VMS 8.0a - Normalize no longer works

Harry Bosch wrote on 7/2/2007, 11:20 PM

Has anyone seen this problem, or know a way around it?

When selecting "Normalize" on an audio track, the waveform collapses to a single thin line. Examining properties on the track shows that the gain is "-Inf.". Of course, you don't hear anything at -infinity :-) "Recalculate" doesn't change this value.

However, turning normalization on/off several times _sometimes_ seems to kicks it out of this erroneous mode, and then I get a gain of "0.0 dB", which is basically the same as no normalization.

None of this weird behavior was present in earlier versions. Any help is appreciated!

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 7/2/2007, 11:46 PM

This sounds like a bug. I'd try send a bug report somehow and ask for an update.

Harry Bosch wrote on 7/3/2007, 12:17 AM

Hi Eugenia -- yes, it definitely looks like a bug.

To be honest, I guess I am so jaded about software, especially from the large companies (e.g. Sony, Microsoft, HP, Adobe) that I have given up on reporting anything at all.

Well, maybe I'll give it another shot -- but I won't hold my breath :-)

4eyes wrote on 7/3/2007, 10:07 PM

When selecting "Normalize" on an audio track, the waveform collapses to a single thin line.

What type of audio file (the audio properties) is the source audio?
wav/pcm mp2, mp3, ac3 etc...

Harry Bosch wrote on 7/4/2007, 9:54 AM

The audio properties say just "MPEG". It is an MPEG-2 music video that I pulled from a DVD. At first VMS 8.0 gave "-Inf." as the normalized gain (flat-lined! :-), but after switching normalization on and off a few times (just guessing), I now get just 0.0.

I just tried this same file in VMS 7.0a, and it gives "-0.1 dB", which is the "Normalize peak level" setting under Preferences.

Back to 8.0a again: if I start a new project and import this same MPEG-2, I get the same behavior: "-Inf." when I normalize, which effectively turns off all audio. Can't seem to get that to change right now...