiter plugin to make up the gain without the peaks exceeding 0dbfs, which is the digital maximum. Let's say I want the files to have an average level of -15db and one file measures at -22db and the other at -18db. I would get into the L2 plugin and process the first file by setting the threshold to -7db (22-15=7) and set the threshold on the second file to -3db (18-15=3) The two files willl now have the same average level and sound equally loud.

There is really a lot more to making it sound good than just matching the RMS levels, but the question was how to make the levels the same. Ultimately, it's a LOT more complicated than I just described and entire books have been written on the subject of just compression and levels.

You can do essentially the same thing I do with the L2 limiter using the WaveHammer plugin but there is no way of which I am aware to measure the RMS level of an audio file from within Vegas.

Of course, well trained ears are a power analytical tool. Except for keeping the mixed audio levels under 0dbfs, mixing "by the meters" has never been a particularly good idea.

John

So, what you're saying is that to effectively normalize the average loudness of clips, one has to go to Sound Forge and individiually obtain the mean volume of each clip and then adjust them individually. This sounds complex for projects with lots of clips. I gather then that there is no easier way to do it more simply in Vegas?

Thanks,

Marc

There is no way to do it more simply in any tool. Normalizing to a set peak value of a file does have value, but as John points out, it can also be a mess. The question really needs to be asked about how far apart your audio is. If audio contains more than a couple dB difference in overall dynamic, then you should be spending a lot of time in Forge, yes. Or, render a new track of the weaker audio to approximate the better audio, and then normalize those together. We don't normalize much around here, because it's rarely necessary, but when we do, generally files are more accurately checked in Forge T'would be nice if Vegas had some of the same metering options.